Paganini Plum - Anyone recognise this?

Bit of a very long shot but...

Does anyone recognise this exact bike. It is a Paganini Plum team bike from early-mid 1980's, has mostly Campy Super Record that has cutouts and pantography. Originally it was black with chrome forks and back (chain side only). Unusually it is pantographed 'Plum' all over, has a 'P' cutout on the bottom bracket. Crank has cutouts which are rare, but not unique. Headset is not original, but used to have a 'stop' to hold the wheel straight (not a particularly good idea). Quite a short frame, Columbus SL if I remember correctly.

Really want to find someone who rode this bike or one exactly like it - same team, same year. I have had it since late 1980's and must confess had I am responsible for having it sprayed this colour - the frame had seen better days and the chrome had suffered badly when I got it.

Hope to hear from someone!

Have you tried to contact Plum directly? They will probably still have the records .

http://www.plum-gent.be/en/

Yes, I actually last tried to find out about the bike in Oct 2013 and emailed [email='pierre@plum-gent.be]'pierre@plum-gent.be[/email]' which was the contact on the website at the time. I know my email did not bounce, but I didn't get a response either. I guess it didn't pique anyone's interest or maybe it just didn't get to anyone who had been there a long time.

Since then there are a lot more pictures and info on vintage bikes in the various forums, but although I have seen quite a few Paganini frames, but never one with this combination of components, and I have never seen one with the 'P' cutout on the BB or with anything pantographed with 'Plum'.

I got the bike when I was 15 (took me two years to pay for it) and used it for many years. It has been in the loft ever since (since the mid 90's), but my son now has his eye on it - and this renewed my interest in finding out how it came about. It's certainly a one off!

Appreciate your interest and suggestion!

Why do you think it's a team bike?

Hi yes, pretty sure, looks built, not off the peg (due to choice of components).

There were non-professional / team riders buying these kind of bikes too, you know. Panto's were "hot" in the eighties and -like these days- some people wanted to ride the bikes the pro's were riding. I had at least 6 full panto, Superrecord equipped bikes that never were ridden by any pro. Just being the devils' advocate. ;-)

But I live 5 km away from the Plum shop and know the owners a bit as I regularly buy stuff in their shop (they have an enormous stock of NOS nineties stems, bars,...) and will ask if they know more.

Pierre doesn't work there anymore and that's a sad thingh because he was the guy running their bike museum. The current owners are selling the shop, I heard recently.

But no doubt you have a nice piece of bike there!

I was told it was a 'team bike' when I bought it, but at the time I really did not know if this was part of the sales pitch (internet had not been invented), but a non pro team seems very likely. I bought it because I liked it. I have never had the opportunity to visit the shop and had no idea that there was a small museum/collection in the back so thanks for the info - I'll Google to hopefully find some photo's of it. The new Plum website is limited and most of the text is just the default text from a WordPress template (Lorem ipsum...) so it's not giving much away.

Would very much appreciate you enquiring in the shop next time you are in - you never know!

...and really appreciate your input on this.

I will ask them but management changed some years ago (when Pierre left and the current guys entered). They have indeed a small museum in the back of the shop, worth going there when you visit Ghent.

I know one of their mechanics that worked there when I first started visiting their shop (1990) still works there,so maybe he knows more.

Paganini was 100% Belgian, by the way. The bikes were built in Flanders but back then, you needed an Italian brand name if you wanted to get them sold. Where I'm from (somewhere between Ghent and Brussels) we had a brand named "Giacomelli" and other famous brands (but 100% Flemish) had names like "Venturelli", "Martelly",... ;-)

Thank you, much appreciated.

There were quite a few local to area 2div riders that rode the area kermesses that possibly gor discount from local shops as sponsor ship I am not really up with the Gent area but the riders around the St Etienne area of France all supported bike builders around that area for that reason the shops got advertising for little money outlay maybe this was a similar deal