The bike had obviously lived a hard life stocked in the wrong place for years and was not roadworthy but... according to its last owner it had been ridden in the Tour de France before being passed onto his brother (a former amateur racer). The man had no real interest in the bike but it still held some sentimental value to him and did not wished to see it laying in the junk yard so it was offered to me on adoption ( At first I was a bit reluctant since my lovely wife had seriously warned me against further additions to my stable).
Contini, don't be mistaken by the italian reminiscence, was (and it still is as Goi-Contini) a Spanish maker with a long trajectory in the cycling history (some say they a had a close relationship/partnership(?) with Colnago). It seems they quit making racing frames in the early 90's but I've been unable to find any records of serial numbers to accurately date the bike.
The frame was in fairly good condition, no bends, no cracks, just some rust showing up here and there under a thick layer of filth. The seat was cracked, the chain was hopelessly rusted, the rear wheel out of true and the front one totally unusable since one of the hub flanges had been somehow thorn off. But, all in all, bringing this Tour-de-France-ancienne back to life seemed a promising prospect.
Dating the bike proved to be a bit more difficult. The paint scheme was original (same colours inside the steering tube and bottom bracket shell) and the aerographic merging between the two main colours could be easily traced back to the late 80's or early 90's. Even the bar tape (too worn out to be reused) displayed the word Contini.
The lugged frame design is remarkably square: 54cm seat tube (c-t)/54cm upper tube (c-c) the later squeezed into a rhomboidal section in the middle (maybe an attempt to add some stiffness)
The one-bolt anodized quill stem was unmistakeably from the late 80's and the shift levers (oh boy, I nearly fainted when I recognized them!!) were those legendary Suntour "power rachets" first introduced in 1986 as part of the Sprint and Superbe gruppos (Sun Tour top of the line models). Unfortunately they never made it into a market that was insanely throwing itself into an indexing frenzy. So, assuming, this Sprint gruppo was the original specification the current bike can be dated as a 1986-1988 model (this is consistent with the rest of the aforementioned details )
The pedals are a pair of forlornly stuck Rossignol, the very same model overhauled in a previous post in this blog.
No cable braze-ons on the top tube, the rear brake casing run inside the tube (and rusted in, making its removal an ordeal!)
I found lots of moving details: carefully reinforcing bosses for bottle cages, an engraved (and painted) lugged fork (with the typical dog-leg bend of the 80's), chromed drop-outs, the maker's brand engraved here and there, a curved brake bridge, dust caps, brazed-on cable guides, an elegant seat cluster bolt... Judge by yourselves...
In summary, a carefully designed and artfully build machine. One of the last of a glorious era that deserves a full restoration.
You! lucky b*st*rd!!!!!!!!!!
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Absolutely...
Deletethe engravements look very much like concorde ?
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