sprintcarblue

In my attempts to find bike parts for another build I came across and interesting 60cm Marinoni mystery track bike (which I could not say no to) as it's a bike that's been on my bucket list for a long time.

To make things more interesting - doesn't seem to be a standard production Pista or Speciale for better or worse. It doesn't have a visible serial no. and no other pantograph markings other than the maple leaf on the head tube lug. I tried contacting Marinoni - and without the serial they have no real detailing of the bike.

Aside from the distinctive maple leaf head tube lug, the bike has ovalized (or tear shaped?) tubing on the seat tube and down tube. The fork crown is quite thinned with no visible lug, possibly filed down. The frame itself is quite rough and has been painted at-least 4 times which makes it hard to determine the original color. It has campagnolo drop outs, bottom bracket, and headset. The steer tube has internal rifling near the bottom at the fork crown, and slight bulging from over tightening the wedge stem and the extremely thin tubing.

I have little background other than comparisons with mainly photographs and reading about Lovell bike which seems construction wise to be the most similar in terms of fork crown and oval tubing. I've tried looking for similar features from a few "snippets" of other olympic riders like Gary Trevisoil who at one point rode a Marinoni. Although, there seems to be a lack of "bike checks" or photography of the bikes riders used in the era I am looking at ( 1979 AMF / 1984 Levi-Raleigh / 1987 Raleigh built Marinoni )

clubman 

Lovell was the first thing/person to come to mind. The maple leaf could indicate a National team bike.

sprintcarblue

Agreed. My thoughts as well. I wish there was more documentation of Olympic team bikes through history. I feel like it was the mid/late eighties super bikes that started getting all the attention!

cyclotoine

There are a lot of similarities with my '81 but I've never seen a Marinoni with that kind of crown, but that doesn't mean they don't exist and I do not profess to be an expert. Marinoni also used the prugnat lugs like those seen on mine for a very long time, but again it is possible this one was going for the most minimalist approach. I've only seen maple leaf bikes span from the late 1970s to mid-1980s but possible it continued into the later 1980s on some bikes. These track team bikes are likely exceptions. I'm told mine had a maple leaf theme paint prior to this (this is how I got it). I like the colour so never changed it. Not mine does say Marinoni on the crown but the overly thick paint was not conducive to highlighting it. Your maple leaf is consistent with mine as is the filing and finishing from what I can see. It also looks like you have the ovalized tubes and a similar super short wheelbase. My impression is that the fork is the original given the blade curve and clearance look very similar to mine. I don't live remotely close to a velodrome so I do not ride this bike, it's wall art now but I'll sell my classic roadies before I sell this.

sprintcarblue

Thank you for sharing your bike! It's absolutely beautiful. I can't believe I didn't see this reply earlier. Haha.

It seems very similar in its construction and bet the date is similar. Where was your serial?

I just started trying to date components that I assume are original to the frame. It has a campy pista headset which should date it from 1974-1984ish in theory. It has sugino mighty cranks which are hard to say if theyre original spec. Theyre 171, so perhaps work well with the taller frame compared to 165?

​​​​​​I noticed in the Canadian archives an image of Gary Trevisol has a very similar fork crown on a visible Marinoni circa 1984 LA Olympics. Later Gianni Vignaduzzi (1988) has a chromed fork with a similar profile. It makes me assume this was a building practice by request for competitive racing. Whether Commonwealth games or Olympics. Etc. I've been trying to dig into potential taller team members from the coast between say 1976-1988 to see if I can find anything. So far Gary Trevisol has the closest looking bike / similar size.

sprintcarblue

Screen shot to include source. It's kind of a janky website.