What's the rarest or most obscure bike in your collection?

[tbike4]

Originally Posted by Waldo62

Nagasawa Road

Looks like a steep HT angle. Reminds me of a 3Rensho I owned. It was twitchy but fun.

[Coffee Rider]

After further reflection, it has to be my Tesch 101 based on not all that many having been made.


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[ERK55]

In my case that would be a NOS limited-edition Masi built to commemorate the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Gold paint; includes the flags of all the nations participating in the olympic road race. Campagnolo C-Record with Delta brakes.

[gomango]

Likely my McLean, but I have a Della Santa, Kvale, and Hollands that aren't so easy to come by.

[IMG]McLean+004 by Grady Linehan, on Flickr[/IMG]

[tbike4]

Originally Posted by gomango

Likely my McLean, but I have a Della Santa, Kvale, and Hollands that aren't so easy to come by.

Hollands must be pretty rare. Took me almost 5 minutes of Googling to find one. Of course one of the Google hits was to a post of yours on PL with an older picture of your Hollands. Nice looking frame. EL-OS and a very nice fork as well.

[buddybikes]

Originally Posted by wvucyclist

I have the first bike ever made by a frame builder, and the second, and the third. Real amateur guy... me.

I have number 2 made by me. No 1 my brother has. Finished with 2, wanted to keep them rare. (Although I have thought of tossing in the trash a few times)

And I used to own (1969 Christmas) French made Flandria. Important because I met by chance the importer of Flandria's in 1973. He had never seen a French made one, 16 at the time..I asked for job in his retail shop and my biking history was started.

[gianni]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

Fillet brazed eisentraut. I've seen a couple before but not with this seat cluster.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=176603

Refreshing this. Wisha coulda shoulda.

[El Chaba]

At a quick look, this looks like any other racing Peugeot from the early 80s with its mix of French parts, etc. However, if you look more closely you start to see some differences. The short version of a long story is that Peugeot set up a “Prestige” shop in 1974 within their giant industrial complex to make custom racing bikes for their sponsored professional team. At some point they offered the same service to retail customers through their dealer network. These bikes only ever appeared in a few catalogs in various markets around the world, but there was always a 3-4 page order form at the back of the dealer catalog. They were rare as they were expensive…about twice the price of the similarly equipped top model from the factory. I looked off and on for years for one in my size in good condition. Anyhow, here is mine…a 1981 “Pro 10” . Some of the differences include Reynolds 531 SL tubing (0.5 mm…0.7 is standard), continental shaped fork blades, lots of great extra chrome, a cornoullet in the fork column, drilled faces on the rear dropouts, nicely finished legwork, lots of titanium bits, an alloy Maillard freewheel, etc. It rides great and causes me to have delusions that I am Phil Anderson or Stephen Roche every time I ride it.

[merckx]

Originally Posted by El Chaba

At a quick look, this looks like any other racing Peugeot from the early 80s with its mix of French parts, etc. However, if you look more closely you start to see some differences. The short version of a long story is that Peugeot set up a “Prestige” shop in 1974 within their giant industrial complex to make custom racing bikes for their sponsored professional team. At some point they offered the same service to retail customers through their dealer network. These bikes only ever appeared in a few catalogs in various markets around the world, but there was always a 3-4 page order form at the back of the dealer catalog. They were rare as they were expensive…about twice the price of the similarly equipped top model from the factory. I looked off and on for years for one in my size in good condition. Anyhow, here is mine…a 1981 “Pro 10” . Some of the differences include Reynolds 531 SL tubing (0.5 mm…0.7 is standard), continental shaped fork blades, lots of great extra chrome, a cornoullet in the fork column, drilled faces on the rear dropouts, nicely finished legwork, lots of titanium bits, an alloy Maillard freewheel, etc. It rides great and causes me to have delusions that I am Phil Anderson or Stephen Roche every time I ride it.

The coolest bike on the net.

[El Chaba]

Originally Posted by merckx

The coolest bike on the net.

Thanks for the kind words, but the cool factor declines a number of notches with me on it.

[gomango]

Originally Posted by tbike4

Hollands must be pretty rare. Took me almost 5 minutes of Googling to find one. Of course one of the Google hits was to a post of yours on PL with an older picture of your Hollands. Nice looking frame. EL-OS and a very nice fork as well.

Thanks! I was fortunate to purchase the frameset from a forum member here many years ago and it has outlasted many, many bikes. I've seen a few Hollands on the east coast, but pretty much zippo here in the Midwest. The bike is an absolute joy to ride. I just maintain the 9 speed Chorus and it feels as if it will last forever.

Handles well with the occasional racks/light loads as well. It can be a great day tourer when I need it to be.

[IMG]DSCN1425 by Grady Linehan, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Dana Kilalps]

Not sure if John Pavey was a builder or had them made. Reportedly had a shop in Hardwick. This frame is 653, concealed brake cable through the top tube, a type of fastback seat stays and unusual paint.

[El Chaba]

Originally Posted by gomango

Thanks! I was fortunate to purchase the frameset from a forum member here many years ago and it has outlasted many, many bikes. I've seen a few Hollands on the east coast, but pretty much zippo here in the Midwest. The bike is an absolute joy to ride. I just maintain the 9 speed Chorus and it feels as if it will last forever.

Handles well with the occasional racks/light loads as well. It can be a great day tourer when I need it to be.

[IMG]DSCN1425 by Grady Linehan, on Flickr[/IMG]

John Hollands made nice bikes. I don’t know exactly when he stopped, but for a five year +/- period, they were very popular with the racing set here in the Maryland area. I knew his son from racing. He was not young when he started building. He was English and an engineer. I heard that his son had started racing and was looking for a better bike. His father wasn’t satisfied with what he saw and balked at the cost of the stuff that did satisfy him….so he decided to build a frame himself. Pretty soon he had more requests and there were some special pricing schemes for a couple of teams in the area. They had a good reputation.

[DMC707]

I will preface by saying that i have "nicer" and more exotic Italian road machines in my modest collection that i love -- but i can find 25 Colnago Supers (if not more) for every one of these

I think they simply called these the Marin Road Project or something like that.

I am guessing that the folks at MArin just thought to give fans of their ATB's an alternative to Raleigh or Centurion if they want to get in some road miles , as i think the quality likely compares well to an Ironman Centurion or similar machine.








I dont think there are that many Waterford track bikes floaring around either

[martl]

Not too many Mike Appel around i guess. I've seen some odd geometries from him on the net over rhe years. Mine has an unusually long top tube... Maybe he was specializing in such, i dont know. Anyway here it is