RE: [CR]Photos of Ives

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:11:14 -0400
From: "Martin Walsh" <mowalsh@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: [CR]Photos of Ives
To: "CR List" <ClassicRendezvous@bikelist.org>
cc: otis@otisrecords.com

Dear CR listees, Jon Williams asked if anyone has any information on IVES . I own an IVES bicycle made in Italy in the early 1960's with a brass headbadge that is riveted on the headtube. I picked it up in the Spring of 2007 as a trade in, at a local bicycle shop, here in Northern Virginia,USA. At the time I bought it I originally thought it was ENGLISH. I made a few calls to list members and found out,very little. Some people thought it was an ILVES........ I don't think I found much on the CR list archives,but I checked this out about six months ago. I just remember GOOGLE being the ticket,to what I was looking for. I did a google search and found out the bicycle was made in Italy,which was evident after I more closely studied the headtube badge. The google search which yielded the most information for me on the IVES marque of Italy can be found at: http://www.pbase.com/coaster/bicycles My bicycle appears to be of the same vintage as the yellow restored bicycle on the above link. Where if you read down you'll see,CR list member, TOM SANDERS,wrote to the site owner trying to get information on the IVES brand. At the present time I do not have any pictures loaded anywhere,but the build quality seems quite good to me! I didn't need another bicycle but I was fascinated by the brass head badge and the owner was slowly canibalizing the bicycle. "I had to rescue" this interesting looking bicycle. I guess I have a soft spot,for vintage Italian racing bicycles with long, Campagnolo dropouts! My incomplete bicycle has very few braze ons,as I would expect from a 10 speed,racing bicycle from the early 1960's,which I guess my IVES to be. It has long CAMPAGNOLO DROP outs with adjusters and eyelets. The rear derailleur dropout is broken off on my frame and it has a black,cheesy paint job. The rear stays have small,elegant tapered tubes. The rear caps look like the ones on the link I posted. I'll have to pull the bicycle out of the rafters tomorrow in the daylight and take some digital photos. It appears to have chrome at both the front and rear fork ends. The whole frameset may have chrome under the cheap paint job. I could not find out very much about this marque and I too wonder if,Tom Sanders had any luck in his quest for information on the IVES MARQUE of Italy! My IVES is definitely a project bicycle but since it was my perfect frame measurements of 56.5 CM seat and top tube,I had to rescue it before the shop owner totally disassembled the bicycle for it's fork and tossed the frame. So,the IVES hangs in the basement rafters, with lots of good company,from Europe and the USA,just aging peacefully. I've sold off a few framesets in the last month and I will be listing more in the near future. For now the IVES is NOT for sale. I will sell off the framesets that are not my size first,stay tuned. Jon,I wish you good luck with your search. Maybe we can get an IVES section under ITALY on the CLASSIC RENDEZVOUS pages! I would think your bicycle is newer than 1964 with the braze ones on the bottom bracket. Are there any other braze ons. I would think the UNVERSAL 68 brakeset would be at least 1968,but they could've been added at a later date. The link you posted took a bit of searching to find the pictures way,way,way down the list,after I deleted part of the link you posted.The original link did not work until I shorted it. You may try to post a better link for list members to link to,to make it easy to find the photos of your IVES. Good luck with the information search,on this fine Marque! Yours truly, Marty Walsh in VIENNA,VIRGINIA,U.S.A.