'Fake ' Pro riders bikes

[orbeas]

In a recent post on here on ' No name bikes Chinese bikes'

somebody posted

" Yeah, getting it branded as something it's not is a bit odd. "

Now as somebody who has to admit that some of my own racing bikes were not what they appeared in the pictures in cycling magazines, I thought that little research would show that it was nothing new..

this is what I found

Tom Simpson --- His Peugeot's were not made by Peugeot, but by Massi

Eddy Merckx - His Peugeot's were made by Massi after the first year then had bikes by De Rosa - Colnago

Freddie Maertens - He never rode Flandria bikes, they were Gios that he smuggled into the Flandria Factory at night to be repainted..

Greg Lemond - Seems his Gitane and Bottechia steel bikes were built in the USA

Miguel Indurain - His Pinarello's were made by Dario Pegorretti

Marco Pantani - His Bianchi's were mostly not made in the Bianchi factory as he used to change his design weekly and various frame builders in Tuscany were used..

Tom Boonen - His early Specialized bikes were not made by them..

Lance Armstrong - His Eddy Merckx frames were from Litespeed...

My own Jacques Anquitil frames were made by Harry Quinn
and my Ron Kitching X frames were by Harry Quinn - Neil Orrell..

please add if you know any more ???

 

[Johnsqual]

Cyclocross: I think Zdnek Stybar was supposed to be Riding Ridley bikes but was actually riding Specialised. Now officially rides Specialised though.

Merckx also had frames built by Kessels, a small Belgian builder whose family business is apparently still running.

Freddy Maertens supposedly once came to collect his resprayed frames to
find the owner of Flandria had personally mangled them and thrown them in a skip.

Johnny

 

[Old Ned]

Freddie Maertens - He never rode Flandria bikes, they were Gios that he smuggled into the Flandria Factory at night to be repainted..

(/quote]

Reading that gives me a great feeling of relief as my next project, my 'Freddy Maertens Homage', is (I think!) a Bernard Macklam.

Certainly not a Flandria!

What about Van Looy, Pollentier, De Meyer etc. Did they actually ride Flandria's?

 

[dbmtb]

Zulle and Virenques Peugeot titaniums were Litespeed.

Bjarne Riis also rode Pegoretti "Pinarellos".

 

[argonsixar]

For the smaller retailers/builders I think it was quite common. I hear Rory O Briens were made by various frame builders around Essex and East London, including Vic Edwards (Rondinella). Also Sixar dropped their own frame builder George Stenhouse quite early and brought in restickered Cougars (possibly by Terry Dolan) and then began a relationship with Tommassini (at least 5 were shipped from Italy and I have one of them).

 

[Citoyen du monde]

I think that this listing is missing the point. In many of the cases listed, the builder of record should be the one who commissioned and paid the framebuilder for the work. For example in the case of the Pinarello bikes supplied to Indurain or Riis, Dario was under contract to Pinarello as a sub-contractor. It was not as if the riders decided to go to him of their own free will. The same with some of the Litespeed bikes listed. I believe that Merckx and Simpson also had dispensations to get their frames built by their own framebuilders, so I think that it would only be possible to classify them as being Peugeots by Masi and not Masi.

 

[AndyPA]

Lots of pros wear shoes from different manufacturers but badged with sponsors brand
Lots of so called UK framebuilding specialists have frames made out by small independents and stick on their own decals ,nothing new been going on for years.
Most super brand hyper bikes are now built in the far east

 

[bigfatron]

Pretty common, lots of pro riders seem to have their own favourite builders. I always wondered if thepros stuck with the first decent framebuilder they could afford to buy from as they rose up the ranks.
My "rusted 753 frame" 1989 Super U "Raleigh DynaTech" team frame was built by Francis Quillon's Cyfac. It's a little bit different to the actually made by Raleigh Dyna Tech team replicas that I own - start with the massive weight difference and then compare the two in a spot the hundred differences game!
I have seen online an ex-Cyfac employee who confirmed this, I think on this forum?

 

[CTK]

IIRC Ullrich's frames were made by a chap in Switzerland?

 

[kaiser]

IIRC Ullrich's frames were made by a chap in Switzerland?

His time trial biks were made by Walser. The design lives on under Focus.