big chainring 

Turin Stories anyone? I bought my first ten speed there. Ordered it at the shop pictured, then they moved a couple block away. Picked it up after they moved.


Bought a bike like this, Turin, in 1971.Think it was $125 with tax and all. Came with an Ideale 90 saddle!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F153476982372
Bike pictured is currently on ebay for $160. Keep thinking about buying it. Mine was silver with the foil decals.

Cyclist0108

My sister got her first non-kid's bike there, late 1960s or early 1970s. (We lived in Evanston.)

Road Fan

My first two were from that store, several years before they moved. The first, in 1968, was a yellow 1968 Falcon, similar component spec to a Super Course of the same year except for a Campagnolo Grand Sport derailleur pair and dt shift levers. I never warmed up to it. My much older pre-Raleigh Hercules was better and I was at least as fast on it. The second was 2 years later, a Cicli Rossignoli. Unknown tubing, Campy old Record derailleurs, FB steel cottered crank, Weinmann medium side pulls, Campy record LF hubs 32/28 laced to Nisi tubular rims with d'Allessandro tubulars. A fantastic ride despite the extra pounds!

My recollection of those old Turin-branded bikes is that they followed the specification of a UO-8. Lee, a savvy retailer probably thought he could sell a bike at least as good as a UO-8 for less, and at lower cost with his Co-op sourcing advantages. If I ever see him again I might ask him. A few friends had them, but I don't know how they rode.

Road Fan

I also saw an early Italian Masi hanging on the wall, and an Alex Singer on the wall awaiting its delivery.

thinktubes 

"Lincoln 9"

Road Fan

Lincoln 9? A Lincoln Avenue "bicycle gang?"

Plus, you live in Evanston? "across the street from Chicago"

PM me if you like.

CO_Hoya 

Is the Chicago Turin connected with the Denver Turin?

philbob57

I moved to Evanston in 1981 with an Atala Competizione that was ridable but needed a headset. Turin made an appointment for the service! Later that year, after my bike was stolen the week before the Harmon Hundred, I rode every bike I could find at Turin, Pony Shop, and RRB, liking nothing. My guy at Turin (Mike, an art student) showed me a Turin-branded 531 frame that came in on trade. He said it was made by MKM, and I recognized the K (Ron Kitching). It turns out it probably IS an MKM from 1973, although I once met a guy who said he did accounting for Lee in those years and never wrote a check to MKM. Anyway, I'm still riding that bike.

I'm still using the original wind trainer, the Aries (Campy-copy) seatpost, TA Cyclotouriste cranks, the Blackburn rack, Superbe brakes, and Kirtland seat bag that I bought from Turin, too. The Avocet hubs and seat and Campy-copy SR crankset that I bought with the frame are still in my possession. I didn't spend much money there, but what I bought lasted.

Funny thing about the Avocet hubs - I bought them new, in a sealed box labelled as sealed hubs, so I rode for decades without maintaining them. A few years ago I actually looked closely at them and found they were not sealed at all. They had so much grease in them, though, that the lack of maintenance did not cause any problems.

There's a Turin in Chicago with a website that had a rundown of their history. They're redesigning the website now, though. They donate prizes to the WTTW (PBS) sweepstakes. I keep thinking of visiting them, but it's faster to bike there than to drive, and I don't want to ride in city traffic. Catch-22, I know....

Wheel & Sprocket replaced them - good people, but corporate, which is one of the ways to succeed in the business now.

r0ckh0und 

I flipped a Turin several years ago during the fixie craze. Same color as the OP. A guy who was familiar with the history came out from the city and bought it.

juvela

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A shop near me home was Turin affiliated about 1971-72.

The Turin badged machines they stocked were done by Manufrance.

Models which came with cottered chainsets were fitted with an odd bottom bracket assembly from REWAX.

It was the usual REWAX black oxide finish but instead of the usual cup and cone arrangement the spindles had a groove, rather than a shoulder, for the bearings to run on. Reckon they could be referred to as "annular." The arrangement did not work and all of the bottom brackets had to be replaced with conventional cup and cone ones. Do no know if Turin got credit from Manufrance or if Manufrance got credit from REWAX.

Perhaps another reader will have more information on this...

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non-fixie 

I thought this thread would be about an Italian co-op. But apparently there are more Turins in the US than in Italy.

repechage

I only visited the Chicago shop once in 1974 during the Nationals that were held in Northbrook.

interesting shop- lots to see, busy at the time, it was Summer.

they were out of stock on wherlcovers
i had two standing orders for a pair.
i purchased mine a year later secondhand as it was just a SoCal junior racer thing to own.

smontanaro 

Historically, yes. Not at all sure if they are still affiliated.

crank_addict

Recently offered on Craigslust' Chicago, an original Turin branded bike in great condition. Showed character and attractive paint. Curious who the maker was.
(Searching old postings and worthy to post here.)

63rickert

Turin branded bikes were Cycles France-Loire, better known as Mercier. Final batch was Superia. There were several oddball BBs which were a problem. They only failed if you used them. Those BBs were present in first place because bargaining on price was a bit too intense. The stickers were by the late great Rudy Seno and were good enough they got placed on many frames with no connection to the shop at all. We had big oversupply and gave stickers away to any who asked.

Turin Denver is Alan Fine who was a Chicago Turin original. Or as close to original as matters here. He is again a partner in the latest incarnation on Damen in Chicago.

There was an MKM that came through the shop in '73. It was brought in by a friend of store who had picked up a couple frames while in UK. Beautiful frame. There were lots and lots of side deals like that which generated no records. The CPA never saw the fourth set of books. He knows a lot but no one knows everything about that circus. I count 5 original partners in the photo. Not sure if Alan is there, would have to ask my wife. Still see two of them regularly. Saw a third and got his old Automoto recently. A fourth is deceased. If you asked any of these people about any event connected to store history you would get tales so wildly different----legends and mists of time.

ironwood

I bought two bikes from the Denver store. The first was stolen, then I got another. I rode the second one for a couple of years as a commuter in Denver, then later in Boston. I rode it around New England and once to Cape Breton Island, NS. I learned a lot about bicycle maintenance with that bike. Nowadays it would be dismissed as a low end, gas pipe bike, but I enjoyed it. It came with a Brooks B-17, which I still ride occaisionally.

Jmpierce

I don't remember what this was for but I had Turin add top tube braze-ons, downtime shifter braze-ons, and a second water bottle braze-on to my 82 Trek 710, after t was stolen and I recovered it. The original top tube braze-ons were damaged by the thief when he also stole my tool box and carried it on the top tube crushing them.

It was a great shop to hang out and pick up pointers as a young mechanic...

I know I spent more than three dollars there.

madpogue 

Wouldn't it be fun to sleuth out who all those guys are, where they are now?

Original location is now part of a big pastry shop, that takes up four storefronts on N. Clark. Evanston location is now part of the Wheel & Sprocket empire.

big chainring 

To the far right, in shorts, is Ron Boi, RRB frame builder. His shop is right down the road from me about a mile or so. He actually posted this picture on another website.

crank_addict

Note their phone number.

-------

My '72 Witcomb (UK made) passed through the Turin shop.


Witcomb from England to the USA, onto Australia, then back to USA.


----

Anyways, pulled the following clipping from an old 'Bicycling' magazine article posted elsewhere on the forum. Please clue us in.


April 1982 - Belmont cycling ad

63rickert

Nothing to do with Turin. That is Fred Boshart's Belmont Schwinn Cyclery. Just about time when he took that shop from being a neighborhood Schwinn dealer to a race shop, he hoped. He had a decent run but was gone ten years after that ad. Good rider, sensible and practical coach. Sponsored Belmont Bike Club and a few decent riders, notably giving a start to Chris Washkevich. Who of course graduated to Turin and then turned pro.

63rickert

Nothing to sleuth. I could tell you all about 8 of them right now and the other three could find out easily. Carol's dog probably I could only get you a name.

But they are private people. Lee still sells Lake shoes and has the bike shop on Damen so I suppose that is public enough. Ron is winding up RRB Cycles. We are all getting old here. Carol is deceased and Ike (hubs for eyes) is deceased. Past that more details would feel like an intrusion.

Road Fan

In 1984 I bought an Ideale 92 from Turin in Denver, to replace the painful Avocet on my new 1984 Trek 610. I think I saw Gary from the 2112 store there. In the picture Gary is 5th from the left, next to the woman holding the dog's collar. I think Lee Katz is on the far left.

I still have the Ideale saddle! Now that I know how to set up leather saddles (sheesh, that took a long time!) it is VERY comfortable on my Mondonico.

Road Fan

I never met Carol. I did talk about frames with Ike once, but I was too naive to get what he was saying. But it's sad to hear some of them are gone. And props for declaring the need to respect them all.

crank_addict

Meanwhile and in the neighborhood...

Basso 1984 / Lake Sport in Evanston. Curious but Katz's?