Joe: The Velodrome folded? Or the Windsor Pro?
Matthew Bowne Brooklyn, New York
> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:56:56 +0000
> From: joeb-z@comcast.net
> To: dddd@pacbell.net
> CC: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR] Windsor bikes
>
> I sold these bikes and have a lot of experience with them. After they were done, about 1989, I contacted the shop I worked for in the early 1980's and bought a NOS all Campy Windsor Pro Track Bike (the also came with Dura-Ace at one point) $400 shipped with an extra pair of tires from the owner of Bicycle Renaissance in NYC (Yuling Mio, of Bicycle Renaissance Manhattan, one of my favorite all time employers). My attitude in building the bike was that anything that could be wrong, was wrong. I pulled apart the bb and lo and behold, the sea ttube had been reamed after assembly and the sharp steel shavings were ready to destroy the BB with the first turn. If you were that lazy, you could stuff a rag in and turn it upside down, but not those hombres. So, anything goes with Windsor. By the way, they were all built in Mexico.
>
> So the other side of the story- a perfect and aggressive handling track bike I rode on the montreal velodrome until it folded.
>
> Joe Bender-Zanoni
> Whitneyville, CT
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Snyder" <dddd@pacbell.net>
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 2:27:31 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: [CR] Windsor bikes
>
> Jim,
>
> I've had several Windsors, including a Pro that I still have.
> If there's one subject that might make for short study on these bikes, it
> would have to be "quality", which varies quite a bit but seems off the mark
> from what I've seen.
> I could go on about this, but mine sports cracks to the seat lug from
> improper machining of the seat binder bore which left stressed steel paper
> thin! I had to terminate the cracks with drill holes once they migrated
> fully into thicker metal...
>
> You mentioned decals, and the Pro's were very nice, made of license-plate
> tag reflective tape, with "Profesional" inscribed on the seat tube decal.
> The lesser Windsors (Carrera and Carrera Sport) had thin, un-clearcoted
> waterslide decals that only go downhill from there. The Sport models are
> quite heavy, but at least have good forged dropouts and chromed ends, lugs
> and crown!
>
> As a "poor-mans Cinelli", the Pro' can't be beat, if you can buy it cheap (I
> found mine in Goodwill's dumpster with paint sun-burnt off). Some are fully
> chromed (bb area maybe nickel only) and mine "polished" up nicely sans all
> paint. The tubes did not get polished prior to chroming, so it looks
> somewhat like a ti bike.
>
> I believe this company was started by Italians, as was Benotto. I've worked
> on a couple of near-NOS Benottos and assembly quality was poor in my
> opinion.
>
> David Snyder
> Auburn, CA
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jim abt" <jamesabt@charter.net>
> To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:06 AM
> Subject: [CR] Windsor bikes
>
>
> > Hi: I really like the looks of Windsor bikes and wanted to learn a lot
> > more about them than some links on the internet will allow me to. I notice
> > that there was an Italian influenece on the Mexican production and heard
> > about the Eddie Merkx controversy and everything but the one thing that I
> > am most curious about right now is that there seems to be no consistency
> > in their head badges whatsoever. Is the head badge on these bikes any sign
> > of their quality? For instance the word "Windsor" printed vertically down
> > the head tube versus just the initial "W" mean anything? Is that what they
> > did to seperate the identification between the Pro and Competition from
> > the lower end models? Also I am in dier need of a serial number log
> > somewhere to help more in identification of these bikes. Thanks
> >
> >
> > Jim Abt
> > Wausau, Wi. USA