botty kayer

Sorry for the delay folks, user error in that I managed to send my first email to the wrong address, and only rectified that last week. After a few emails from Lara at Somec I did get some info, but unfortunately less than I'd hoped for.

Lara said they no longer have detailed records of the past, so there is no info on who the frame was sold to, and where in the world they were, or if it was sold to a shop or an individual. But she did confirm it is a Mario Martini paint job, yay!

As for the date they could not be exact, but it turns out to be older than I thought. Lara directed me in the first instance to take a pic of the Somec decal on the downtube

She asked me to look our for any writing indicating 'world champion'. I can see the Tulip on the left is surrounded by the Italian flag, and the tulip at the other end of the decal has the world champs colours, but I couldn't see any writing....but then my middle aged eyes are in need of some glasses, but thankfully modern phones have a zoom *enhance*

Ah ha, there it is, written just in the C of Somec. Lara says this means the frame is from 88/89, or possibly early 90 at the latest, so a few years earlier than I thought.

I've been wondering since and have not thought to email Somec about it directly yet, but it does beg the question, who was a World Champ riding a Somec in 88/89?

I was not aware they sponsored any pro riders back in the day. Maurizio Fondriest won the mens cycling Worlds in 88, but google says he was riding a Legnano. I'm no scholar of cycling history nor an expert at googling, but I can't find any reference to any Somec world champions in 88/89 for men or women, and I'm not sure what other disciplines like Track, MTB, cyclo cross or BMX or other events were covered back then, but I can't find anything. Anyone have any ideas?

Anyway that is all I've been able to find out about the bikes history. Back to the here and now, yesterday I finally managed to meet up and swap my Shimano freehub on the Mavic Cosmic's with someone else who had an exact same set of Cosmics with a Campag freehub, so that worked out perfectly as they do not seem readily available. We also swapped a cassette each, so I now have a 12-25 cassette, and am now rolling around on clinchers, and the good news continues as Campag Delta's were somewhat future proofed in that they can accommodate 28c tyres, which is a nice surprise.


So I've borrowed pair of just scrubbed in black Veloflex Corsa Evo's in 28c from one of my other bikes, and I've changed over the pedals to the black NOS Look Delta's to match most of my cycling shoes. And I've added 2 silver bottle cages so it currently looks like this....


I'm going to scratch the itch I have this weekend and change the tape, pedals and saddle to yellow versions to see what that looks like, but I wouldn't be surprised if I go straight back to black.

But minor cosmetics aside it's done, and most importantly it rides great, it has that rock solid Max feel and steering yet offers some cushioning to London's mostly rubbish roads. And I am getting a lot of looks and comments, it is not my buff legs or toned buttocks, but this thing stopping traffic. My dream bike lives up to my expectations so I'm well happy.