A short, hopefully interesting, story about finding a previous bike owner......
My special order Cinelli which the Bruegelmann shop in Frankfurt offered in 1972 is a particular full yellow bike with red panels. My good friend, who ordered this bike and picked it up in person, gave me two photos of the only other one he had seen like it. He had seen it at one of the many road races in Germany leading up to the Olympic Games. He took some photographs (in slide format) of that bike and put them away. When I acquired my bike he also gave me photos of the other bike.
Just to have some other documentation I printed the photos and lo and behold...I could make out a name on the top tube! Some magnifying and the name was revealed. So, lots of googling turned up a possible lead (this is around 2004; 32 years later). The lead was a mention of the name in a German magazine. I wrote to the editor explaining why I was inquiring. I didn't hear anything back for 2 months and then an email arrived in my email inbox from Mr. X. Well, Mr. X was both very curious and very leery. So I explained and sent him photographs of my own yellow Cinelli and of the other one photographed at a race.
Mr. X confirmed that it was he that had been racing the other yellow Cinelli. He was an avid amateur racer and continues riding today. He sold his Cinelli long ago but was very happy to see that mine was still on the road. We stay in touch and chat about bikes from time to time.
For Guy Taylor: there is a Lori Rimoldi that came up in a google for the San Diego area (see below). Sometimes these are dead ends, sometimes they are the start of a journey that's fun.:
*(2002): San Diego National Bank* has announced.......The bank's Mission Valley branch has promoted *Lori Rimoldi* to assistant manager/operations officer. Rimoldi is a veteran of the banking industry, serving more than 13 years in management and customer service.
Ciao, Angel Garcia, Verona, Italy
On 11/21/06, Guy Taylor <greytaylor@att.net> wrote:
>
>
> Hi, folks. My first post to the list and as suggested, it's an
> introduction
> of sorts.
> A little about me, I used to do a lot of riding about 20 odd years ago
> when
> I was younger, single, and had a junky old truck. Then I got married to
> someone who demanded to accompany me on my rides but would complain
> bitterly
> at the slightest hill. For the sake of my marriage I stopped
> riding. Now,
> she and I are parted and my new mate doesn't mind me riding at
> all. Rising
> gas prices and an expanding waistline have got me back on my bike and
> enjoying the wind in my face again.
> My geared road bike is a Haral that I purchased used sometime about the
> early 80's. I was wise enough at the time to know that $180 was a deal I
> wouldn't happen upon very often and I took it. It's full Campy Neuvo
> Record, Reynolds 531 DB, and not a braze-on in sight. I only recently saw
> another Haral in the Campy Only website's gallery and know very little
> about
> the bike. The information on the Campy Only site indicated that only
> about
> a dozen Harals came into the US.
> Back when I rode all the time I thought it'd be too much fun to ride a
> track
> bike but never had the funds to pursue that dream. Now I find that fixed
> gear conversions are pretty common and I subsequently picked one off eBay.
> This frame is a 1970 Johnny Berry road frame. I don't know what equipment
> was originally on this bike but these days it runs a Bianchi Pista take
> off
> crank, Campy BB and headset, Campy NR low-flange hub front, IRO flip flop
> fixed/free rear, and a Campy seat post. The Campy hubs were originally
> laced to Gentleman rims but I have re-built them to Mavic MA3 36 hole. In
> an attempt to not commit suicide I have recently re-done the rear with the
> proper flip flop hub rather than a cog held on with a bb lockring on the
> old
> road hub. A gentleman in Oregon saw my post to the Fixed Gear Gallery for
> the Berry and has very graciously given me a great deal of information on
> it. This individual purchased his Johnny Berry custom built from the
> maker
> in Manchester, England. I originally entertained thoughts of re-painting
> this bike but now I want to keep it original in deference to its history
> and
> pedigree. The first owner's name (I assume) is painted on the left side
> of
> the top tube. Has anyone ever heard of Lori Rimoldi?
> I also have a mountain bike but while it works great and is fun to ride,
> it
> is not a bike to cherish or be proud of and I'll say no more of it in this
> forum.
>
> Best regards,
> Guy Taylor
> Anaheim, CA