I've been asked by a few forum members to give a detailed overview of each of my road bikes in my collection.
The first bike I will feature is my favorite, and the bike that started everything for me...The Alan Carbonio with 1st Generation Campagnolo C-Record.
As a teenager the Alan Carbonio was my dream bike, I remember looking at Cycling Weekly around the 1985-6 period and seeing an advert for the bike with full C record groupset, I think it was a Geoffrey Butler Cycles advert that I saw, and use to spend hours looking at the advert and dreaming about owning and riding such an amazing bike...In my mind, at the time, no other bike looked as classy as the Alan Carbonio!
Now, some 25+ years on, I finally own that bike, and it's exactly how I remember the bike was spec'd in the advert. Obviously the bike has been assembled from parts sourced all over the world, and mostly via Ebay. The frame came from Laguna Beach USA, it was used and showing very small signs of wear and tear, but other than the decals not being "like new", the frame tubes and lugs are in amazing condition...Even now, I think I was lucky to find a frame in such outstanding condition.
The next faze of the build was the hardest to achieve, and this was finding a brand new Campagnolo C-Record 1st generation groupset! As you can imagine, this was going to be near impossible, damn expensive and extremely hard to find! However after much time and patience I managed to locate bit by bit the full groupset. Buying such classy parts in as new condition was always going to be a challenge, because most items of this age suffer from wear and tear through being knocked about in bike shops leading to surface scratches...Well another good result with the groupset, is that it's all like new, with vertually zero damage.
The rims are also new, and if i'm honest I would have preferred to fit Campagnolo Sigma Pave Hardox rims, but these are like hens teeth even in a second hand state, so the Record Pave rims were laced onto the C Record hubs, shod with original Vittoria CX tubs and fitted to the bike..Oh and not forgetting the brand new Campagnolo alloy freewheel(which was a crazy price!).
The Cinelli bars and Cinelli Record stem are an obvious choice, as is the Turbo saddle which is a genuine 1985 date stamped brand new part.
The end result is teenagers dream come true, and to this day I still think it's one of the most beauitful bikes ever made!
Will I ever ride it? They say you should never drive your heroes(Lamborghini Countach in my case), so the same applies to the bike; so no, I will never ride it!
Enjoy the pictures, sorry they are not studio quality..
Mark.
The first bike I will feature is my favorite, and the bike that started everything for me...The Alan Carbonio with 1st Generation Campagnolo C-Record.
As a teenager the Alan Carbonio was my dream bike, I remember looking at Cycling Weekly around the 1985-6 period and seeing an advert for the bike with full C record groupset, I think it was a Geoffrey Butler Cycles advert that I saw, and use to spend hours looking at the advert and dreaming about owning and riding such an amazing bike...In my mind, at the time, no other bike looked as classy as the Alan Carbonio!
Now, some 25+ years on, I finally own that bike, and it's exactly how I remember the bike was spec'd in the advert. Obviously the bike has been assembled from parts sourced all over the world, and mostly via Ebay. The frame came from Laguna Beach USA, it was used and showing very small signs of wear and tear, but other than the decals not being "like new", the frame tubes and lugs are in amazing condition...Even now, I think I was lucky to find a frame in such outstanding condition.
The next faze of the build was the hardest to achieve, and this was finding a brand new Campagnolo C-Record 1st generation groupset! As you can imagine, this was going to be near impossible, damn expensive and extremely hard to find! However after much time and patience I managed to locate bit by bit the full groupset. Buying such classy parts in as new condition was always going to be a challenge, because most items of this age suffer from wear and tear through being knocked about in bike shops leading to surface scratches...Well another good result with the groupset, is that it's all like new, with vertually zero damage.
The rims are also new, and if i'm honest I would have preferred to fit Campagnolo Sigma Pave Hardox rims, but these are like hens teeth even in a second hand state, so the Record Pave rims were laced onto the C Record hubs, shod with original Vittoria CX tubs and fitted to the bike..Oh and not forgetting the brand new Campagnolo alloy freewheel(which was a crazy price!).
The Cinelli bars and Cinelli Record stem are an obvious choice, as is the Turbo saddle which is a genuine 1985 date stamped brand new part.
The end result is teenagers dream come true, and to this day I still think it's one of the most beauitful bikes ever made!
Will I ever ride it? They say you should never drive your heroes(Lamborghini Countach in my case), so the same applies to the bike; so no, I will never ride it!
Enjoy the pictures, sorry they are not studio quality..
Mark.
