Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Koichi Yamagughi built World Championship time trial frame and fork
This is a pretty special bike. It was built by Koichi Yamaguchi in the mid 1980's for Huffy Corp. / Mike Melton. It was used in the 1986 World Championship time trial event and then used for the 1988 Olympics as a time trial training bike, where the rear seat stay was broken (see photo). It was then retired and given to Jerry Schultz, by Mr. Yamaguchi under the condition that it can never be sold. It was then given to us, by Jerry in the late 1990's. Again, under the condition that it never be sold. So, here it sits. It is a good conversation piece as most people see the decals and immediately dismiss it, or poke fun. I then have to explain the provenance and that it is a unique piece. We also have the letter of certification from Mr. Yamaguchi stating the above facts, very cool. These are the types of bikes that hold the most interest to me, actual race bikes that can be traced back to a specific event / athlete. Enjoy the photos!
Saturday, January 25, 2014
The Campagnolo HI-LO rear hub: A brief history.
Today I came across one of my favorite hubs, the elusive Campagnolo Hi-Lo rear hub. Ours is NOS and 36 hole drilling. English threading for freewheel.
So, the story as I understand it goes like this; They were first made in 1972 for the West German olympic team. Hugo Rickert, who made bikes for the West German olympic team made a special order with Campagnolo for the Hi-Lo hubs. They created quite a stir at the olympics and started a bit of a rage for them. It did not last long. Euro-Asia had a run made in 1977-1978. The rumor was that 500 sets were required for Campagnolo to do a run. Others surfaced from Germany with the later skewers and typography to indicate threading. One or more of the bigger German importers also got in on the deal. Hubs from 1972 will not have threading described with typography, just groove coded.
They became available in the 1982 olympic Campagnolo catalog and disappeared into obscurity. Phil Wood also made a version and I believe Hi-E did as well.
So, the story as I understand it goes like this; They were first made in 1972 for the West German olympic team. Hugo Rickert, who made bikes for the West German olympic team made a special order with Campagnolo for the Hi-Lo hubs. They created quite a stir at the olympics and started a bit of a rage for them. It did not last long. Euro-Asia had a run made in 1977-1978. The rumor was that 500 sets were required for Campagnolo to do a run. Others surfaced from Germany with the later skewers and typography to indicate threading. One or more of the bigger German importers also got in on the deal. Hubs from 1972 will not have threading described with typography, just groove coded.
They became available in the 1982 olympic Campagnolo catalog and disappeared into obscurity. Phil Wood also made a version and I believe Hi-E did as well.
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