Barn Fresh.. Olympia

[Helmut Head]

I get a call from a mate - he's snagged me an old bike from a garage conversion he's working on - I say great it might have a few useful bits on it!

Turns out it's a mid 70's Olympia Carlo Borghi in not bad condition. I'd never heard of them before but apparently they're the second oldest cycle manufacturer in Italy after Bianchi.

Tubing is by Falck and the frame is nicely finished with chrome fork crown and Campag dropouts, there's plenty of scratches but it has a good patina.
It has Fiamme handlebars and stem, Huret Challenger F / R Derailleurs and levers, Rubis Seat pin, TA chainset, Galli super criterium brakes / levers. Normandy high flange hubs (date stamped for 1975) with Mavic & Fiamme sprint rims.

Unfortunately, at 56cm it's too small for me so I think I'll have to part it out - so probably coming up for sale soon.

 

[torqueless]

Re:

That's rather nice. Frame details suggest the frame itself is more likely from the turn of the '80s than the mid '70s though..

 

[Helmut Head]

Re:

You're probably right regarding the age - I was looking at the kit on it, which all looks original. The hubs are dated 1975 and rear derailleur dated 1977. I can live with late 70's early 80's!!
I'm disappointed it's too small - it looks like a great ride.

 

[torqueless]

Re:

I presume your '56cm' is centre to centre? I would eyeball that frame as 22 1/2 or 23" centre to top. You must be somewhat over six feet for it to be too small?
It does indeed look like an early '80s frame with several mid '70s components, and that's the third TA chainset with disoriented rings I've seen here in as many weeks.

 

[Helmut Head]

Re:

At over 6'2" I can't look at anything less than 24" / 60cm framewise! Which does restrict you when finding older bikes, but then I find there are fewer people looking for them! Every cloud and all that!