I: [CR]re: pogliaghi on ebay,,,,,,,,,dead in the 80s?

(Example: Framebuilders:Masi)

Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 12:19:05 -0500
From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
Subject: I: [CR]re: pogliaghi on ebay,,,,,,,,,dead in the 80s?
To: Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


Takao wrote:
> The interview was on a Japanese book " The bicyccle workshops in Italy".
> My memory was not correct. It was published in 1994.
> The interview seems to have been done in early 1990s. For it told he was
> near 80 years old and he was born in 1913.
> I don't know whether the author, Yuzuru Sunada,is very reliable or not,
> but I cannot think the interview was totally a fake.
> According to the book, Pogliaghi was sold to Rossin in 1983 and to Basso
> in 1989.

In response to Dave's comment:
> Many years ago I recall reading a "Bicycling" magazine article stating
> that he died in February 1981. With all due respect, I believe one of us is
> wrong.

I have been reading all of the comments about the Pogliaghi bike for sale and am seriously disturbed about the number of erroneous statements made. Wanting to avoid making any myself, I wanted to first research the subject a bit before commenting. 1) Sante sold to the Rossin brothers in late '83 or early '84. The exact date depends on when you count the sale to have been made and legally documented. He was however still working in the shop and taking full responsibility of all product leaving the doors. Did he build every frame personally? Of course not, but he was nonetheless the one responsible for its manufacture. As much as anything made in the 70's and even 60's, the bikes from the early 80's prior to the sale to Rossin were 'his'. Likely up until early 1984. 2) There is absolutely no truth that he died in 1981. As Takao writes above, he was alive at the time of the sale of the company and did outlive the company for years not months. 3) The frame sold on Ebay is frame number 12743, as clearly seen in the photos. This frame is guaranteed to be from 1983, likely with painting from October (and hence building at least one month earlier!) Prior to the sale of Pogliaghi to the Rossins, there was an article that was written for the German magazine, 'der Tour'. In this magazine article that appeared in the November 1983 edition (hence printed in October and written based upon a June 1983 interview and visit) Sante was shown in photos to be building up the already painted frame number 12451. To build 292 subsequent frames would require approximately 3 months. Not counting the month of August, this would indicate approximately October. 4) The decals seen on the ebay bike are the same ones seen on the frame being worked on by Sante in the picture. He also states in the article's accompanying interview that he sees no 'yellow' (read Oriental) or 'black' (read African, as at the time in Italy there was much debate about the African workers coming to Italy) danger. He was ready to work with everybody, meaning Suntour, Shimano, Gipiemme... He was not tradition bound and would gladly mix and match components, lugs and tubing. To say that all his frames had the same lugs or windows is nonsense. He did not have his own personal lugs that were not used by his workers. One bike may have used one lug type and another something different. This bike can claim to be just as much a 'true' Pogliaghi as anything else. It was made during Sante's oversight and is indeed one of the last 500 bikes built under his oversight.

About the only negative statement made about this particular frame that I can agree with, is that it is not the most classical-looking Pogliaghi. But then again, in my eyes only his track and tandem bikes are truly classical Pogliaghis.

Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ

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