Hummer

There are Bianchi branded bicycles with Giant serial numbers. The serial numbers that I have seen are from 1984 and 1986.

Bruces

My wife bought herself a brand spanking new yellow Miele in about 2006 ,unfortunately it really sucks !

Wileyone 

Would you prefer "Bombs bursting in Air"?

dayles

I'm not really sure where you are going with this one.

dayles

Firstly, that orange job was probably made in Mississauga. It was probably made by 'hand' by Giuseppe Farrerra, who was a frame builder and designer who previously made frames for some of the big companies before going out on his own... Then Jim picked him up for the job in Mississauga.

Jim did have some bikes made in Italy by Rossin, this was before my time. We even had some labels in the factory - "Columbus tubing made by Rossin". They were just sitting in the box of Columbus labels... But then, if they were made in Italy, they might not have something on them that would identify it as such anyway. I know that this frame has a "serial number" on it, which could show that it is 'from Italy' as it has a really low number. Also, we didn't put on serial numbers for the bikes for quite a while and only when customers asked for them, (big orders)... so they were put on there. Mostly these were just random numbers and letters that could help authorities recover your stolen bike. So the serial numbers don't mean much. However, it is pretty special and it COULD be one of the Italian ones - the chrome on the rear stay is unusual and the signature decal I'm not familiar with. This bike says to me that Jim wanted to impress some people with that bike. So it's definitely possible that it's one of the Italian made frames.

The frames made in Italy... There were only about 20-30 of them made in Italy and these went on display for sales and got sent out wherever. We had some real rock star frame builders in Canada who would follow the best bikes up the line though so what is to say it isn't Canadian?

Jim imported Italian frames with Guvin for years and then got the idea to make them in Canada. Some of the Colnogo, Pinarello, Bianchi frames that he hadn't sold were still hung from the ceiling - this was WAY up there. Eventually these were taken down and some of the guys went into shock when Jim had them cut up into pieces and thrown out. So these weren't passed off as Miele bikes either.

So if there were bikes from "Italy" in with the mix, they were pretty rare and before my time at the factory. And you know, they were all a bit hit an miss when it came to the low end bikes, because some people just don't care and it's a job. But, the cyclists and the 'welders' the paint booth guys especially... we were all pretty proud of all of them. When a top of the line racing bike went out, we were all really thrilled. When those beautifully painted bikes came out of the paint booth we were the first to see them and the last to see them as they went into a box and were gone.

You know, I'd say in hindsight that we were critical of the work we did. I don't think we believed that they stood up to the European bikes - but now, I recon they did.

People were critical of Suntour Superbe Pro, back in the day and yet I see all kinds of Campy laden bikes from the eighties and people put Suntour shifters and bottom brackets on them because they worked better than Synchro the Campy ones were no match for the Superbe Pro sealed bottom bracket. I had an Elite with Superbe Pro and other 'racers' would just laugh... oh, Suntour... blah blah blah... Well now it's like hens teeth and the NOS is selling at ridiculous prices because, although it didn't have the 'reputation' it really was excellent. Same with the Miele - they weren't trying to fetch the same price as the Pinarellos, but to be a great bargain for what was being offered.

So if you have a Miele with SL or even Cromor tubing - it's going to be pretty damned good. There is one exception and these were the models that had the top tube drilled out for the brake cable to run internally. They experienced cracks later because they shouldn't have been drilled out in the first place. But all the Italian makers did the same thing as well and I'd bet they have the same rate of failure.

I also disagree that the Elite was meant to look like a Bianchi "Celeste". It was not what was being aimed for. These paint jobs have an iridescent final coat that just shimmered. I'd say Jim put in a lot of effort to getting them to look cool - and they did. A Bianchi side by side with this model Elite would be noticeably different. I certainly didn't think the colour of mine looked even remotely like a Bianchi- and the Bianchis went out not in the thousands with that iconic colour, but I'd say under 50 went out with the 'sea foam green' from Miele. Side by side there is no colour comparison except to say that they both are greenish.

dayles

I think I was there late 86 to 88. Could have been before my time. Giant serial numbers... now that really is interesting. I can't say I'd seen a road bike that was just redone as a Miele, but it's not to say it didn't happen.

dayles

I rode my Miele "Shimano 105" model across France - watching Lemond loose the tour to Indurain in 91... Man, did I get heaps from the locals. "I didn't know that they made bikes... " There was an Italian guy though and he said he knew of them "Canada" he said... made me feel a bit better. So 'some' people had heard of them over there. That branding made it another reason that the Miele bike was a hard sell in Europe. You know to a Canadian - the Miele was a bicycle first and a washing machine later as they weren't established as a vacuum company in Canada until later. But yeah in Europe I was basically riding the equivalent of a "Maytag".

Miele Man

Hi there Dayles.

As you can probably tell from my handle, I'm a real fan of MIELE bicycles. In the 1980s i had a Miele Primo, then a Miele Tourista, a Miele Beta with the N600 group set and then in 1986 a Miele Equip pro with Dura Ace group set. That was the year the aero levers came out and Pedlar Cycles on Avenue Road in Toronto retrofitted the aero Dura Ace levers to my over the bar cabled Dura ace levers when they got the aero ones in. My Equip Pro had a Colagno cloverleaf bottom bracket on a Columbus SL (not SLX) frameset and no serial number. thanks to this thread I now know why there wasn't a serial number.

I now have a few Meile bicyles including a Latina with a Columbus SL frameset and a Columbus SLX Team Issue which has a Jim Miele signature decal on the left side of the top tube near the head tube. The SLX has a Cinelli bottom bracket.

I built the Latina up with a Shimano N600 group set. The Team Issue has been built up with a mix of Campagnolo Mirage and Veloce components circa 2001 and 9 speed. The stem and bars are Cinelli.

Here are a couple of images of them. I need to take better detail images of the Team Issue bike.
Btw, I still have a Miele Jersey and a Miele shorts. Thanks to Ranyjawa I also own a pair of MIele bicycling shoes.

You can just see the shorts behind the rear wheel of the upper Team Issue bike. That bike has a gorgeous irridescent paint job on it.

Miele Columbus SL Frame & Columbus SLX Frame (Top) by Miele Man, on Flickr

Miele Columbus SL Frame by Miele Man, on Flickr

Cheers

elboGreaze

MM, thank you for sharing your Miele photos , and yes , please post a few pics of your SLX Team bike !

rootboy 

There's a guy up the road who was,several months ago, selling a Bianchi colored Miele, I believe it was a Beta. Shimano 600 components. Maybe mid to late 80's?
He was ill and could no longer use it. It was a pretty cool bike, but not quite my thing. So I didn't buy it from him. Even though it was quite cheap. And in nice condition. I'll wager he still has it. Maybe I should go get it and offer it up to someone here if there is interest in these bikes.

MielleCondor72

Many thanks to Miele Man and Dayles for their post. Miele Man for posting great pictures of his bikes. Dayles for giving us some inside information on Miele bikes how they were built and the man himself. I love Miele's how they look, the paint schemes and the finish quality of the bikes themselves. I want every Miele bike I see. They look like no other bike out there. The pride of Jim Miele show through in all the bikes he built back while he ran the company.

Miele's are in my opinion very underrated bikes. If you can find one that fits you and is in great shape buy it!!! Nice to have and own a Canadian made bike.

dayles

Wow Mieleman, those bikes are awesome. I remember both those coming down the line... 88, by my reconing. I loved that Latina, we called it 'lava'... the orange with the red flecks was really something. But it kind of pales in comparison to that tourer.

Man, I love both of those bikes. I was there for when both of these were made. The top one I thought was one of the most amazing touring bikes I'd seen. There were only about a dozen of those made. I wish my Latina was that colour. Mine is the purple edition and is Campagnolo Athena groupset. I could look at that Latina all day. Can you take a close up of the paintwork on that? because the red dots really make it.

T-Mar

The SLX bicycle is actually a Suprema and it is a 1988 model. The colour was called Neapolitan Fantasy. The Latina is slightly newer, circa 1990, and the OEM group would have been Campagnolo Athena.

dayles

Thanks T Mar - I love the SLX. I call it a tourer simply based on the geometry and the triple chain ring - good for climbing up the Niagara escarpment - but it was a quality model. Thanks for info on the colour and the name. I do remember the Latina on the line with that paint work - I'm surprised that it would have been a 1990 model, I'm not disputing that in any way as you certainly know your stuff, but that would have meant that they kept the same paint work for two years. Gotta ask you why you are so knowledgeable on the Mieles?

T-Mar

I used to work in, and later managed a Canadian LBS during the 1970s. So, I had to keep abreast with what the competition was offering. I also competed and kept that up into the early 2000's, so I still followed what was going on, particularly at the mid to the high end. Through racing, I was still in contact with a lot of people in the industry and my new job as as Quality Engineer occasionally found me consulting for some of the companies. So, I was in or on the fringe of the industry for over three decades. Being, Canadian, all the domestic brands were of particular interest to me.

Miele Man

Hi there. Thanks for all that info, you too T-Mar.

My MIELE SLX does NOT have OEM on it. I didn't know until now what the OEM was for it.

The SLX has a Campy Veloce 52-42-30 crankset. Veloce hubs (Evolution rims), Veloce rear derailler, cassette and chain. The front derailler and shifters are mirage because they were a LOT less $ than the Veloce ones. The bottom bracket was Veloce too when I was buying the parts but this frame has an Italian threaded bottom bracket. I think the bottom bracket is Campy Record as is the headset.

If I took closeups of the installed bottom bracket and headset could anyone tell what model they are?

Maybe they're Athena not Record?

cheers

T-Mar

I thought that I told you Campagnolo C-Record was OEM for the Suprema when you posted about it in another thread, about a month ago?

Miele Man

Sorry about that. I got confused as to which MIELE of mine i knew had which OEM.

Thanks again for all your help. It's really nice to know what the OEM parts were.

If C-Record wasn't so expensive i'd work on getting that vintage groupset for that bike.

Cheers

dayles

Wow, I do not remember that model coming down the line with C record on it! I remember one that had the Neopolitan Fantasy with a triple chain ring model with that had centre pull brakes and a triple chain ring... It wasn't necessarily SLX either, but then I could just be losing my memory! Perhaps there was a similar model? I remember one with Diore on it. Ha, the memory! But I probably boxed those bikes we really freaked when that paint job came down the line. Hey, T-Mar, did you race or train in the GTA, maybe we have some mutual racing or industry acquaintances? From the factory there was a rider named Silvio, he was pretty darned good - nicknamed Silser?

T-Mar

Offhand, the only Miele road model that I recall with a triple chainring and cantilevers was an entry level touring model called the Tourista GT. As for the Suprema, it was definitely C-Record equipped.

I've never lived anywhere near the GTA but used to race there occasionally. By the late 1980s I had moved on to ATB competition, though we'd still go to Toronto for the annual show and when the pros came to town. I don't recall anyone named Silvio but I'm pretty bad with names.

dayles

Oh too bad about not knowing Silvio, he was agreat guy, he raced in the late seventies and early 80's. His photo is in one of the brochures listed in the Miele section of the brochure on the "My Ten Speeds" webpage. He built his own frame at the factory on the sly without Jim knowing and got the paint booth guys to run it through as well, he bent the downtube to get a tight wheel base, man could he accellerate.

I'll try to hunt down a photo of the tourista GT, any idea of the colour scheme on that? Also, would you happen to know the original rims for the Latina model? You sure know your stuff about bikes T Mar

AngryFrankie

Hey guys, mine was completely without paint or parts when I got it, so no decals. It's SLX with no chain stay bridge, under the top tube cable routing, no rack or fender brazes, columbus dropouts, and MIELE impressed on the fork crown and bottom of bottom bracket. What model might that have been?

T-Mar

Given the period mentioned, I probably did meet him or at least competed against him, at one time or another. I assume he is the person performing the alignment checks in the catalogue? If so, he does not look familiar

Regarding the Tourista, all the versions I've seen were monochrome schemes; charcoal, blue, silver blue, red.

Edit: The Latina rims were Ambrosio, dark anodized, probably Elites, as they seemed to Miele's standard rim during this period.

T-Mar

Given the cable routing, it is not a Suprema. It sounds like one of the early 1990s Elite variants.

bikemig 

This is a great thread. It's not too often that you see a discussion of a particular bicycle based on a deep personal knowledge of the manufacturer.