Some of you may remember me mentioning a couple of weeks ago after my velocipedal adventures in the woodland that I had bought a frameset so I can build up an off-road bike, while learning something about bike maintenance.
The frameset arrived today. I bought it as 'new old stock' from a chap in the Netherlands who seems to deal in bike bits. It's a purpose-built cyclocross frameset from the late 80s / early 90s, branded Concorde Toscana. Here it is in my back yard: <http://www.web-options.com/Concorde/> I'd never heard of Concorde, but my reading shows that they were a Dutch concern which rebranded bikes made in Italy by Ciocc, so their model names were always Italian (e.g. Toscana). They seem to be very well thought of. According to this book: <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3Iy0nKSCC-8C&pg=PT19&lpg=PT19&dq=concord e+toscana+cyclocross&source=bl&ots=Rkudeyjnw3&sig=SieJac7M5vznjIfobyO1tU9_1t U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4wRRU9T9OYjLON2dgZAO&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=concorde%20 toscana%20cyclocross&f=false> the brand is "much idolised". Since buying the frameset I've seen that there is a thriving little fan-base on the internet. Concorde ran a successful TdF team which was eventually disbanded, allegedly for reasons not entirely unchemical, and they had a cyclocross rider who became world champion. So they have a pedigree. <http://www.cycloretro.com/pdm-cycling-team> Whether or not mine was made by Ciocc, I don't know. It's Columbus Thron tubing; Thron appears to be sorta middle-of-the-road (or perhaps middle-of-the-muddy-field) but still better than yer average chromoly, oversize tubing from the era. It feels heavier than my Roberts, which is to be expected since my Roberts is a lightweight tourer made from 853 tubing - not a slugger designed for mud-wrestling, but it's not actually heavy, if you see what I mean. The seat-tube, top-tube and chainstays are exactly the same length as my Roberts. The head tube is a little shorter than the Roberts, and the angles are not quite as relaxed - they seem to be about 1 degree more upright. I can expect a slightly twitchier ride with a more aggressive position, so I wouldn't expect to use it for long tours - but that's not what it's for. I think it should be fine for muddy days in the great unpaved. It's never been built up, so I'll be taking it in to the workshop to get the necessary bits faced, reamed and Waxoyled, and to get my parts list priced up and ordered. Then hopefully I can get the build underway. Jolly exciting. Thanks for your patience! B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
