gravelinmygears 

You may have seen my post in various places looking for wheels. Here, I just want some advice. For the purists, an early 1974 Masi Gran Criterium must have Martano rims on campy 1034 low flange hubs. Those are all gone, I believe. Sitting on wall hanger Masis around the world. What ohter tubular rim or wheel would suit an Italian race bike from 1974? I'd appreciate if you mentioned things that are available. Thanks.

If you have something suitable for sale, please PM me.

repechage

99% of the time the bikes were fitted with Clement Criterium Setas with the mixed tread. Small yellow label with black text. the tires were about 23mm wide.
Later tires came with larger yellow/blue labels.
Clement Paris Roubaix was an option, Del Mondos.... Gone, I tell you.

The problem is Clement in the 70's played around with the latex tubes. very few even if intact will hold air. I have attractive tires I need to send to TireAlert for new tubes.

I would go Veloflex or Challenge or Dugast or FMB current production tires. Dugast and FMB will have labeling that will be least offensive.
reportedly there is another new brand, and the name escapes me at present. I have not seen them yet.

There are plenty of hubs around, if you want Italian threads as original,at the time those hubs had no text or code to identify. (one ring, English, two rings French, except when the French threaded hubs were blank- just how it is)
You want flat QR levers, no Cyrano bulbous opposite end. A little literature humor.
Don't be afraid of used hubs, but observe how marked the spoke holes appear from prior builds.

repechage

Just looked, there are no pairs of rims on ebay, that is unusual.

gravelinmygears 

You have deduced my struggle. I've found various tubular rims from the 70s but I have no clue which one is best. The 80s stuff is so much easier to find and understand.

In essence, what are the best tubular rims circa 1974? I'm not looking to commute on these but I'd like to handle an occasional century.

repechage

This was the pre anodized era.

Nisi, and Fiamme are Italian, but have not looked for any recently.
Mavic and Super Champion are good.

Might expand your search to those as rims and or complete wheels. Use that as a "rider" set, then locate the Show set parts as you can.
Even expand the rider set to clinchers.

majmt 

I took the original Martano/Clement/Campy (flat skewer) wheels off of the '74 GC that I picked last fall to keep them safe. As repechage suggested, I had a set of clinchers built up as riders. I used a set of H plus Son rims with Campy hubs and Continental GP Classic tires. I also picked a set of Campy Lambda rims that will be laced to another set of Campy hubs for a set of tubular rider wheels. The rims are 80s vintage I think (a step down from the Campy Sigma rims but still very nice). Not the exact right vintage but they have eyelets and the labels match the color of my bike. I'll likely go with some Vittoria tires that I have hanging up. I've been watching eBay too and Fiamme and Nisi rims commonly show up and even Martanos occasionally $$$.

The clinchers turned out nice I think; however, the limited riding I've done on the original wheels was sublime and spoiled me forever.

gravelinmygears 

Those look great. This is really helpful and I think we are on the same page. I want to do all those things! I've been hunting for wheels but it's hard to tell which are best (eyelets, durability, etc). I'd love to discuss this with you but it looks like you don't take private messages.

DiabloScott

Ambrosio was around back then... I see some available as NOS even.

SwimmerMike 

I had a similar issue. I have a set of Sheeren tubulars on my '71 Bob Jackson. They're great, but also pretty hard to come by, and pretty darn light. Plus with Eroica coming up I wanted to have some sturdier wheels. I wanted to keep everything aluminum with no anodization for period correctness. It took me a couple of months of searching and I ended up sourcing 2 Rigida clincher rims, a Fiamme Ergal front wheel, and then 2 Fiamme red label rims. I built up all the rims with Campy hubs to give me a set of clinchers, the Fiamme sets gives me a heavier duty rear and a light and heavy option for the front, and then, of course, the Sheeren's for when I want really light wheels.

I picked up 3 of the wheels/rims (all as singles) off of Craig's list, except for the 2 Red Label Fiammes (1 NOS and 1 Rider) from my LBS (I went in and asked the Vintage Guy if they had any Fiamme's and they did so I took them (If I went in here first I would have saved time, but tracking them down and rebuilding them was a fun COVID diversion).

I know I'm in a good market for finding things, maybe not such a good market for price, but searching and patience paid off.

majmt 

Sorry about the PM issue, I checked my settings and they should go through. Another forum member mentioned the problem to me as well - don’t know what the problem is. Anyway, I’d love to compare notes on our parallel projects. Here’s a shot showing the Japanese rims, with German tires, and Italian hubs (WWII Axis powers ) on a made in the USA frame. The all Italian tubular wheels should be done this week so I’ll be posting up some more photos here in C&V soon and looking for input (hope repechage will be around). In the meantime, I just sent a test PM if you want to chat.

gravelinmygears 

I received your PM but it still says you have chose not to receive messages.

majmt 

Thanks, I’ll see what I can do.

As a temporary fix, I just added you to my contacts so it might work now.

repechage

ya know, we never saw those wayback, by the appearance those could be private label Marranos.

majmt 

Any thoughts on vintage Wolber rims?

jeirvine 

70's tubular rims with Campagnolo record hubs show up not infrequently on Craigslist, at least around here - not Martano, but Super Champion, Mavic, Nisi, and Fiamme. And they are usually fairly cheap, since most wouldn't know what to do with them. Before COVID, when I last visited the local co-op, they had a few pairs too. And if you don't mind building a set, I (and many others here I suspect), have a few pairs of nice 70's tubular rims in the stash, having de-laced the hubs for clincher builds. PM me if you want to go that route. (If you do build up Martanos, don't forget the spoke washers.) Lastly, I got a very nice tied-and-soldered SC "Record du Monde"/ HF Record wheels for my '73 Colnago from the Westminister swap meet a few years back for I think $75. They are out there, and only us anoraks want 'em.

gravelinmygears 

PMing

satbuilder 

I’m in the same boat, sort of. The Masi (‘71) is out for restoration, and finding correct parts in decent condition is getting harder. Prices are also a reflection of the scarcity and time of year being prime season for sales.

I have a bunch of tubular rims, just not Martanos. I lucked out on a set of hubs, though.

There’s a set of Martanos over on EBay Italy. Price is reasonable. I don’t know what shipping to the states would run, and the spoke count compounds your hub acquisition efforts because they’re 32’s.

it may be worthwhile to you to find a newer hubset and convert them back to earlier style.

My plan is to build up a set of wheels that will work and keep looking for the proper rims.

Link for rims:
https://www.ebay.it/itm/402797336400...QAAOSwuJVdcoGj