jamesdak
Old School Hero
Since I was setup shooting the Motta I posted yesterday I went ahead and shot this one too. Confirmed team bike but I've not confirmed it was actually Oscar Freire's.
I bought fully expecting it not to be genuine but the price was good for the frame build and parts. The more research I do though makes it seem like it just might be. I've found pictures of 5 other bikes like this with the riders name in the same style decal as this one. Those riders all show up on the Vitalicio Seguros cycling team roster. Some of the bikes have the same decals, some have some differences. There is a rectangular yellowing spot on the one chain stay where a decal used to be. This decal shows in some of the team pics online. The bike photographs well but does have a lot of touch up paint on it and other expected wear. The only marking on the bottom is 83 T. It does take a quill stem like in the team pictures. It came with this funky adapter setup. Limited clearance on the front fork. I put on a different wheel with a GP 4000s II 700 x 23 and it cleared but with only about 2mm. So for now I put on these smaller old GP 3000 700 x 23 tires I had laying around the house. Campagnolo 9 speed setup some parts say Titanium. It is a light Ti seatpost on it. I set it up so I can ride it despite being smaller than normal for me. But, I've done nothing to fix the cosmetic wear stuff yet. Want to leave it pretty original in case it is authentic.
I got it from a guy who got it from Tony Tom at Bike Odyssey. It'll be so cool if I can confirm this was one of Oscar Freire's bikes. Certainly not the one he won the WC on in 1999 for the team but it sure does match up to some of the online pics of other team bikes. Supposed to have been his practice/training bike.
I bought fully expecting it not to be genuine but the price was good for the frame build and parts. The more research I do though makes it seem like it just might be. I've found pictures of 5 other bikes like this with the riders name in the same style decal as this one. Those riders all show up on the Vitalicio Seguros cycling team roster. Some of the bikes have the same decals, some have some differences. There is a rectangular yellowing spot on the one chain stay where a decal used to be. This decal shows in some of the team pics online. The bike photographs well but does have a lot of touch up paint on it and other expected wear. The only marking on the bottom is 83 T. It does take a quill stem like in the team pictures. It came with this funky adapter setup. Limited clearance on the front fork. I put on a different wheel with a GP 4000s II 700 x 23 and it cleared but with only about 2mm. So for now I put on these smaller old GP 3000 700 x 23 tires I had laying around the house. Campagnolo 9 speed setup some parts say Titanium. It is a light Ti seatpost on it. I set it up so I can ride it despite being smaller than normal for me. But, I've done nothing to fix the cosmetic wear stuff yet. Want to leave it pretty original in case it is authentic.
I got it from a guy who got it from Tony Tom at Bike Odyssey. It'll be so cool if I can confirm this was one of Oscar Freire's bikes. Certainly not the one he won the WC on in 1999 for the team but it sure does match up to some of the online pics of other team bikes. Supposed to have been his practice/training bike.
