Re: [CR] E-Bay outing: Ideor 59cm track bike from the '50s

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Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 05:00:21 -0800
From: "Peter Jourdain" <pjourdain@yahoo.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, Tom Sanders <tom@orderandchaos.com>
In-Reply-To: <002e01ca5c80$97b8f250$c72ad6f0$@com>
Subject: Re: [CR] E-Bay outing: Ideor 59cm track bike from the '50s


Hi, Tom---

I spotted this machine as well. I wish the seller had posted some shots of the complete bike and not just partial shots.

Ideor was an Italian marque, appx. 1946-1963, headquartered in Milan. I owned a 1960 Ideor Asso Olimpic, sold by Montrose Bike Shop in California back in the day. The top Ideor models featured early Columbus tubing. Lower models used Mannesmann tubing. They are very similar in style to Olmo and several other Italian makers of the era and there has been some conjecture that they may have been, in part at least, a prison-built bike---that is, a bike built by Italian prisoners. If they were, they were built to a high spec and very nicely done.

The company also built city bikes, etc. CyclArt at one time had a green, early-post-war ladies city bike for sale.

Chuck Schmidt at velo-retro.com has an excellent reproduction of an Ideor catalogue.

Ideor at one time sponsored a professional racing team. They exited in 1954 at least, as a Spanish team, and the Spanish rider Salvador Botella Rodrigo rode for them. Their team color was purple, and they had really cool jerseys with the Ideor typeface. I've seen one of the jerseys at an L'erocia website. I looked for the link, but it's old and doesn't work. Here is a link to their team standings----

http://www.cykelsiderne.net/ploegfiche.php?id264

Depending on the model, Ideor machines featured either Ideor-branded Magistroni headsets and seat collars, as well as Magistroni cranks, and Campy Gran Sport components. As you went up the line Campy cranks, headsets and other parts replaced Magistroni. They take a very low-stack-height headset, often hard to find.

Their track bikes, of which the auction item is an example, were completely customized by the bike retailer to suit the buyer's needs. I have not seen an Ideor track bike with such fancy lugs before. It is interesting to note that the headbadge, which is a very cool winged lion flying across the sky, with a spoked wheel as the "sun" in the background, is in this case unpainted, to match the chromed frame. All other Ideor badges were enameled in color.

Here are photos of my frameset, which I liked very much (it rode beautifully) but later sold when I moved from Italian machines to British ---

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/VintageCyclist/1960%20Ideor%20Asso%20Olimpic/

Very little else has been published on the web regarding Ideor. I have seen frames and bikes dating from the late '40s to the early '60s. Their racing bikes are well worth obtaining, and a track machine is especially desirable.

Hope this provides some info. Please search the archives for prior discussions.

Cheerio,

Peter Jourdain
Whitewater, Wisconsin USA


--- On Tue, 11/3/09, Tom Sanders wrote:



> Item # 280418075397.  Tres cool
> at first glance.  I know absolutely nothing
> of this brand, but it seems of very high quality.  If
> we have a
> knowledgeable member, I am hoping they will tell us a bit
> about this brand
> and this bike.  Photos are not great, but there seems
> a lot to like about
> it.
>
> Tom Sanders
>
> Lansing, MI USA