4/1/2004
In addition to Mike Kone & friends mounting the history making Cinelli Biorama, other big news can be announced.
This wave of exciting previously unseen bikes will make all the Masis, Cinellis, Montelatici, Colnagos, Rigi, Confentes, etc. seem somewhat mundane!
- First, Fausto Coppi's first professional racing bike will be displayed! John Pergolizzi's uncle "Nick" has just recently brought this bike back from the mother country .. This Ignacio Puzzi machine is still in original paint (albeit somewhat worse for wear after 60 years?) The components are also 95% intact with tires having been eaten by silk worms and saddle used to make a "stew of desperation" during the war. Included in this display will be Polaroid photos of the maker in his workshop, next door to Masi in the Vigorelli. This previously unheralded master builder also was well know as a virtuoso cello player and small chamber music conductor, therefore his nickname as "Maestro Duetto".
- Also to be the display (not 100% certainty but very close) will of the third known-to-exist Egarim "Checkered Flag Special". This is a slightly later version in which the valving is more sophisticated and efficient. As an added plus, this bike has fancy "fretted" (hand carved) lugs which in themselves are very unusual, being made by the Cleveland Pipe Co., a large plumbing concern specializing in "water closets". The company hoped to break into the bicycle frame component business and these cast iron fittings were prototypes.
Dale Braun
Guilford College, NC