I brought mine down to the Cirque about two years ago. Ask Pergolizzi how it handles - he jumped on it down by the rec center, hammered up and down the road and was a whiter shade of pale when he dismounted. Any recollections, John?
For my part, I like it for ambling about but wouldn't want to ride it hard. Serpentine motion comes to mind. Much more so than my Teledyne, but the Titan has a 531 steel fork so I can't do a fair comparison. The Speedwell is absolutely the most scary bike I've ever ridden and, therefore, just too cool for words.
Some of Dale's photos of it here including one that shows Albert Bold's expert repair to the seat cluster area wherein he resleeved for a 25mm post:
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/
You have to appreciate the blob and grind technique that they used to make these at the Speedwell Gearcase plant. Welding them up in a glove box then having some poor sap grind off most of the excess must have been a real pain in the neck. Apologies for the Campagnolo blue ano BMX crank on it; I promise that I'll get around to switching it out.
Charlie Young
Honey Brook, PA
USA
<classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 11:15 AM Subject: Re: [CR] Speedwell? Was: A view of Teledyne Titan bikes from a long perspective.
> At 10:16 AM -0500 11/22/06, oroboyz@aol.com wrote:
>
>> I think I can safely say that this exotic and interesting early titanium
>> bike (in a close race for "earliest production Ti" with the Birmingham
>> Speedwell) has little practical appeal to a modern rider beyond it's
>> historical curiosity.
>
> How about the Speedwell? Obviously, if Ocana used it in the TTs of the
> Tour he won, it can't have been all bad. Was it better than the Teledyne?
> Is the Teledyne then simply a flawed design, one of the "could have beens"
> if they had done it right?
>
> Does anybody have information about the Speedwell? Production numbers?
> Ride quality? Durability? All I've seen are a few fuzzy photos and Rebour
> drawings of details.
> --
> Jan Heine
> Editor
> Bicycle Quarterly
> 140 Lakeside Ave #C
> Seattle WA 98122
> http://www.bikequarterly.com