My Haral

I found this Haral on Craigslist in Santa Cruz.   Had never heard of the brand before, so looked it up and didn't find much.  I did find that it was a French custom bike maker located in the French mountainous area of the Haute Savoie. The red cross insignia on the frame, similar to a Swiss cross, is the symbol of this area of France.  It is a 59cm Haral "Chambery" and was made of  unique tubing by Gautier-Trousell of Longueville  near Paris which  was used in the Excell Mexico II series of frames.  It has a curved top tube and seat tube which allows for shorter rear chain stays.  The strong yet lightweight tubing  design made the bike frame stiffer and increased pedal efficiency, and I understand that these frames were popular time trial or Triathalon bikes They usually were built out with a top rated component set.     This one has Shimano Dura Ace derailleurs,  and a 500 brake set  circa late 1980s.  Not many of these bikes made it across the Atlantic.  I was told that this bike originally belonged to a  tall beautiful  female professional rider from Wisconsin. 

Bikes I have Had That Matter

I have a album on Picasa of many of the bikes I have found at garage sales that I have polished and fixed up and usually sent out into the world to a new life. You may access via my link on this blog!

Bianchi Super Leggera

Refer to my previous post on the Univega Modo. I bought the Modo at a garage sale for $100, and because it ended up being small for me I sold it. It brought $400 on Craigslist which was nice. I noticed the 1989 Super Leggera listed shortly after I sold the Modo. It was my size (59cm), and I finally got a response from the seller and went to see it. He asked for $450 and I bought it for $420 including a set of Campy Clipless pedals with cleats, which I still have not figured out! They are very cool looking though, but a bit on the heavy side. It is a very nice bike with the best Columbus lightweight steel alloy SLX frame, and a complete Campy Chorus Groupset. I would have been really excited with a Record group on it, but the Chorus seems very nice. My understanding is the the main difference in the two is that the Record is lighter and a bit more finely made (and more expensive), but the performance of the Chorus is very good and it is a more "rugged" component set. It also has the original Ambrosio wheelset with newer Michelin Carbon Pro tires. The frame is in excellent condition with just a couple of chips and scratches. I have some Celeste touch up paint on order. Some of the nuts and screws have some tarnish on them which is typical, but they cleaned up pretty good with some fine steel wool and a bit of polish. The alloy components themselves are in nice condition. I have the original Celeste colored Bianchi saddle which is in very good condition and looks cool on the bike, but have a newer saddle on it that fits me a bit better erogonomically.

It took me a while to get everything tuned to my body, but after a couple 20 milers, I am very comfortable on the bike. I think I will keep it!

my,my,my,my MONDIA

There it was laying on the lawn at a garage sale. It was a small frame, probably 52 cm, and was dirty and kind of forlorn looking. It had a smallish kid's style recreational handlebar with cheap brake levers on it cabled to the original MaFac brakeset. Stem mounted Suntour shifters were connected to Suntour derailleurs. Suprisingly, the front rim was an older style Mavic Cosmos, and the rear was a lessor 80's Mavic too, but the tires were cheap and in bad condition. It had cheap plastic flat recreational pedals on it, and the chain was rusty and off the ring. The seat was a comfort recreational mounted on a cheap steel seatpost. I looked at it more closely and noticed that the Campy name was on most of the other components, including the crankset and headset, as well as all the frame clamps (shifter stops, original pump mount, and cable routers).

The frame was burnt orange with fade to chrome on the stays and under the grime it looked like it was in good condition with just typical scrapes and chips. Most of the decals were in pretty good condition although the Reynolds 531 decal was washed out. A kid came up and told me that the bike needed work so I could probably get it cheap! I asked what he wanted for it and he motioned to his dad who came over. His dad said what do you think? And I said it needed a lot of work, and I offered $5, and he said OK! I tried to look normal and hauled it off. Just the Cosmos wheel was worth a lot more than $5. People just want to get rid of stuff at garage sales. I should have asked more about the history of the bike. I'm still curious what happened to the original Campy stuff and how it got a Mavic Cosmos on the front. I hope they still don't have a box in the garage with the Campy stuff sitting at the bottom!

When I got it home, I gave it a good wash and cleaned all the nooks and crannies. The frame looked very good. I looked up Mondia on the CR website and from the few Mondias listed with serial numbers figured that it was a 71-72 model. I decided I would start shopping ebay to replace what I could with Vintage Campy to restore it as best I could. It originally had bar end campy shifters which are hard to come by these days, so I decided to install downtube shifters instead.

So I made a list:

1. A vintage wheelset with Campy hubs in good condition.
2. Campy Nouvo Record derailleurs front and rear from the 70's.
3. 3ttt bar and stem from the 70's.
4. Campy clamp style downtube shifters from the 70's.
5. A vintage seat in good condition.
6. Vintage brake levers--Campy.

What I got: (Incl shipping)

1. Nice Mavic rims with rebuilt Campy hubs probably late 70's early 80's. eBay--$75.
2. A Nouvo Record rear derailleur pat 72 in super nice condition. eBay--$20. A front Nouvo Record circa 1979-1980. eBay--$10. (I was the only bid on both)
3. 3ttt bar and stem (together) vintage probably 70's. eBay--$8. (my 2.50 bid was it +shipping)
4. Campy clamp downtube shifters vintage 70's. eBay--$32. (I missed two before I just did a buy it now.)
5. I found a Brooks saddle (B17) at a garage sale on a 1984 Raleigh (another 52cm) that was in nice shape. (Paid $20 for the bike) I put a different seat on the Raleigh along with inexpensive new tubes and tires and sold it for $125. The Brooks looks very classy on the Mondia doesn't it? The profit on the Raleigh paid for most the Mondia stuff.
6. I found some vintage late 60's MaFac brake levers with white rubber grips. They were cool! eBay--$10. (I was the lone bid, seller said he took them off a old 60's French bike he parted out.)

A friend of mine made me a very nice wall mount to hang this bike in the den. I just put inexpensive tires on it since it won't probably be ridden much. (Forte--$20 a pair). I also had some shiny chrome clipless pedals that look sleek mounted on the cranks.

It's pretty to look at. It fits my wife, so maybe I can get her to get out on it sometime. She has a Trek 1400 with Shimano 105 she likes better.

The Year of the Bike Part 5--Modo No mo!

I Rode my Univega Modo garage sale bike three times logging about 60 miles and finally decided it was just a bit to small for me. I had paid $100 for it about a month ago, and decided that I would ask $450 on craigslist. It didn't sell for the first 7 day listing, so I dropped the price to $400 and re-listed. It sold the next week to a guy it fit perfectly!

I'm back to riding my Trek 1200 recently. It is an aluminum frame with Shimano 105 and rides pretty nice. It fits me! I changed the battery in the cat eye a month ago and can't get it to show MPH. It is stuck on Kilometers so now I have to try to guess at what it all means.

Why doesn't the U.S. just change to the metric system like the rest of the world? I guess the cost of doing it trumps the ultimate value of the convenience of it in the short term. Americans are so contrary.

Usually I stick to road bikes, but I bought a GT mountain bike with a front Rockshox this last weekend at a garage sale for $40. It was in good shape and everything worked. I polished it up, patched the front tube, oiled the chain, and put it on Craigslist for $140 during my lunch hour the other day. It sold that evening to someone thrilled to get it. Another bike rescued and put into a new loving home! And the bit of extra money keeps me from getting guilty when I buy a Venti Grande in the morning for a couple bucks!

I noticed an early 90s Bianchi Superleggera on Craigslist today for $450 that was my size and responded via email. It had Campy Chorus on it according to the add. Record might have been better, but it looks in nice original condition from the picture. I never get responses to emails I send on craigslist, unless they are to inform me that the bike sold. I would buy it if I had the chance and probably sell my Trek 1200 which rides OK but has no "elan" about it. Never miss a change to upgrade!!!

Year of the Bike--Part 4-The Olmo

Part 4 is at http://marksspot2.blogspot.com/2007/07/year-of-bike-part-4-olmo.html

Year of the Bike--Part3--the Univega Moto

Part 3 is at http://marksspot2.blogspot.com/2007/07/year-of-bike-part-3-univa-moto.html