Re: [CR]Umberto Dei Year

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Cinelli)

From: <"tom.ward@juno.com">
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:21:34 GMT
To: FujiFish1@aol.com
Subject: Re: [CR]Umberto Dei Year
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Mark Agree wrote:
>Hi Rick,
>Welcome to the CR list ... you definitely qualify!


>I had an approximate 1959 Dei pista model here for a while, but being way
>too large for me and having a friend pay for part of it, it was sold. Here are
>some photos posted of it (copy only what is within the brackets, but n ot the
>brackets themselves):

<http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/fujifish1/MarksVintage/MarksSoldBik es/Dei _1959_Pista/>

Or an easier, temporary link: http://tinyurl.com/5qc2jt

And went on to write:
>Umberto Dei bicycles are VERY special ... so be sure not to give it aw ay to
>the first quick talking asker :)


>Oh, and we would love to see some photos!


>By the way, yours is only the third or fourth Avanti to be mentioned on the
>list ... so not a very common bike "around here"!

------------I've wanted one for a long time, but I don't talk very fast! Yet that's just a point of departure. Allow me to say that the weight o f history in that logo truly impresses me with something weightier than fleeting aesthetic attraction. Certain relic items are in themselves a p orthole-view (if you will) into other minds and other times.... A '59 Um berto Dei gives us not only the stretch of time 1959 to 2008 but also 19 59 back to a truly faraway time--and back to that non-place existing in the mind, "the Old Country." I got a similar feeling last night when a visiting-from-San-Francisco-fr iend and I paused for a cappucino and an espresso and a deuce of tiramis u at Caffe Dante on Manhattan's MacDougal Street (on our way to the jazz club, Small's). Forming the keynote of the decor of this longtime Green wich Village cafe / coffehouse there are some poster-size blow-ups of pr e-1914 photographs (taken with large format--something like 8" x 10"--vi ew cameras, no doubt) of Italian cityscapes--at least some of them are N apoli--and they really place you There for a moment. Even small street s igns (and people's expressions) are legible in the photos, and the feeli ng of them the fonts and typefaces one sees is quite like the Umberto De i logo. The kind of feeling of "transport" I am trying to convey is not unigue to the Umberto Dei marque by any means, but (being such a truly o ld marque--and with such beautiful graphic design in evidence) these few Dei bicycles really have "it" and are truly a precious link to a lost w orld--or two. These massive photographic prints at Dante contain a good view of at lea st one bicycle in use on the c. 1900 - 1910 streets of Italy. It's a 28" wheeled roadster in the hands of a gentleman who is dismounted and seem ingly trundling the bike along. Was he on the sidewalk rather than the " pavement"? He's wearing knickers as I recall, but a jacket and tie--and a brimmed felt hat, if memory serves! I observed carriages, a closed del ivery-type wagon, equestrian statues, fountains, a triumphal arch--but n ot a single motor vehicle yet. Yet there in the foreground is a fully-de veloped "safety" bicycle. I almost felt I could speak to the guy. I suspect even these prints on the wall must be at least forty years old now. I remember being there in 1988 and those prints had been in place a long, long time then. But I "Dei"-gress.... Tom Ward Brooklyn, New York -- USA

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