Cool old bike

I visited Tom's Bicycles in Tulsa this afternoon, and while poking around in the back room, I came across this! It's a lovely Italvega from the 1970's with a full Campagnolo component group. The frame is Columbus, as was customary on Italian bikes at the time, but what was truly astonishing was the bike's condition.



I would have given my eye teeth for one of these back in the day. At the time, a Raleigh Professional or Schwinn Paramount with full Campy sold for about a thousand dollars - well out of my price range since I made only about eight thousand a year at the time. Tom plans to sell this one on E-bay.


Another astonishing thing was the story that went along with the bike. An elderly couple living on a farm were allowing their grandchildren to play on the bike up until one of the sew-ups went flat. They brought it into the shop hoping to have the tire fixed. Tom - being the stand-up guy that he is - told them what they had and offered a fair price for it. They left happy.

This bike is lovely....and it's my size. But I couldn't justify buying it only to hang it on the wall. I'd ride it and ride it hard. The bike deserves better than that.