The frame was being shipped from Sicily (where we’d been on a cycling holiday only a month or so previously – if I’d started this search back then, I could have packed the frame in my luggage!!) The Seller sent me the tracking number and I could see a lot of initial activity that day […]
So, being mostly “new” to vintage bikes, Losa was not a brand I was familiar with and having seen the beautiful frame for sale I set out to find out more, however there seems to be very little comprehensive information about Losa bikes out there. Unlike Gios, there is no association to any major cycling team […]
Having finished with the nostalgia, I did some research into the specifics of the Gios Torino Super Record. Gios’s own website and a nice blog at Steel Vintage Bikes (where the picture on the right came from) were particularly useful in identifying the variations between the different generations of the bike. I decided that if I was to get […]
So, after an ultimately unsuccessful but useful day searching around shops in London for the frame to base my build upon, I returned home and searched the internet for “Gios Torino” – why had I instantly like it so much? Search results in and all was immediately clear – Roger de Vlaeminck / Brooklyn Chewing Gum […]
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve done quite a bit of online searching, so it’s time to go on a field trip and get some hands on experience. Luckily, I live near London where there are a multitude of bike shops – many catering for vintage. Step up the LondonCyclist website (yes, I know I […]
Having now spent some time searching online and seeing how much variety there is out there, I’ve narrowed my choices down a little further by deciding to focus on European bikes. Not the UK? – There have been some fine bikes coming out of the UK, but have to say there’s nothing I’ve seen that sets […]
I have some vague, high level ideas of what I’m looking for – if we’re going old it makes sense for the build to be Eroica compliant, but that mostly means steel, pre-1987 (which sadly ruled out a VERY NICE early carbon Colnago frame my LBS have had sitting upstairs for the past year). I want […]
Ok, so having received the green light, its time to start the search, but what am I looking for? It’s a build project, but I have no specific brand in mind!! My old bike from when I first started racing was a Ron Kitching – I’d got the frame & cobbled the rest of the bike together […]
… or Velominati Rule #12: “While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.” Let’s be […]
…well, if you read the Daily Fail & it’s ilk – MAMILs are the spawn of the devil, the source of all evil and traffic problems in the world today(*). MAMIL or “Middle Aged Men In Lycra” originated from market research firm Mintel. There are varying definitions out there, but the common theme is that […]