New to the forum and the longish story of some bikes I’ve had
12-28-23, 01:06 PM
#1
Newbie
Thread Starter
New to the forum and the longish story of some bikes I’ve had
Hello, I’m Nathan. I been a member for awhile, but never posted. live in Laguna Beach, CA, about 15 years now. Originally I’m from Buffalo, New York. I spent about 5 years living mostly in Brooklyn in between.
I’ve always been a fan of bikes. My first was this bike my dad bought me from this neighbor who would garbage pick parts and assemble them and sell them to kids in the neighborhood, Mr. Pasno. It was a girl’s bike, maybe a schwinn that had been spray painted blue, with a banana seat and like streamers coming out banana bars, we used to call them. -seriously uncool. It was 1980 and I was 5. I wanted a bmx and I remember putting a normal seat on it with my dad, and I think I had put bmx bars on it, but it was still a girls bike with like road tires.
I saved the $20 I got from my first communion and my allowance which was $0.50/week, and my birthday money which wasn’t very much for 2 years, and I bought this Huffy bmx bike - the Huffy Thunder it was called, black with gold handlebars, and like goldish and black bmx pads, from a store called Brand Names that was in Tonawanda. I remember getting all these components from kmart like a double gooseneck and a bent seat post which made riding wheelies easier.
I got into skateboarding and didn’t ride much after I turned 13 or so. Not until I moved to New York to go to school around 1999. There were all these really cool English roadsters in the city around that time, and I wanted one. I was riding my girlfriend at the time’s mom’s mountain bike which was a Panasonic from Clinton Hill to work in Park Slope and I would go by this little bike shop on Flatbush. I remember testing this Robin Hood and I thought something was wrong with it because the feel through the front fork was so rough, being used to having front suspension.
I remember walking down I think 17th St west from Union Square and there was this bike, a Phillips Roadmaster that a homeless guy was selling. It had a cardboard sign that said $6. I couldn’t find the guy who owned it but his guitar case and stuff was there so I left him $6 in his guitar case and took the bike.
I remember it had a bent top tube and straight mountain bike handlebars. It had an AW hub that I think had been modified to only have 2 speeds. I remember my girlfriend knew all these bike co-op places that sold used stuff. This one had just piles of stuff, and searching through all these handlebars to find ones I liked. I spent about $150 getting all the parts to make that bike complete - fenders, and a chain guard, and tires, a rear reflector, and a replacement Chinese made shifter. Later I found a better frame, a BSA that had a genuine Sturmey archer shifter and cool original handgrips, and I swapped everything over to that.
After I graduated, I moved to Southern California and I’d brought the bike. Around 2005, we were visiting my girlfriend’s aunt up in Vancouver, and walking through a back alley, came upon this Bianchi, just sitting in the trash. It was missing its back wheel. We kept walking, but a block or 2 later, my girlfriend was like we should go back for that bike. I ran back and it was still there, and this guy with a French accent was smoking a cigarette by the door where it was. “That’s a pretty nice bike,” I said. He was like, “It’s missing the back wheel.” I told him I could fix it, and he gestured to take it, so I did. We took it back with us, stuffed in the rear seat of my girlfriend’s Geo Storm. It was a 1983 Piaggio Bianchi, Japanese. Had an Ambrosio front wheel on a Suzie hub, Sakai crank, shimano brakes, I can’t remember what else.
By then, my girlfriend, who had previously had this ‘80’s Raleigh touring bike, had got this Olmo from a bike shop in Long Beach. It was hard to keep up with her on my heavy roadster. So I had this notion to make a lightweight roadster out of the Bianchi. A smart person would have sold the BSA, but I moved the handlebars, grips, and roadster pulls over to the Bianchi. I had got a nos ‘70 AW hub to replace the 2 speed one that I’d broke trying to figure out how to get 3 speeds. I laced that to a 700c wheel and hooked the Bianchi up as a 3 speed. I always thought the NY hipster bikes, the fixies with a straight bar looked cool, but seemed horrible to ride, so an internal hub with small roadster bars was sort of my thing. I got a smaller 48t sugino ring for the front. The fenders didn’t fit or the Raleigh chain guard. So I modified a sugino 54t ring -filed off the teeth to make a chain guard and ran the 48 on the inner. Fenders are pretty pointless in socal, but it didn’t feel complete without them so I got Velo Orange stainless ones and that’s been my bike for all this time.
Anyway, after splitting up with my girlfriend with the Olmo in 2014, my present girlfriend, she had all these terrible unmaintained department store bikes of her kids in her backyard. We’d been doing these hikes following this book, and every so often the hike would be this 10 mikes along a bike path like the Newport back bay loop. I suggested we take bikes, so I fixed up her daughter’s garbage Target-purchased Schwinn. She struggled to keep up with me the whole way and complained for a week about how sore she was. I got her a bike, another piece of crap that was slightly lighter, this Kent roadster looking bike that my coworker who was moving back to the Netherlands sold me. We took that out but she was still suffering trying to keep up. So I got her this 1985 Univega Maxima Sport mixte frame and got it all gone through for Christmas. It’s definitely a step up, but I messed up on the seat, got this Fizik Luce that got great reviews as being this comfortable seat for women. And now she’s telling me that her butt has bruises on both sides.
During the research I did messing around with that, I kept thinking about that Olmo and how awesome it felt, got looking for something comparable, and got myself a Christmas present/project. It’s a 1981 Colnago Super that needs a lot of love. I’m looking to do it all original, but probably keep the Brooks saddle it came with. It hasn’t come yet, still eagerly awaiting its delivery.
I’ve always been a fan of bikes. My first was this bike my dad bought me from this neighbor who would garbage pick parts and assemble them and sell them to kids in the neighborhood, Mr. Pasno. It was a girl’s bike, maybe a schwinn that had been spray painted blue, with a banana seat and like streamers coming out banana bars, we used to call them. -seriously uncool. It was 1980 and I was 5. I wanted a bmx and I remember putting a normal seat on it with my dad, and I think I had put bmx bars on it, but it was still a girls bike with like road tires.
I saved the $20 I got from my first communion and my allowance which was $0.50/week, and my birthday money which wasn’t very much for 2 years, and I bought this Huffy bmx bike - the Huffy Thunder it was called, black with gold handlebars, and like goldish and black bmx pads, from a store called Brand Names that was in Tonawanda. I remember getting all these components from kmart like a double gooseneck and a bent seat post which made riding wheelies easier.
I got into skateboarding and didn’t ride much after I turned 13 or so. Not until I moved to New York to go to school around 1999. There were all these really cool English roadsters in the city around that time, and I wanted one. I was riding my girlfriend at the time’s mom’s mountain bike which was a Panasonic from Clinton Hill to work in Park Slope and I would go by this little bike shop on Flatbush. I remember testing this Robin Hood and I thought something was wrong with it because the feel through the front fork was so rough, being used to having front suspension.
I remember walking down I think 17th St west from Union Square and there was this bike, a Phillips Roadmaster that a homeless guy was selling. It had a cardboard sign that said $6. I couldn’t find the guy who owned it but his guitar case and stuff was there so I left him $6 in his guitar case and took the bike.
I remember it had a bent top tube and straight mountain bike handlebars. It had an AW hub that I think had been modified to only have 2 speeds. I remember my girlfriend knew all these bike co-op places that sold used stuff. This one had just piles of stuff, and searching through all these handlebars to find ones I liked. I spent about $150 getting all the parts to make that bike complete - fenders, and a chain guard, and tires, a rear reflector, and a replacement Chinese made shifter. Later I found a better frame, a BSA that had a genuine Sturmey archer shifter and cool original handgrips, and I swapped everything over to that.
After I graduated, I moved to Southern California and I’d brought the bike. Around 2005, we were visiting my girlfriend’s aunt up in Vancouver, and walking through a back alley, came upon this Bianchi, just sitting in the trash. It was missing its back wheel. We kept walking, but a block or 2 later, my girlfriend was like we should go back for that bike. I ran back and it was still there, and this guy with a French accent was smoking a cigarette by the door where it was. “That’s a pretty nice bike,” I said. He was like, “It’s missing the back wheel.” I told him I could fix it, and he gestured to take it, so I did. We took it back with us, stuffed in the rear seat of my girlfriend’s Geo Storm. It was a 1983 Piaggio Bianchi, Japanese. Had an Ambrosio front wheel on a Suzie hub, Sakai crank, shimano brakes, I can’t remember what else.
By then, my girlfriend, who had previously had this ‘80’s Raleigh touring bike, had got this Olmo from a bike shop in Long Beach. It was hard to keep up with her on my heavy roadster. So I had this notion to make a lightweight roadster out of the Bianchi. A smart person would have sold the BSA, but I moved the handlebars, grips, and roadster pulls over to the Bianchi. I had got a nos ‘70 AW hub to replace the 2 speed one that I’d broke trying to figure out how to get 3 speeds. I laced that to a 700c wheel and hooked the Bianchi up as a 3 speed. I always thought the NY hipster bikes, the fixies with a straight bar looked cool, but seemed horrible to ride, so an internal hub with small roadster bars was sort of my thing. I got a smaller 48t sugino ring for the front. The fenders didn’t fit or the Raleigh chain guard. So I modified a sugino 54t ring -filed off the teeth to make a chain guard and ran the 48 on the inner. Fenders are pretty pointless in socal, but it didn’t feel complete without them so I got Velo Orange stainless ones and that’s been my bike for all this time.
Anyway, after splitting up with my girlfriend with the Olmo in 2014, my present girlfriend, she had all these terrible unmaintained department store bikes of her kids in her backyard. We’d been doing these hikes following this book, and every so often the hike would be this 10 mikes along a bike path like the Newport back bay loop. I suggested we take bikes, so I fixed up her daughter’s garbage Target-purchased Schwinn. She struggled to keep up with me the whole way and complained for a week about how sore she was. I got her a bike, another piece of crap that was slightly lighter, this Kent roadster looking bike that my coworker who was moving back to the Netherlands sold me. We took that out but she was still suffering trying to keep up. So I got her this 1985 Univega Maxima Sport mixte frame and got it all gone through for Christmas. It’s definitely a step up, but I messed up on the seat, got this Fizik Luce that got great reviews as being this comfortable seat for women. And now she’s telling me that her butt has bruises on both sides.
During the research I did messing around with that, I kept thinking about that Olmo and how awesome it felt, got looking for something comparable, and got myself a Christmas present/project. It’s a 1981 Colnago Super that needs a lot of love. I’m looking to do it all original, but probably keep the Brooks saddle it came with. It hasn’t come yet, still eagerly awaiting its delivery.
12-28-23, 02:43 PM
#2
Super Modest
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Central Illinois
Posts: 23,466
Bikes: Trek Emonda, Giant Propel, Colnago V3, Co-Motion Supremo, ICE VTX WC
Mentioned: 107 Post(s)
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Whew! Long intro but I like getting to the end and the part about a 1981 Colnago Super. The Classics forum guys are going to love helping you with the Super. 
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01-01-24, 10:30 PM
#4
Newbie
Thread Starter
Thanks for the welcome 
I was wondering if making my own thread for the Colnago would be ok. I do tend to have a lot of questions about it that I can't find answers to, just random stuff, like
why some Supers have painted rear dropouts while others are chrome plated. I've seen 3 different treatments at least on the chrome of the rear dropouts on what clame to be 1981 Colnago Supers.
I haven't got the bike yet. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, so maybe I'll be able to tell weather it has been repainted once it is in front of me..
I was wondering if making my own thread for the Colnago would be ok. I do tend to have a lot of questions about it that I can't find answers to, just random stuff, like
why some Supers have painted rear dropouts while others are chrome plated. I've seen 3 different treatments at least on the chrome of the rear dropouts on what clame to be 1981 Colnago Supers.
I haven't got the bike yet. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, so maybe I'll be able to tell weather it has been repainted once it is in front of me..
01-02-24, 12:55 PM
#5
Super Modest
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Central Illinois
Posts: 23,466
Bikes: Trek Emonda, Giant Propel, Colnago V3, Co-Motion Supremo, ICE VTX WC
Mentioned: 107 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10963 Post(s)
Liked 4,620 Times
in
2,123 Posts
Head over to Classic and Vintage and ask away!
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