LeMond TVT Z team replica questions

[Walter]

I just acquired one of the LeMond replica Z team TVT bikes. It is not a real team bike, but rather one of the production ones they sold. It is all original, but came to me without a seat and it has incorrect bar tape.

I have studied threads on these bikes and the team riders used different seats (Rolls, Regal, etc.). Does anyone know what the replica production bikes came with stock?

It looks like the old Benotto white tape was the standard. On the production replicas as well?

Thanks for the help!

My LeMond collection is growing!

 

[rusty bodie]

a friend of mine had one of these bikes - i think he bought it from one of the big cycle stores in london (geoff somebody or other) that used to advertise in the comic in the pre internet days.

that bike came with white benotto bar tape but can't for the life of me remember if you need two rolls per side to cope with the length of the scott drop-in bars or not?!

the saddle was a san marco regal, in black as seen on this page > >

http://www.kinokocycles.com/parts/saddles/regal-1.html

his bike was in immaculate used condition and was fitted with a campagnolo delta record groupset. i think the rims were mavic open pro or similar - i could identify them if i saw a photo. they had a green and yellow label i think but they were definitely sprint rims with a kind of blunt aero section shape and in 32 holes.

hope this helps!!

 

[rusty bodie]

ps just stumbled upon these for sale on ebay - these are the rims that were supplied on my friend's z peugeot tvt . .

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAVIC-MACH-2- ... 4177f012dd

 

[oonaff]

hi walter any chance of you showing us some snaps of your collection ?

 

[Walter]

hi walter any chance of you showing us some snaps of your collection ?

I shall post some photos of them tonight and better photos later.

 

[Walter]

The first LeMond bike I acquired was the first of the ti bikes Tom Kellog made for LeMond to try for Team Z. I attended the ’90 Tour de France and at the end of the event the teams were selling off the race bikes in Paris. I had no money left after following the Tour and could not get one, but thought that it would be a nice acquisition later. I wanted to get one Greg LeMond had raced and started searching for one of his bikes. His Dad and brother in law had some they were selling for what was very serious money to me and I passed on the notion…again. Then in ’93 I saw a small ad in Velo News for a bike parts import company called Renegade Sports Ltd. that had a sentence at the bottom saying that one of the Team Z bikes that LeMond rode was for sale. I called, finally pulled the trigger, and bought it.

I later contacted Merlin to get the history of the bike, got some information, and was referred to Tom Kellog. Tom was most helpful, confirmed the serial number on my bike from his records as being Greg LeMond’s bike, and related that he designed the titanium frame in ’90 for LeMond at his request. Merlin made it. The first bike was shipped to Greg that year for his own use. My bike appears to be that bike (due to the serial number sequence). In the early Spring of ’91 Kellog shipped more titanium bikes to France for Team Z to use (including another bike for GL). They were first raced in the Giro. A total of 16 bikes were made for the team (all by Merlin).

The plan was to then make a titanium production bike to be sold by the first LeMond Bicycle company. Bob LeMond decided, apparently for economic reasons, not to go with Merlin as the supplier of the production bikes and went with Sandvick instead. This bike then became the Merlin Extralight and was a very popular bike in the US for years. Bicycling Magazine claims that this bike started the titanium bike revolution in the US (December 2012 issue).

 

[Walter]

About a year ago I ran across a listing for one of the Team Z bikes Craig Calfee built for the team. I sent some photos and the serial number to Calfee and he confirmed it was one of the 18 bikes he built for LeMond for Team Z. I bought the bike.

It is the bike raced by team rider Francois Lemarchand. He was the same size as LeMond and was to give his bike to GL if he had bike trouble.

For more on the bike go to: http://www.calfeedesign.com/wp-content/ ... Lemond.pdf The prototype bike was done in the Z fade.

After the photo was taken I added the correct stem and bar tape.

 

[Walter]

My most recent acquisition is a production Team Z TVT LeMond. I need to determine the correct seat offered on the production bikes and install the Benotto tape. I always been partial to the look of these bikes and would love find an HM team bike (I missed out on the auction for Pensec's '90 team bike by $100!).

I will get some photos up of this bike and my TVT WC Replica bikes in a day or so.

 

[rusty bodie]

thanks for those photos and that great story behind your lemond bikes. i don't suppose you ever managed to track down any of the la vie claire bikes that he used in 1985/86? hey have always been my favourite team bikes whether the 753 or the TVT models. gorgeous machines and i have never seen one for sale, unless of course you know otherwise??!

 

[Walter]

thanks for those photos and that great story behind your lemond bikes. i don't suppose you ever managed to track down any of the la vie claire bikes that he used in 1985/86? hey have always been my favourite team bikes whether the 753 or the TVT models. gorgeous machines and i have never seen one for sale, unless of course you know otherwise??!

I have never seen one available either. I have acquired a TVT frame from that period and have been gathering photos from 1986 magazines to determine the correct paint and decal layout (different on the TVT frame than the TT or steel road stage bikes). I am having a local bike painter recreate the team paint scheme.