OTS 

More PLEASE

Writenride 

This is the Limited Edition Tommasini Super Prestige 85. I purchased it late last year through Red Rose Imports and had it built by Wheel & Sprocket in Brookfield, WI, where I grew up.


The saddle looks lovely.


I installed Shimano Dura Ace 7700 25th Anniversary components, #124 . Ironically, that was the main corner near where I grew up; 124th and Capitol Drive.


Even the cables say "DURA-ACE 25".


The tires are Tufo Elite Ride 700c by 25 tubulars. The 7700 brakes don't offer any more clearance than that. But it is a race bike.


Nice polish, huh? (I should of taken the smear marks off....)

Writenride 

The tubular wheel set has Phil Wood Classic 36h High Flange hubs laced on Mavic Open Pro tubular rims with Phil Wood double butted spokes.


LeRoy Coleman of Phil Wood and I had long conversations about bikes and the bike industry.


"A lot of times, we rarely see our Phil parts once they're shipped out." Here you go, LeRoy.


The Phil Wood Skewers smelled like machined precision and Tenacious Oil.


LeRoy and I made two custom wheel sets; one for the blue bike and one for this red one.

The idea was to make one pair of tubular wheels and one clincher wheels for each bike. The second pair not shown here (but I will later) has the Shimano Dura Ace 7700 25th Anniversary 36h hubs laced with Phil Wood double butted spokes on Mavic Open Pro clincher rims in Anodized Red.

Writenride 

I had a choice between the red one and the black one.


The red has a little more pop, I think.


Some detail, huh?

Next, a blue bike.

Writenride 

This is the Tommasini Limited Edition 60th Anniversary Prestige. It was built by Tom at Ben's Cycle in Milwaukee.


I have Shimano Dura Ace 7700 components, all New Old Stock. Steve from Ben's Cycle had a whole box of parts from Euro Asia Imports.


I'll have to redo those computer cables...


Well, don't look at them. Look at this.


Columbus SL Tubing.


Unlike the red bike, the Prestige SL Sessantesimo has a headbadge.


The bottom bracket shell in particular is amazing.


So does the seat cluster lug. The seatpost is a Thomson Elite and a vintage Selle Italia Turbo saddle in blue velvet. Sorry, I didn't photograph the seat, but it's better to see it in person, really.


Almost looks like a chromovelato blue doesn't it?

The wheels are Shimano Dura Ace 7700 36h hubs laced with Phil Wood double butted spokes on Mavic Reflex tubular rims. The second pair, which I'll show you later, has Phil Wood Classic High Flange 36h hubs in anodized blue laced with Phil Wood double butted spokes on Mavic CXP 33 rims in anodized blue.

I couldn't find blue tubulars anywhere, so I got these Schwalbe Handmade Pro One HT tires glued on the Reflex rims.

My thanks to Tommasini, Greg at Red Rose, LeRoy Coleman at Phil Wood, the guys at Ben's Cycle, and Wheel & Sprocket Brookfield for their valuable work to make two bikes come true. It's a great honor to me for all of this to happen.

I honestly never thought I would own a Tommasini. But now I have two. Thank you for viewing my posts.

rccardr 

Wow.
Those are spectacular!

OTS 

Oh my, WOW!!!!

^+1

Thank you

Celloplus 

So this happened mid week. Not sure what direction I’m going to go on this bike, but I’m really excited to finally acquire this frame.

rccardr 

I had a Velocista just like that several years ago. Nice riding bike.

We called it 'The Slu**ty Sister' because of all the chrome and fancy work on it. In fact, would not be surprised if that was the same frame, only 50 of them had the chromed seat lug and few of those in that size.

Celloplus 

Bottom bracket says US 56. Sound like yours? This cane to me via Australia.

rccardr 

Could easily be the same frame. Mine was also a 56. The guy who bought it as a complete bike with DA 740x stripped it and sold the bare frame separately. Given that they only made 50 with the chrome seat lug (others with the same paint scheme had painted seat lugs) and that those 50 were made in a range of sizes, there were maybe 6 or 8 size 56's.

All in all, a pretty rare Tommy.

Celloplus 

There was one for sale in Colorado, complete bike and a 56. The seller and I agreed on a price and he would ship. He went dark after that agreement and decided to sell it to someone who showed up at his doorstep. I was pretty pissed as I’ve not seen one for sale ever and in my size. Fast forward two weeks and this frame pops up for sale so I grabbed it.

Any idea if the 50 frames had different paint schemes or were they all the same?

rccardr 

If I recall correctly, they all had the same purple/white paint scheme with the fancy dealie on the top tube, and they were all MAX tubing.
Variation was in the chrome, some had a fully chromed seat lug, others were painted purple. And I've seen some minor variation in the way the forks were painted.

There was another run of Tommassos that were similar paint schemes but had black instead of white. Not sure what the story was there, whether produced at the same time or a different year?

rlorenz2

Can't believe you got both the anniversary bikes Well done!
I was lucky to get one of the 85th Super Prestige frames and I love it. Had a hard time choosing between the red and black though, ended up getting the black since my older T is red.

Writenride 

Yeah, it’s funny; I had sent Greg from Red Rose Imports about getting a Tommasini Tecno way back in March 2014, and I still had the original e-mail thread.

Still, Greg replied, “You can never have just one Tommasini! Let us know if you want a Tecno Randonneur bike!”

He really shouldn’t of said that...

ironmirage

Hi Guys. I'm interested in acquiring a super prestige but say that it has the same tubing as my Eddy Merckx bike. Would you say the Tommasini would handle better than the Merckx? Or would it be the same?

shuru421

I think you know which direction youll be going..but if youre seriously in doubt, maybe a suggestion? 10/11 speed Campagnolo Record groupset, a nice condition non-fluted Campagnolo seatpost, and maybr tubular Mavic Mach CD2 tubular rims with your choice of tires. I just fell in love..

Celloplus 

I agree with your assessment, but using era correct parts is also tempting. It boils down to a time cost thing.

qcpmsame 

Depends on their respective geometries, mainly. And, the wheel set spoking pattern, can influence things to a degree, as cn seat post material, stems, and other items. Super Prestige sold be SLX, its stiffer than SL from a strictly tubing specifications aspect, but the builder's geometry used is going to have the largest influence in the ride characteristics.

Some of the others here with more free design and building experience can tell you more facts, and better reasons than I ever could. I tend to see things in a engineer's way, and base my thoughts on how the ride feels to me personally, however.

Bill

ironmirage

So with your experience with the Tommasini that you have, how would you describe the characteristics with your Tommasini?

qcpmsame 

The geometry on my Prestige is between a taught, quick criterium feel, and a slightly relaxed sportive all day. It is slacker in its head tube angle, and the AiR fork in it is raked somewhat so its steering is not a quick as what comes on many of the road Italianate design bicycles. My Medici Pro Strada has a quicker feel, its steering is fast, precise and needs your attention/hands in place, the Prestige can be ridden for miles hands free and using body lean to steer. Very stable and no twitchiness at all.

I would need to measure the angles of the seat and head tubes of both, I got them as well used frame/fork sets and built both up to suit my taste.I presume that both are standard, off the shelf builds, and were not anything custom, bespoke or unique.

Bill

Saw Crack

My Tommo...

alexihnen 

Well, couldn’t believe people just stumble upon these bikes...until I stumbled upon this one.

since6

As requested here is my just brought home old school Tommasini Racing.



For all the pictures/discussion about this bike please see my post: Homecoming:“Tommasini Racing” Help, what do I have?







Thanks for any advice you can share about this bike to my post above.

cpsqlrwn

Pictured below is a red Tommasini. I'm confident it is original paint due to the fishnet paint scheme. This bike has a Prestige decal (not Super Prestige) with an SLX tubing decal located near the bottom of the seat tube. I guess this might be due to the small size so they relocate the decal from the top of the seat tube. This frame has full chrome on the rear triangle in addition to the fully chrome air fork. I did not know that Tommasini's Prestige model came with full chrome and SLX tubing. Can anyone provide some information on this please? Thanks!