jamesdak 

Was on evilbay a couple of weeks ago and saw a bike advertised as belonging to Oscar Freire. Did some research and asked some questions but wasn't satisfied. Then the seller sent me an offer for the bike at a value I felt was worth it just for the frame and parts. Got it in last night and it sure does seem to be a team bike from the short-lived Vitalicio Seguros cycling team. It does have Freire on the seatstays. I've found five other examples now on the internet from other confirmed riders of the team with their names on the same location of the bike with the same white decals. So maybe it's legit. The tubing seems great but the paint has a fair amount of touch ups and other wear. Decals seem to match some of the other bikes and some are different. I did notice yellowing on the chainstays today where decals had been removed. I haven't done much with it yet other than clean it up a bit. The seller had put a new 700 x 25 on the rear and the same tire in 700 x 28 on the front. Got 'em backwards as there's no room with that fork for that tire. I put on an old set of 700 x 23c GP 3000 tires for now but think a modern GP 5000 700 x 25 may fit in front. The rear has more space. Campagnolo Record 9 speed parts, some say titanium on them. Seems to be running fine. Seller told me where he got it and that he never rode it. Now comes the fun hunting confirmation to see if it can truly be tied to Oscar. That would be SOOOOOO cool by the bike is plenty fine in my book regardless.

Some quick pics with the cellphone.


The other side is missing the "F"

How I unboxed it.

After some cleaning today and the tire/saddle swap.

After some cleaning today and the tire/saddle swap.

After some cleaning today and the tire/saddle swap.

Now the reason I was on evilbay was to search for a cheap frame/bike to fix up for this years bike collective donation. Then I decided to finally go look at a Raleigh Technium Super Course that had been listed for sale for a few months. It was about an hour away. It was in the teens this morning so I knew I wasn't doing any yardwork. So I set up a meet and came home with this. Here again, the bike was too grubby to tell for sure that the paint was good. But the parts seemed to have little to no wear on them. Got it home and started cleaning it up, WOW what a shine. Basically the old Raleigh turned out to be pretty much mint under all the grime. The paint is beautiful except for a few minor blemishes. Way too nice looking for the lowly Exage 400EX parts. This just may get the Suntour Superbe parts or the Cyclone ones I have on hand. Lot's of nice touches on this like the pump peg and the chain holder. Main tubes are aluminum but the fork, seat stays and chain stays are some kind of steel. I put my best set of 126mm wheels on it to see if there was room for the Veloflex Corsa Race 700 x 28 tires and there are, cool! Anyway this one now has me conflicted. I should just pull everything, clean, degrease, lube, recable and then give it too the bike collective. But..... man is it pretty and would probably even nicer with better lighter, silver parts and silver wheels. Ahh the dilemma. Wish I knew how it road. If it's a dog it'll be easier to give away. Maybe it'll at least get above freezing tomorrow so I can give it an honest try.


How I picked it up.

Quick clean and temporary wheel swap.

The Biopace rings don't really bother me but the 165mm crank arms are the shortest I've had in the house. That's the first Brooks Gel Lite saddle I've had also. Feels soft and comfortable which means it'll probably suck after a few miles into the ride.

jamesdak 

Grab some shots of the components last night. Sitting here today messing with this more. Just pulled off the dork disc and cleaned the cassette since I had it off. I was curious and slipped a 130mm space rear wheel into this without really even having to spread the dropouts by hand to put it in. Now I'm having baaaaadddd thoughts about a brand new 6800 groupset I have sitting in a box.

georges1

Both great bikes,the raleigh deserves indeed the 6800 groupset with a nice set of wheels. The olmo in deda dr zero is a must, congrats

jamesdak 

It was 24 lbs 14 ozs when I brought it home. Pulled off the rack, and for the heck of it swapped on a set of Dura Ace/Open Pro wheels with a SRAM 8 speed cassette. With Keo pedals and two bottle cages it is right at 22 lbs even.


With the wheel change and he saddle set to my height.

Trying to show how good the finish is.

jamesdak 

Make that 21 lbs 11 ozs as I play with this today. That tells me when I replace the heavy Sakae seatpost and stem and swap in true Look pedals over these ISIS this bike will be closing in on 21 lbs even. Not too shabby.

The saddle is a Fizik Arione with a grey stripe down the center, pretty good match but not perfect.

top506

If you ride it you'll keep it. I picked up the same bike this spring, same size, not as pretty as yours. I swapped the 165 cranks for 170 and have been most pleased with it.




Turbo came on the bike.

Top

jamesdak 

So, just found out the shiny bits of the Exage components are not annodized to include the crank arms. So they take up an almost mirror like shine with hit with some metal polish, sweet!

jamesdak 

So, I reached out to Olmo last night via email about the bike. We'll see if they respond with any useful information. I also reached out to Art Bikes who's got a couple of these frames for sale. Next up will be trying to get current POC for the old team management or ever Oscar and see if I get a response back.