Olmo has always been one of the upper quality lower profile companies.
I think there were 5 brothers in the original company.
and one of the bros. was a champion Italian racer, don't remember his
palmares, but was very well known throughout Europe.
The racing brother was in the '20's / '30's era.
Each of the brothers ran a different division of the factory complex, bikes,
sewing machines, motorcycles, production, sales. You get the idea.
As the family aged and the various areas of production changed with death in
family some of the divisions changed or were merged.
I think the reason that Olmo was not in the "big time" is that they didn't
sponsor big teams or had a big time racer on payroll.
Bianchi had Coppi, Legnano had Bartali, etc., during the halcyon years.
Olmo probably sponsored some minor and/or amateur teams but it was more
conservative and low key.
Back in 1960 I started selling Olmo as well as Bianchi and Legnano out here
in California and these machines were all considered to be of equal quality,
and sold fairly evenly.
As far as I know, someone in the Midwest is bringing them in and the company
is still going,
There are too many brands on the market now, and with this glut of bikes
only the more aggressive and trendy or catchy names make it in our fickle
market.
There are a few biggies with US companies going well too, but for many the
slice of the pie is pretty small, regardless how pretty the poseur jerseys
and paint jobs look.
These guys look great at the bike shows, but the glitz is far greater than
the economic strength.
However, the bikes are nice.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
Ca, USA
> I've never placed Olmo bicycles into the top category of collectables
> like early Masi, Cinelli or Pogliaghis but have seen them like most
> other italian brands ( Basso, Rossin, Pinarello, Chesini, Somec...) as
> typical nice italian steel but nothing very special.
> But now I have here a japanese bicycle collectors magazin from 2003,
> it's a special edition "Vintage Road Bikes" of a publisher named "For
> Tasty Life". (they got it!)
> Next to long japanese illustrated articles ("The road to 700C") and
> japanese builders it features only a small handfull of collectible
> bicycles each on several pages with beautiful large pictures: a 1950s
> Bianchi, 1949 Legnano, 1960s Cinelli, 1970 Masi, 1973 Colnago, two Rene
> Herse, a Hetchins and a 1979 Olmo with nicely panthographed Super Record
> parts.
> Each bike has a small english description. Especially the Olmo is
> described as:
> "This beautiful machine was manufactured in 1979. It shows a strong
> flavour of the drilled hole period of Eddy Merckx, although it was made
> slightly later. The finish is actually much finer and more elaborate
> than his bike. Olmo has been known as an atelier which creates quality
> racing bikes with love to the bicycle"
> Does anybody else also see Olmos as on par with Masi, Cinelli, and the
> early Colnagos and even more remarkable as "much finer and more
> elaborate" than Eddies Masis, Colnagos and de Rosas?
>
> BTW: the ISBN of this (for me unreadable but) beautiful publication is
> ISBN4-87099-892-0
>
> Just wondering,
> Dirk
>
> --
> Dirk Feeken
> Heidelberg
> Germany