After my last trip to Gaiole for l'Eroica last year, I made my way to Enzo's place, where we dug up some fossil remains of three Maino's. Two ancient road racers he would never sell (not in their current state anyway), so I made an offer on the old city bike frame. It still had some of the original grey paint patched in with a bunch of rust. Unfortunately, the fork dropouts looked like they had been glued back on with gum. So, it was off to Ciocc, where a quick fix lasted all of one ride once home. A final fix would be performed by Rob Roberson down at Joe Bell's place. New dropouts were put in place properly.
I built it up rather uniquely. I found a Sturmey Archer S2C hub that shifts two internal gears by kicking back a little, and has a coaster brake. It's a 138% drive ratio that makes it perfect for this application... gears and brakes with zero cables.
Aluminum foil and WD-40 cleaned up the rust a bit and I found some great Maino decals from Enzo to boot. Add a big coil sprung leather saddle, some huge Clement tires bar/stem/bell and pedals from Velo-Orange and it's a hit! The real kicker for this bike was the Condorino-style handlebars that just fit perfectly. It rides like a dream and the best thing about small town middle of nowhere is that it looks like a real clunker and I don't think anyone will be tempted by the "Maino" - what the heck is that, anyway, right?!?
ps - it doesn't show well in the photos but I also have a SOMA-fab bullet light mounted to one of the rear rod-brake mounts for just a little bit more retro style. Haven't used it yet, as the post office isn't open at night, and I haven't ridden this thing for any other purpose yet! Who knows, maybe it'll make an evening run to the Mexican restaurant downtown sometime in the fall!
The finished product on one of its post office runs
Three gems
I get turned on by rear ends like these!
Proof of concept
No amount of money was going to pry these bars from Enzo!
Ubiquitous hero shot
Let's see... 1930's cranks, 40's chain, with new pedals and S-A kickback shifter hub. OK...
Got the Ciöcc back up and running thanks to eBay and a pretty beat up Concor saddle. I also threw on a set of "new vintage" wheels (if that makes any sense) built up around a set of polished de-badged Sun clinchers and some 28mm Clements. I'm getting more and more away from all those old tubies just from a cost and practicality standpoint. I still have way too many, but more and more am hitting gravel aboard new wide clinchers.
If only I had €1500 burning a hole in my pocket in Gaiole last year! The Ghibli would've been a hit with gold-plated C-Record on it. But, alas, yet another one that got away.
