> Archive-URL:
>
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> From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands(AT)comcast.net>
> Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:03:25 -0500
> Subject: [CR]Constructeur----French snobbery,
> British
> Constructeurs
>
> <text snipped>
>
> 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.
<text snipped>
> 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,
Oops, not 1995, but 1992, training in SD for Barcelona, 3000-meter pursuit: Bronze.
Joe Starck Masidon, WI USA
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
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