In Chicago we had a shop called Roberts Cycles, which is actually still there. The old owner, Bernie, made buying trips to Italy and England, and was the US importer for Holdsworth for a while at least. He sold an upper grade Fiorelli and a lower grade one. The LG one was not worth a second look, since even in his shop it competed with the Peugeot UO-8, Raleigh Record, and Raleigh Grand Prix. However, the upper end Fiorelli was a very sweet bike indeed, having all the right parts and a good frame. It priced a bit higher than a PX-10E as I recall, but due the the reputation and the finish it did not do as well as Raleigh Internationals, and of course the PX-10E.
Still respecting Fiorelli,
Ken Freeman, Ann Arbor, MI
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Syke - Deranged Few M/C Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 2:42 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Fiorelli
Joe,
Loved your post - you've just capsulized for my why I rode only British or Gitane (one) back in the 70's: Anything Italian that I saw sold in Erie, PA other than an all-Campag Atala (nice bike, second rate finish) was best classified as an Italian attempt to build a Huffy on a day when they were forced to go to work rather than be allowed to stay home and watch the World Cup match.
I was just given (yes, given - such is what being a patch-wearing biker is all about, when we're not out molesting your daughters and driving the local police nuts) a Rossin which I spent the past weekend refurbishing (it spent the last six years sitting behind a compressor in a dirt floored shed). Damn, this bike is as good as my memories of the Falcon! Makes me wonder what it's going to be like when I get rid of the 27" clinchers and put of real tubular wheels!
I'm beginning to understand that MAYBE somebody other than the British made worth-while bicycles.
George R. "Syke" Paczolt Montpelier, VA
classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org wrote: Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:46:36 -0400 From: joebz@optonline.net To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Fiorelli Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <004701c65e4c$ecf06220$6401a8c0@fred> References: <004701c65e4c$ecf06220$6401a8c0@fred> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Precedence: list Message: 11
I find that from the bike boom mechanics perspective I held certain brands in an unfair low regard based on a 1973 snapshot. Italian manufacturers responded to the American demand for low end "racing" bikes by sending over any sort of rubbish they could put together. Its really hard to imagine how bad some of these bikes were. Chainlines that didn't work, hubs that needed overhauls just to function etc. If a brand had become "old" or was in the wrong hands it just got whored out in this way. So the bottom of the pile in my perception was Chiorda, then Fiorelli, and I sort of held the low end Atala's in disdain also. There were others but these are the big names I remember.
The surprising thing to me is to see how nice these makes were in the 1950's. I have seen really eye opening Fiorellis, very decent Chiordas etc. (note these were higher end bikes too). I was also surprised to find out that this applied to parts too. The appalling Gnutti hubs of 1973 were just a remnant of a '50s Gnutti. Ballilla brakes were the same thing (although brakes in general got much better). There is a rather nice Fiorelli on the CR site by the way.
Anyway, just a comment aimed at getting people to give these "blemished" brands a look when they see an older example.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ
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