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Steven Massland wrote:
"The only true "constructeur" that I can think of, were you to include the requirement that they make their own metal, rubber or tubing is the Italian buider Passoni. Passoni which still exists today as a high end builder of custom titanium and other unmentionable materials started out in the early 1970's (1972 if I am not mistaken)under the leadership of an engineer by the name of Riva. Ing. Riva started making bike frames out of sheets of commercial pure titanium. He would then form the sheets into tubes which were then fashioned into bike frames. His initial production was about 6 frames per year. These first frames were sold under the name Trecia. Beyond the frames, he also made integrated handlebars, stems and brake levers (made to measure), frames with integrated seatpost (now once again popular) and the occasional chainset. All of these items were made starting from the sheets of commercial pure titanium. He would also adapt componentry to fit on his frames, by doing such things as brazing on the brake center bolts onto the fork crowns and brake bridge. In the 1980's, when the Passoni family became involved in production, the name appearing on the bikes changed from Trecia to Passoni.
I have tried to find a photo of a 1970's or early 80's
Trecia/Passoni
posted on the web somewhere but have not been able to
find any (they are
very rare). The construction methods and frame designs
remained much the
same from the 70's until past 1990, so I believe a
representative
example of a CR-period correct Trecia/Passoni bike can
be seen on
Kauzo's website:
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/
Kauzo's bike has a Passoni-made integrated handlebars and stem (but not the brake levers) and a Passoni-made seatpost (not the ISp version in this case). The frame tubing, drop-outs and BB shell are all Passoni products."
Steven,
In the mid-nineties, when Rebecca Twigg made her final efforts in competition, her sponsor purchased for her a Passoni time-trial bike: all titanium frame, fork and aero-bars; I can't recall details of the rest of the components -- she told me it cost $10,000 -- I can't recall the philanthropist who sponsored her (and another female athlete) and who provided Twigg the Passoni.
I think it was 1995, Twigg was training/racing at the San Diego Velodrome, and was refered to Bill Holland to help her with her Passoni -- she wasn't comfortable with the handling of the bike, which she sensed arose from the fork -- she's ridden many a time-trial bikes, right? Bill was out of town, so I swapped her titanium fork with an adjustable-rake fork and let her decide what offset felt best. The adjustable-rake fork allowed for a range of positive and negative offset and she rode the range of the settings and opted for zero-offset, and so I made her a new steel fork. The new fork changed her wheel base, front center, weight distribution, trail, et al, and so, dimensionally the bike changed, but as I recall, she felt the ti fork flexed too much, ergo, was it the zero-rake or a solid fork that appeased her? Later in the season, Merlin sponsored her with a ti frame, yet coupled with the zero-rake fork I made.
I recall a magazine story on Passoni, maybe mid-eighties, with pics of a frame with slim and curvy struts -- and the frame looked cool -- his placement and choice of curvature of the tubes evoked an impressive style. I think it was in this same article that he stated a bicycle weight to rider weight ratio that he maintained with his ti bikes, I think it was 1/10?
I don't think anyone has mentioned it on this site,
some may not know, but there's a notice on the NAHBS
site that Luca Passoni died last month, and since I'm
not absolutely sure, he's the man talked about in this
post, right?:
http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com/
Joe Starck
Madison, WI USA