Hello from Montreal!
04-18-21, 03:01 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Hello from Montreal!
Hi All,
Very excited to join this forum! I am a passionné of artisanal vintage steel from the 70's and 80's. Currently I am finishing an '84 Giuseppe Villata, and I also have an '81 Giuseppe (Pepe) Limongi track bike (bikes built by Giuseppe's could be a theme here
). My next two projects are an '81 Rossin Super and a '77 Busana by Oscar Simonato.
A bit more about my origins in the cycling hobby: Back as a young teen in the early nineties, I got really into BMX's. My friends and I started riding trails and jumping our GT's and Haro's, and I eventually went on to focus on street riding (and the damaged joints that come with these pursuits(!), but I digress...). Of the few bikes I "custom" built (with the help of the Dan's Comp ads in the back of BMX Plus/RideBMX (remember the pre-internet days!?!)), my favourite was my Basic Bike Co. Street Fighter in a really cool shade of dark hunter green with burly tubing, thick-a**drop outs, no brakes and an awesome three piece crankset from S&M. I learned about wrenching through maintaining and upgrading that beast, and both the bike and I put each other through the paces. But eventually we parted ways when falling off ledges and rails became too much for my deteriorating knees.
Fast-forward through college, a brief career as an auto painter/Subaru mechanic, and grad school (PhD in the history of finance in early-modern Europe), and I got the bug for road bikes (and the UCI World Tour... Go Cavendish, Greipel, Nibali, Valverde, and all the older boys rocking out this season!!). My first love was a Fiori with a pretty crappy Shimano setup but it was a blast to ride. Served me well until I sold it to a neighbour's kid. As life does, things got in the way, and I didn't ride for a few years (things happens, right?!?
). So two years ago, in a pre-covid world, I bought a Bassi Casterino and started to ride again, and really enjoyed (remembered) the feeling of freedom (bliss) that comes on two wheels. As our worlds turned topsy-turvy over the last year and a bit, rather than binge on Netflix, I got a Feedback training rig (the best!! Doug Hudson is a boss!) and went down the rabbit hole of vintage Italian racing bikes built by local artisans (enabled by the power of the internet and the increasingly globalized marketplace) and started building my newest love, my very Italian Red '84 Giuseppe Villata (found it on Fleabay, don't judge!). It is now nearly built to my satisfaction with "period correct" Campy/Modolo (my '77 cranks don't match my "no date" SR derailleurs... a whole other esoteric rabbit hole...
), but more importantly I put it together/restored it myself in my little home bike shop (cleaning/polishing/wrenching is a form of meditation for me!). So now I am moving on to two new projects; a beautiful '77 Busana built by Oscar Simonato and an '81 Rossin Record (w/ requisite portacatena), both acquired from a new friend in Italy who initially sold me a FT Bologna headset and TI bottom bracket (again, the power of the internet (and FB groups) 
).
So that's my long-winded introduction. I am really excited by the prospect of meeting new fellow enthusiasts, learning from the wealth of knowledge available here, talking shop, and hopefully contributing to this community. I look forward to (e)meeting you and admiring your Italian (and American, French, British, Japanese, etc) vintage steel. Thanks for reading! Stay safe!
Alex
Very excited to join this forum! I am a passionné of artisanal vintage steel from the 70's and 80's. Currently I am finishing an '84 Giuseppe Villata, and I also have an '81 Giuseppe (Pepe) Limongi track bike (bikes built by Giuseppe's could be a theme here
). My next two projects are an '81 Rossin Super and a '77 Busana by Oscar Simonato.A bit more about my origins in the cycling hobby: Back as a young teen in the early nineties, I got really into BMX's. My friends and I started riding trails and jumping our GT's and Haro's, and I eventually went on to focus on street riding (and the damaged joints that come with these pursuits(!), but I digress...). Of the few bikes I "custom" built (with the help of the Dan's Comp ads in the back of BMX Plus/RideBMX (remember the pre-internet days!?!)), my favourite was my Basic Bike Co. Street Fighter in a really cool shade of dark hunter green with burly tubing, thick-a**drop outs, no brakes and an awesome three piece crankset from S&M. I learned about wrenching through maintaining and upgrading that beast, and both the bike and I put each other through the paces. But eventually we parted ways when falling off ledges and rails became too much for my deteriorating knees.
Fast-forward through college, a brief career as an auto painter/Subaru mechanic, and grad school (PhD in the history of finance in early-modern Europe), and I got the bug for road bikes (and the UCI World Tour... Go Cavendish, Greipel, Nibali, Valverde, and all the older boys rocking out this season!!). My first love was a Fiori with a pretty crappy Shimano setup but it was a blast to ride. Served me well until I sold it to a neighbour's kid. As life does, things got in the way, and I didn't ride for a few years (things happens, right?!?
). So two years ago, in a pre-covid world, I bought a Bassi Casterino and started to ride again, and really enjoyed (remembered) the feeling of freedom (bliss) that comes on two wheels. As our worlds turned topsy-turvy over the last year and a bit, rather than binge on Netflix, I got a Feedback training rig (the best!! Doug Hudson is a boss!) and went down the rabbit hole of vintage Italian racing bikes built by local artisans (enabled by the power of the internet and the increasingly globalized marketplace) and started building my newest love, my very Italian Red '84 Giuseppe Villata (found it on Fleabay, don't judge!). It is now nearly built to my satisfaction with "period correct" Campy/Modolo (my '77 cranks don't match my "no date" SR derailleurs... a whole other esoteric rabbit hole...), but more importantly I put it together/restored it myself in my little home bike shop (cleaning/polishing/wrenching is a form of meditation for me!). So now I am moving on to two new projects; a beautiful '77 Busana built by Oscar Simonato and an '81 Rossin Record (w/ requisite portacatena), both acquired from a new friend in Italy who initially sold me a FT Bologna headset and TI bottom bracket (again, the power of the internet (and FB groups) ). So that's my long-winded introduction. I am really excited by the prospect of meeting new fellow enthusiasts, learning from the wealth of knowledge available here, talking shop, and hopefully contributing to this community. I look forward to (e)meeting you and admiring your Italian (and American, French, British, Japanese, etc) vintage steel. Thanks for reading! Stay safe!
Alex
Last edited by AMDG; 04-19-21 at 01:09 PM. Reason: Editing/expanding my introduction
04-18-21, 03:05 PM
#2
Full Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Oakland CA
Posts: 274
Bikes: 1984 Gitane TdF, 1986 Look Équipe, 1983 Colnago Super
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Welcome aboard AMDG!
I too am a fan of bikes from the 70's and 80's, so I am looking forward to seeing your stable.
Cheers
I too am a fan of bikes from the 70's and 80's, so I am looking forward to seeing your stable.
Cheers
Likes For cyclic_eric:
