russell16688":36kto60k said:They were! Apparently the guy was in the SAS so only made small batches for the local community. If you have a picture of the advert I'd love to see it.Old Ned":36kto60k said:Weren't Ottadini frames made in the North East? I'm sure I've got some adverts in old Cycling mags for them.
Bit of history from Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nunomouti ... 5437344729
Ottadini Track Frame
Ottadini frame from the UK.
There's close to none information available, about Ottadini, anywhere... I managed however, to gather some
details based on another track frame I found for sale.
Ottadini were built by a framebuilder called Colin Laing, in Northen England.
(Brief history of Colin laing:
Source - fixotic's Flickr)
"...Colin Laing (as best as I can cobble together) was an apprentice of the Taylor Brothers (Norman, Ken, and Jack Taylor) in the 1950's. Later he had a bike shop in northern England. Bikes were not the only thing in Colin's life though, "My other life involved things I can't speak of due to the 'Official Secrets Act'. Suffice to say I was SAS and the Duke of Kent's body-guard which lead to more extreme service to the Crown."
In 1974 Colin came to the USA at the request of the US government. England's economy was bad in the 70's and there was a bike boom on in the US so he found coming over here ideal. He returned to England for a while in the 80's to have his boys schooled and because Jack was hinting strongly that they might let him take over or run Jack Taylor Cycles. That never panned out but Colin returned to Arizona and continued making bicycles..."