Now I bet most of you were expecting to see yet another 70's team colours Raleigh, and yes I know I've got form in that department but there's nothing Raleigh about this old girl, and even those from its home country might not know too much about these as info is scant online. Believe me there's been far more googling to gain what info I now have than a bike of this ones middling origins deserves but I love an interesting project and I doubt I'll see another in the UK.
This sorry looking old hector has travelled thousands of miles without even turning a wheel because the frame was built by Tecnotrat in Cuneo Italy, a lot of the parts are Italian and it was all shipped out to Ezio Abeni, an Italian emigre himself and founder of Europa cycles in Sydney Australia where it was assembled and sold under his Europa brand, so how it made it all the way back to Kent in the south east of England I have no idea but its a very long trip either way.
The history I've gleamed thus far (and please anyone who can verify or correct this please jump in) is that Ezio a master frame builder himself sold bikes under a couple of brands with the Europa branded bikes either being mostly Italian like this one or some a bit lower down the pecking order being Japanese in origin. He also built his own frames when people wanted something a bit different to stock or higher up the food chain which were either using the Abeni or Europa brands and he also built frames for one of the Australian Olympic teams. The shop in Sydney is still going and now run by Ezio's son John.
I did also read that there were a good few Reynolds 531 Abeni's and Europa's as the family bought a job lot of tube sets at the end of the 70's which were still being used well into the 80's
Most of the Tecnotrat ones I can find on the internet seem to have been blue and built using Oria tubing but this is red and is built with Falck tubing which I don't think is that unusual but a little different all the same.
The bike scruffy as it is does look to be pretty much complete and original, the pedals are wrong, the front mech is missing and so is the lever. It has an Ofmega Mistral rear mech and chainset which is correct but finding a front one might be difficult and the gear levers are Shimano which I'm not sure is correct. The brakes and levers are Universal and the wheels are Araya rims on Suzue hubs which again I understand is original equipment.
The paint and decals are shot but the chrome on the forks looks savable and decals are available even if they are on the other side of the world.
I intend to restore it back to as close as original as possible, so time to start striping it down, cleaning it up and searching for the missing bits.
This sorry looking old hector has travelled thousands of miles without even turning a wheel because the frame was built by Tecnotrat in Cuneo Italy, a lot of the parts are Italian and it was all shipped out to Ezio Abeni, an Italian emigre himself and founder of Europa cycles in Sydney Australia where it was assembled and sold under his Europa brand, so how it made it all the way back to Kent in the south east of England I have no idea but its a very long trip either way.
The history I've gleamed thus far (and please anyone who can verify or correct this please jump in) is that Ezio a master frame builder himself sold bikes under a couple of brands with the Europa branded bikes either being mostly Italian like this one or some a bit lower down the pecking order being Japanese in origin. He also built his own frames when people wanted something a bit different to stock or higher up the food chain which were either using the Abeni or Europa brands and he also built frames for one of the Australian Olympic teams. The shop in Sydney is still going and now run by Ezio's son John.
I did also read that there were a good few Reynolds 531 Abeni's and Europa's as the family bought a job lot of tube sets at the end of the 70's which were still being used well into the 80's
Most of the Tecnotrat ones I can find on the internet seem to have been blue and built using Oria tubing but this is red and is built with Falck tubing which I don't think is that unusual but a little different all the same.
The bike scruffy as it is does look to be pretty much complete and original, the pedals are wrong, the front mech is missing and so is the lever. It has an Ofmega Mistral rear mech and chainset which is correct but finding a front one might be difficult and the gear levers are Shimano which I'm not sure is correct. The brakes and levers are Universal and the wheels are Araya rims on Suzue hubs which again I understand is original equipment.
The paint and decals are shot but the chrome on the forks looks savable and decals are available even if they are on the other side of the world.
I intend to restore it back to as close as original as possible, so time to start striping it down, cleaning it up and searching for the missing bits.
