Hi everyone I'm Rita from Belgium (Flanders part) but living in Northern Italy for more than 16 years now (the area where Alfredo Binda lived ad trained; almost all my neighbours carry the surname 'Binda' :-) Anyway, I've been lurking for a while on this very interesting mailing list . Reason is of course my (and my husband's) interest in vintage racing bikes. This interest is quite new in fact, it all started when our cycling club decided to participate in this year's Eroica. For the club it is not the first time to participate, for me and my husband it is. So we had to start searching for decent vintage bikes,and this triggered an unexpected passion for old bikes and parts. To make a long story short, in less then one year we collected a number of neat bikes: - Legnano tipo Roma Olimpiade (end 50's - early 60's) - Colnago Mexico (1985) - Bianchi Sprint (1975, cheap stuff, it was a present from my bike mechanic )
- a bike which the previous owner identified as an ex-pro's "groene leeuw" that would even have participated in a Paris-Roubaix (60s??). However, the bike does not carry any direct reference to "groene leeuw" (repainted?), so my search for more information on this brand (as well as on the Legnano) brought me to this list. In the mean time I have found a wealth of information in the CR's archives. I also found back an old thread on "Groen e Leeuw". I'm not sure if there is still interest in this topic, but I think I can provide useful additional photographs and some factual material, but that would be for a separate posting. For the near future we intend to restore the Legnano (which would become my bike for the Eroica), to find ou t if the Groene Leeuw really is one, and if so, to restore it to the original colors and components.
Regards
Rita Van Dingenen, Besozzo, Italy and Gent, Belgium