Re: [CR] Torpado 4sale

(Example: Events:BVVW)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:52:50 -0700
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, Hugh Thornton <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <547061.23185.qm@web25905.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] Torpado 4sale


I have to disagree with you about this. I see nothing at all wrong with th e finish or detailing of this frame, including the seatstay caps and the fi nishing of the stay and fork attachements to the DO's. Paint is a bit tire d as the seller says, but other than that this looks as good as any high en d 70's Italian frame to me. I do not think this is mid-range at all. I ha ve a very similar Torpado, although perhaps a few years later, that I bough t from the Omnipotent Listmesiter, and it is very nicely finished, includin g lug cutouts with the Torpado "T". I suspect this present bike has those cutouts as well, although he didn't provide photos of the lugs. My Torpado has a good quality refinish, and I'd rather have it than any Colnago Super or Mexico.

In fact, my has wife an early 80's Torpado Italia, in the pearl pink that w as the signature color of the Italia. It is indeed a mid-range model, with lesser tubing, Columbus Aelle perhaps, but still very nicely detailed with cutout lugs very similar to the top model. I took off most of the midrang e components it came with and substituted highe end Galli, Gipiemme and Mod olo, and it makes quite a nice road bike indeed.

I don't think Torpado quality declned at all in the 70's and 80's. I think their only problem in that era was they didn't supply a lot of high profil e teams, plus they weren't big players in the US market under their own bra nd, although I believe they made at least some of the Italvegas. So they p artly missed out on the US Bike Boom, although they were very popular in Mo ntreal in the 70's, and perhaps in other parts of Canada as well. When I a ttended the 1974 World's in Montreal, Torpado was the featured marque of on e of the most prominant shops in the city.

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA


--- On Thu, 3/26/09, Hugh Thornton wrote:


> From: Hugh Thornton <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>

\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR] Torpado 4sale

\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

\r?\n> Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009, 2:27 PM

\r?\n> This looks like a distinctly mid-range bike from the 1970s

\r?\n> with nothing muc

\r?\n> h to commend it.

\r?\n> Does anybody know what happened toTorpado?  They made

\r?\n> great bikes before

\r?\n> WWII and probably through the 1950s.  By the 1970s their

\r?\n> product looked q

\r?\n> uite mediocre, or at least the examples I have seen.  Did

\r?\n> they just fade

\r?\n> away or were they absorbed by another manufacturer?

\r?\n>  

\r?\n> Hugh Thornton

\r?\n> Cheshire, England

\r?\n>

\r?\n> --- On Thu, 26/3/09, crumpy6204@aol.com

\r?\n> <crumpy6204@aol.com> wrote:

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n> From: crumpy6204@aol.com <crumpy6204@aol.com>

\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Torpado 4sale

\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

\r?\n> Date: Thursday, 26 March, 2009, 4:14 PM

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Check out Ebay#?350181727414 For sale by Alex a GOOD Brit

\r?\n> dealer, Not into

\r?\n> Italian bikes buts looks like a?Very Interesting

\r?\n> background. Cheers ,John C

\r?\n> rump, OldintoBritbikesBrit, Parker Co USA