Danhedonia

I have a Novara Trionfo and was thinking of selling it, or perhaps using the drivetrain for another project and selling the (nice, AL6) frame.

As I do the usual searches (Google, eBay) for various info, it seems like there are just about zero Trionfos out there. No much info, either. Given that other, less-nice Novara bikes still have presence on the web, I wonder: why has this model's legacy evaporated faster than an apparatchik's who displeased Stalin?

shelbyfv

15 year old +/- aluminum frame, probably tight tire clearance. You might get a few hundred for it but probably better off keeping it for a rain or guest bike if you have the space.

mstateglfr 

I have an '89 Trionfo frame that I threw a modern drive train on and used on and off for a few years now.
Its quality Tange 1 tubing and has tidy brazing for a contract production frame.
I've used it mostly as an early season bike and as my indoor trainer for the last couple years.


I dont know what 'al6' is, but if you have an aluminum frame and carbon fork, there will be some interest in it, assuming the cosmetic condition and price are both reasonable.


As for there not being many Trionfo bikes in the wild, the brand is hardly large and the model was a small part of that small brand. Not surprising to see few are around.

Danhedonia

Somehow I messed up my post - I'm not talking about selling it.

I'm talking about there are none left in the wild. It's become extinct. It's really weird.

indyfabz

Doesn’t surprise me. It’s not like Novara was a top selling bike brand.

philbob57

The question that springs to my mind is, 'Are the Trionfos that were sold still in use?' As pointed out above, not a whole lot of Novaras were sold, and only a portion of those were Trionfos. The facts that there are none on ebay and that you don't see any on the road don't support much in the way of conclusions. You need a lot more data to draw a reliable conclusion.

Danhedonia

Not sure if I'm drawing a conclusion. I live in Albuquerque, a fairly bike-friendly place. We have all kinds of esoterica around here on CL - Pinarellos, Lightspeeds, etc. Fair # of Novara commuter bikes, but no road bikes.

Even weirder is the absence online. Searching "Novara Trionfo" on eBay yielded one listing - for a frame.

fietsbob

Novara, the old REI brand replaced by another name.. the bike type is likely still being imported, & sold by REI..

they are dealers for other brands of bikes also..

https://www.rei.com/s/mens-bikes

Lemond1985

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik...185327280.html



Overpriced as heck, but otherwise absolutely mint.

veganbikes

Yeah way over but clean and 600 Tricolor is probably my favorite looking groupset from Shimano, maybe Arabesque might fight it out. If the price were lower I might even drool slightly. Novara or not it is a good looking bike.

mstateglfr 

Wow thats a high asking price!
Funny to see that its built with Tange ultimate MTB tubing.

frogman

Nice looking bike ! I know its not but it looks like it is Titanium.......

mstateglfr 

I both missed your useless posts and didn't miss them at all.
It must take effort to respond to so many threads without helping or even replying on topic.

Ironfish653

There probably weren’t a whole lot of them sold to begin with. “House brand “ bikes like Novarra, Performance and Nashbar didn’t get the kind of market penetration of something like TREK or Specialized, and don’t have the cachet of a specialty builder like Klein or (early) Cannondale, so they just became ‘some old bike’

Happens sometimes, with stuff from before the internet age, especially middle-of-the road off-brand bikes.

Danhedonia

Yeah, I pretty consider it "some old bike." The unusual part is that a) it's actually a damn decent bike for the category ("some old bike" category) and b) it's like someone wanted all traces removed.

The one on SF Craigslist is the usual CL-idiot post - "don't do this, don't do that, I know this is worth a fortune" ... and then a 300% mark up.

It is damn attractive, tho.

Darth Lefty 

It's not just that it's a store brand bike. It's a nice store brand bike, that was sold next to nice name brand bikes to people who knew the brands. That might not have been true of the contemporary mountain bikes. My bike in high school and college was a Novara MTB, with plastic indexed thumbies. It was nicer than a department store bike, but probably par or a step down from a Trek 820, and Cannondale had nothing that cheap. I imagine they sold tons of those. Kid bikes too.

Ironfish653

Shimano 600 ‘Tricolor’ pegs it as early 1990s, so the dawn of the internet. It wasn’t in the online catalog, because there wasn’t one yet. Those kinds of bikes weren’t exciting enough to get people to make a web page about, so there’s no imprint to be found.

Happens sometimes with obscure models. I have a 1976 Bridgestone Super Light, which is notable for its partly cast-aluminum frame. It may possibly be the only Bridgestone-badged example in North America. US-market bikes were sold and badged as Kabukis, mine was purchased in Japan, and badged as a Bridgestone; however a search of the Far East only turned up upright Three-speed bikes, rather than my drop-bar ‘Ten-speed’

fietsbob

TIG welded steel framed bikes are still a thing.

Danhedonia

FWIW, my '07 is aluminum, carbon forks.

It's too small for me, or I'd still be riding it. Nice bike.

Lemond1985

This one just popped up:

59cm. Lightweight Novara Trionfo road bike ...Shimano 105..Tange #1 - $395



https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik...225932406.html

Wildwood 

It would seem the model changed over the years, from the above posts.
Get a serial number, post a thread in the C&V section (with decent photo or three) and someone will tell you the probable manufacturer, year of production, etc. Easy peasy. It's what that Forum does.

edit: ooooopps .... late to the party.