Homebrew01

wow !!

Oldpeddaller

A good idea, if you've taken them off - because you don't want your wheels falling off! That's unless you've got those new fangled release lever thingies invented by that Italian chap?

(Sorry, got carried away with all the historic pure splendour on display in Prettyshady's post!)

sykerocker 

Somehow that stuff has GOT to be put in a museum, or have a museum built around it, or something in that manner to avoid what it probably going to happen to that collection . . . . . . . . . at the owner's death, his entire collection is going to pass to a person (or bunch of people) who couldn't care less about cycling, probably consider dad's/grandad's/great-grandad's passion to be stupid beyond belief.

And will only care about how much money can be gotten out of the collection and how it will be divided up.

Hell, if I was the mayor of the town that he lived in, I'd be working my butt off for the town to buy it and turn it into a general tourist attraction.

big chainring 

Yeah, I'm thinking every little town in France has a guy like this with a superlative bike collection. Probably no big deal to the local population, just considered the local bike geek. I would imagine the French have a term for these guys, maybe something along the lines of "Fred", but not translatable into english, and sort of lyrical sounding.

jhefner

I know there are cycling museums out there, and regular musuems like the Smithsonian have extensive bike collections; but this collection cries out to be carefully photographed and cataloged, then put in a proper museum building and the catalog published as a book. It seems like something that could be tied in with the current TdF; just as the Indianapolis Speedway has the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum and LeMans has the Musée de l'Automobile. The possiblities stagger the mind; to have it broken up and scattered in private collections before it could be documented would do the history of the race and the memory of it's riders a great disservice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana...of_Fame_Museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...ge_Association

-James

ridethecliche

Wowza. How'd it feel to walk into that room?

I think I might have cried.

That would be the perfect museum/cataloged book, etc, etc.

Jeebus...

mollusk

This is what the internet is all about: porn. Nice bikes!

prettyshady

there was a link hidden away on page one, here it is
https://picasaweb.google.co.uk/colehill/DaphineLibreDay#

prettyshady

As some one who spends his weekends seaching for diagnol reynolds 531 stickers, to see four bikes with them in a row made the hairs on my arms stand on end.

The old stuff was really intresting since I have never seen of touched a Campagnolo Corsabefore. But for myself, an amateur collector of 70's and early 80's bikes, magazine etc , all those bikes and bits and bobs was just amazing. There was so much to see, from the lug wor on every frame, to looking at what french parts stay on high end bikes. He had photo albums with photos of him as a young racer, getting kissed by poduim girls, him hanging out with bernard hinault and autographed jersey's all round. The colour was fantastic.

Its inspired me to take my collection a little more seriously, only problem is my girlfriend thinks he is nuts and we just brought a house without a garage! nightmare!

Quijibo187

that is pretty darn cool.

gioscinelli 

Hmm, I wonder if there is a possibility that sometime in the future he might list a few on CL or Ebay, I'll keepa watch.

de paletti

Awesome. And it is almost certain that in his town, this man is known as the "nice bike freak", nice but - somehow crazy in his way, no doubt about that.
In many parts of Europe, "normal"people don't care about collections of this kind at all, it's a fact and it's a shame. But they really absolutely don't care about these historical bicycles.
Where I live, I could leave my very few (classic) bikes outside for months, nobody would even just look at them. And IF some bike would be stolen, the thief would be a stranger with a certain knowledge. It sounds strange, but in Europe, there are large country parts where an Alex Singer or whatsoever means less than nothing. No engine, no value. I recently showed some Ebay-objects to cycling friends of mine ( they're not into vintagestuff). They think someone who spends a single penny for an old bike part must be mentally ill. Absolutely no interest.
And this mentality, of course, can be absolutely dangerous for this wonderful kind of collection.

de paletti

Dear gioscinelli, - The owner of this collection possibly does not even know Ebay exists, nor how to start a computer...

jhefner

Which is why I would love to see it organized as a "Tour de France Hall of Fame"; much like our NFL Hall of Fame, with the TdF as it's owner/sponsor. The logical place would seem to be Paris; since the TdF always ends there. It would also benefit for regular tourists already in town as well as those in town for the race. The folks of the city of Paris would be more likely to appreciate it's value than someone who may have never seen the TdF for themselves.

So many times; when the owner of a collection like this dies; the heirs (who often didn't understand their passion for collecting in the first place; or even felt alienated by it) either don't know what to do with it, or don't care. The end result is that the collection is simply thrown away, or broken up and scattered. Happens to private museums all the time.

The fact that he made a point to ask you to see it seems to indicate he would like others to see it. And it is an amazing collection. Just the photographs alone would be irreplacable if they were destroyed or allowed to be scattered to the four winds in other private collections.

-James

EDIT: the Pate Museum of Transportation not far from me is a perfect example. It was a private museum established by A.M. Pate, owner of Texas Refining Company. He has either grown old or for some other reason has decided he can no longer support the museum; and it is being sold off at auction as I type this.

https://www.texasescapes.com/FortWort...sportation.htm

gnome

Wow. Thank you for taking all the photos and sharing them with us. And when you next see Lino, thank him profusely for sharing his wonderful collection with you.

While he looks like a spritely old bird, I wouldn't leave your return visit too long.

Maddox

OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW!!!! Thanks a million for the link!

markk900

First off, thanks Prettyshady for posting the photos and the links - what a privilege it was for you to be invited in.

I wanted to say that I disagree this collection should immediately be swept up into a museum....Lino is obviously one of those characters who make this world a better place in which to live - fueling a personal passion for something and sharing it as he sees fit. I'm sure he knows what a museum is, and we can hope that one day those bikes end up somewhere that we can see them, but for now the magic is that so much love of the sport is collected in one place, reflecting one man's dreams. To take that away from where it is would in my opinion destroy the magic. Stuff is stuff, but that place, packed to the gills the way it is, is truly special!

Mark

noglider 

No one is talking about taking it away from him with eminent domain. If some organization came to him to do this, he might find it agreeable. They could pay him to run the museum. And if they let him call the shots, what could be bad?

jhefner

I hear what you are saying; but at the very least, he should set up a will or foundation or other arrangements in case he were to pass away suddenly.

My other interests is steam locomotives, and I am reminded of two individuals. F. Nelson Blount was president and founder of Blount Seafood Corporation, was as a millionaire collector of vintage steam locomotives and rail cars. He founded a private museum, "Steamtown USA", to house his collection of steam locomotives and related materials.

Blount died suddenly at the age of 49 on August 31, 1967 in a small aircraft accident. Some of his collection was scattered to other locations; but fortunately, much of it was already under the ownership of the Steamtown Foundation, and became the basis for the Steamtown National Historic Site.

Paulsen Spence collected dozens of steam locomotives as they were being retired from the Class 1 railroads, with the intention of building the steam powered Louisiana Eastern railroad from Baton Rouge bypassing New Orleans, Lousiana (basicallly today's I-12 freeway.) Not only did he not have a foundation (since it was a business to him rather than a museum); his family viewed him as crazy; and he went so far as to have "extracuricular" activites in his private passenger car.

Spence died of a heart attack on a station platform while on a moneyraising trip for the L&E. He was barely in the ground when his hiers had the locomotives, several boxcars full of spare parts, and other materials sold off scrap. Only 2-3 locomotives remain today.

I also mentioned the Pate Museum previously. It's a free society, and I would be the first to tell you that he has the right to keep his collection for as long as he wants; and burn and scrap it if he wants to, too. But, if it means that much to him, and I assume it does; then I would plead with him to get legal and accounting help, maybe even arrange a meeting with TdF officials to view the collection in person; but anyway make plans for the collection's continued preservation intact whenever he is ready to relinquist his ownership of it.

(And make sure everything is legaly air-tight. One persisting legend is that Spence did leave $400,000 in his will to construct a museum building in Baton Rouge to house all his engines, but because he did not sign his will on every page, it was declared invalid; and his heirs had it all scrapped anyway.)

-James

ilikebikes

Oh ****! I think I had a stroke! Thanks for postin'!

High Fist Shin

Thread of the year, 2010.

Well done Shady.

-Shin

JunkYardBike

What bike was Lino riding (he's got a modern kit!)...and did he drop you?

ahsposo 

It's now in my favorites. What a collection! It's like a wet dream.

cyclotoine

i would bet that he was riding a modern rig. But this was something I wondered about, but didn't post.

JunkYardBike

That's my hunch as well. He obviously appreciates cycling history, but probably also appreciates modern technology if he still follows racing. That being said, prettyshady would never have had entree to the museum if he hadn't been riding vintage steel!