rBoTM February 2011 - The Vote

The Grandis is very nice. It is ahead of the field in votes and I feel that if it would win in the end it would be a worthy winner. Nicely finished, well composed and rare. I believe it is the only Italian without an off the shelf frame in the election.

On the Colnago Mark expressed he had opted for a 1978 Saronni theme. My immediate thought was: why the 50th than? Still a very nice bike of course. Personally I do not see an urgent need for more bling. This is enough for me.

The PEKA is my own bike.

The Huffy is ...very nice. I like a lot about it, including the oversize screaming decals. Rubbish from an aesthetic point of view, but apparently some people with knowledge of graphics, media and marketing, keeping eye on HUFFY and their interests decided this would be best. Pure function. This one is a real thoroughbred and it doesn't pretend anything it isn't. I like that.

The Moser is a great looker with its lush 'cromovelato' finishing. As an 'only' Gran Sport bike it is doing very well in this tough field.

Elev12k":828c5f4t said:

The Grandis is very nice. It is ahead of the field in votes and I feel that if it would win in the end it would be a worthy winner. Nicely finished, well composed and rare. I believe it is the only Italian without an off the shelf frame in the election.

Click to expand...

You are 100% correct that the Grandis is the only one of the Italian bikes presented here that is not off the shelf. Colnago back in the day would not have built you a custom frame because his production was set up fro quantity. Perhaps he could have got one of his many subcontractors to do it for you, but you would need to be a special customer or have teh right connections. The Moser is almost certainly a product of Antonio Taverna of Vetta. He was the main subcontractor for Moser as best as I can tell. His workmanship is acceptable but somewhat erratic.

Elev12k":828c5f4t said:

On the Colnago Mark expressed he had opted for a 1978 Saronni theme. My immediate thought was: why the 50th than? Still a very nice bike of course. Personally I do not see an urgent need for more bling. This is enough for me.

Click to expand...

It always seems to me that Colnago is the favourite target for dressing up, so this means that you often come across Colnago bikes with full panto and and other bling, so to see one half done does in my eyes seem half dressed. The other thing is that Saronni was perhaps one of the only pros to actually race on a bike fitted with a 50th anniversary gruppo, so this does make for a good target for a replica, but you should then go after the original set-up with a greater degree of consequence and get everything right.

Elev12k":828c5f4t said:

The PEKA is my own bike.

Click to expand...

As I wrote above, I really like this bike and feel it deserves more recognition. I think that had you fitted pedals, lever hoods and an aesthetically lighter set of chainrings it would have fared somewhat better. The down tube decals when seen laterally, as in the sole photo seen on this page, do leave something to be desired. Had the bike been photographed from a slightly different angle, where the central part of teh decal were visible, I believe it would be far more appealing. This is one of the three bikes, alongside the Grandis and Serotta, that I would be happy to add to my collection, but then I generally put more emphasis on ride quality than on looks or reputation alone. (Misschien kan ik deze fiets van je lenen het volgende keer dat ik in Nederland ben.)

Elev12k":828c5f4t said:

The Huffy is ...very nice. I like a lot about it, including the oversize screaming decals. Rubbish from an aesthetic point of view, but apparently some people with knowledge of graphics, media and marketing, keeping eye on HUFFY and their interests decided this would be best. Pure function. This one is a real thoroughbred and it doesn't pretend anything it isn't. I like that.

Click to expand...

I mentioned earlier that I would be very interested in trying this bike out. Perhaps after a ride I would think it to be the best of all the bikes here. I have tried a variety of Serotta bikes, some were heavenly whereas others were less inspiring, so I don't think it to be possible to judge this bike on anything other than aesthetics.

Elev12k":828c5f4t said:

The Moser is a great looker with its lush 'cromovelato' finishing. As an 'only' Gran Sport bike it is doing very well in this tough field.

Click to expand...

I didn't mention the lesser componentry on this bike as I don't think this disqualifies the bike and is in keeping with the overall quality of the bike. This was a price point bike that was sold by a company that made their mark as marketers rather than producers.

Full result

1. 80Nicola80's Grandis special G.S. Quarella 1979
2. madmax's 1984 Moser Grand Sport
3. mark34's Colnago Mexico

Congratulations Nicola! nice bike
Ezio will be happy

Mario
Verona