On my Thursday ride last week I stopped as usual at Pacific Coast Cycles in Oceanside to look at Chuck's collection of old bikes and sit on a stool in the work area while Chuck worked on a bike. I noticed that in the lower rack on the south wall of the shop there was an old rusty small frame that looked beyond recovery. The badge said it was an Olmo, which was a very nice Italian vintage brand. I asked Chuck about it and he said that someone had brought it in and traded it for some service on another bike. While it was pretty rusty, worn, and missing parts (like the orig Campy derailleurs, the chain, etc.), Chuck said that the stem and bar probably could be recovered as well as the crank and that he could probably ebay some of what was left.
Chuck's primary new brand in the shop is Felt, and he was working on a new bike getting it ready for the "floor" inventory. He was cussing the latest innovation in brakes, which was the addition of small pull levers in the middle of the bar so that the rider could brake while riding with his hands on the bar top without going to the levers at the front drops. He said that very often the cables at these "intermediate" levers crimped a bit and caused the cables to catch when the levers on the drops were used. When he got a bike like that he had to unwrap the bars and make sure the cables were properly stretched and installed through the smaller levers. I have a early 80's Japanese bike which has the old Dia Compe "safety" pull lever attachments on the brake levers
and the new pull levers on the Felt reminded me of those. What goes around comes around I guess. I can't imagine that those new mini levers will last for long on the typical road bike. Real "roadies" won't buy into them!
Then, Saturday morning, as usual, I got up early, went to Starbucks for a Venti Bold, and was off on my garage sale excursion looking for bikes, fishing gear, and golf stuff while listening to the fishing show "Let's Talk Hookup" on the radio. The Abacore bite was on and causing much excitment among the fishing set. Maybe next year will be the "Year of the Fish"!
I hit a garage sale just a couple blocks from my house and saw a couple bikes. One was a small frame Olmo, the other an older mountain bike. I asked the seller what he wanted for the bikes and he said " $25 bucks for the small road bike and $40 for the mountain bike". I looked at the Olmo and it looked all original except for the seat and pedals. I said, "Would you take 20 for it? He told me that it needed a new rear tire and thought 20 would be good. So, as I handed him the $20 bill, he said, "It's Italian, you know!" I nodded. (I didn't let on that I was THRILLED!)
When I got it home I gave it a good bath. It had obviously been sitting in a garage for a long time and was dirty and greasy. It cleaned up pretty good. It had the complete Campy Nouvo Record Groupo on it. It also still had the original Campy hubs and Italian wheelset. The rear derailleur was stamped Pat. 81 which dated the bike to 1981. It was a real cool bike with a lot of pantographing on it. The front crankset was pantographed with the Olmo name around the rings in blue, and green, red, and white color insets circled the rings. The stem had Guiseppe Olmo's signature on both sides with color insets, and the seatpost also had "Olmo" on four sides with color insets. It had a 3ttt stem and bar wrapped with what seemed to be the original blue bar tape, matched by blue cable covers for the brakes. The fork was capped in chrome with Olmo stamped in blue on both sides of the top. Most of the decals were still in fair to good condition. The Columbus 531 frame sticker was mostly worn off. The frame was biege and had the typical scratches and chips one would expect in a bike of its age, and which was probably not all that "treasured" over the years. There had been some touch ups made in the past on some of the chips, and I had a close matching paint and did a bit more.
The tires were tubular and the rear Continental tire was done for. The front was a newer Vittoria and usable. I bought some new tubular Vittorias to install. I will use the good old one for a spare. It is only a 52 cm frame which is to small for me, but I think it is a real find and a good collectible which I will keep and pair up with the 1971 Mondia I just rehabbed and intend to "hang" in the den. The Mondia currently resides in the den awaiting a "hanging" date, and the
Olmo is in the living room and fun to look at. The Olmo is probably the most collectable and "arty" due to all the pantographing and color on various parts. I would guess that each part producer must have made parts which were custom for these Olmo production bikes.
When I ride up to Oceanside this week and stop in to see Chuck, he is going to do what he usually does when I tell him about finding this bike for 20 bucks. He will just shake his head and mumble, "People got no idea what they have". I may even bring it up for him to check out one day. He is about 5'8 and it may be a fit for him.
Chuck's primary new brand in the shop is Felt, and he was working on a new bike getting it ready for the "floor" inventory. He was cussing the latest innovation in brakes, which was the addition of small pull levers in the middle of the bar so that the rider could brake while riding with his hands on the bar top without going to the levers at the front drops. He said that very often the cables at these "intermediate" levers crimped a bit and caused the cables to catch when the levers on the drops were used. When he got a bike like that he had to unwrap the bars and make sure the cables were properly stretched and installed through the smaller levers. I have a early 80's Japanese bike which has the old Dia Compe "safety" pull lever attachments on the brake levers
and the new pull levers on the Felt reminded me of those. What goes around comes around I guess. I can't imagine that those new mini levers will last for long on the typical road bike. Real "roadies" won't buy into them!Then, Saturday morning, as usual, I got up early, went to Starbucks for a Venti Bold, and was off on my garage sale excursion looking for bikes, fishing gear, and golf stuff while listening to the fishing show "Let's Talk Hookup" on the radio. The Abacore bite was on and causing much excitment among the fishing set. Maybe next year will be the "Year of the Fish"!
I hit a garage sale just a couple blocks from my house and saw a couple bikes. One was a small frame Olmo, the other an older mountain bike. I asked the seller what he wanted for the bikes and he said " $25 bucks for the small road bike and $40 for the mountain bike". I looked at the Olmo and it looked all original except for the seat and pedals. I said, "Would you take 20 for it? He told me that it needed a new rear tire and thought 20 would be good. So, as I handed him the $20 bill, he said, "It's Italian, you know!" I nodded. (I didn't let on that I was THRILLED!)
When I got it home I gave it a good bath. It had obviously been sitting in a garage for a long time and was dirty and greasy. It cleaned up pretty good. It had the complete Campy Nouvo Record Groupo on it. It also still had the original Campy hubs and Italian wheelset. The rear derailleur was stamped Pat. 81 which dated the bike to 1981. It was a real cool bike with a lot of pantographing on it. The front crankset was pantographed with the Olmo name around the rings in blue, and green, red, and white color insets circled the rings. The stem had Guiseppe Olmo's signature on both sides with color insets, and the seatpost also had "Olmo" on four sides with color insets. It had a 3ttt stem and bar wrapped with what seemed to be the original blue bar tape, matched by blue cable covers for the brakes. The fork was capped in chrome with Olmo stamped in blue on both sides of the top. Most of the decals were still in fair to good condition. The Columbus 531 frame sticker was mostly worn off. The frame was biege and had the typical scratches and chips one would expect in a bike of its age, and which was probably not all that "treasured" over the years. There had been some touch ups made in the past on some of the chips, and I had a close matching paint and did a bit more.
The tires were tubular and the rear Continental tire was done for. The front was a newer Vittoria and usable. I bought some new tubular Vittorias to install. I will use the good old one for a spare. It is only a 52 cm frame which is to small for me, but I think it is a real find and a good collectible which I will keep and pair up with the 1971 Mondia I just rehabbed and intend to "hang" in the den. The Mondia currently resides in the den awaiting a "hanging" date, and the
Olmo is in the living room and fun to look at. The Olmo is probably the most collectable and "arty" due to all the pantographing and color on various parts. I would guess that each part producer must have made parts which were custom for these Olmo production bikes.When I ride up to Oceanside this week and stop in to see Chuck, he is going to do what he usually does when I tell him about finding this bike for 20 bucks. He will just shake his head and mumble, "People got no idea what they have". I may even bring it up for him to check out one day. He is about 5'8 and it may be a fit for him.
2 comments:
Chuck will "shake his head and mumble" for the reason that you didn't buy the bike from him. He's a very moody person. I'm surprised that he even work on it. If you bring a bike (of a name) to Chuck, that you bought at another shop -- that he/Chuck have relations with: If you don't reveal your personal business, to Chuck's questions, Chuck will kick you out. As he did this to Me, with my ~classic~ MASI. 'Cause he used to work for them.
Chuck has not done any work for me although I will now and then buy a little something from him. He is an interesting guy to talk to about bikes because he has been in the business so long. I have always found him to be friendly and knowledgable.
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