My buddy had this album when it first came out and of course the first thing we did with any new vinyl back then was make a cassette tape of it. We were in grade 10 at the time, we were both newly licensed drivers (both born on the same day actually) and I remember driving the back roads at night, literally flirting with disaster, with this just cranked in his Ford Capri...

Ah the memories...

 

It was definitely a beautiful day to ride a bike...and it was definitely a beautiful day to race a bike...BUT not when your legs feel like SHIT SANDWICHES. I headed across town to race the weekly Cleves Tuesday Night Time Trial...hauled my restored '89 Schwinn Waterford Paramount to conduct the usual trainer warm up prior to the race (thanks to @styggpyggeno1 for the motivation to utilize my semi-vintage road bike)...BUT during the trainer warm up, I soon realized that my legs felt like...SHIT SANDWICHES...so I didn't race. Instead, I packed everything up and went to Dunkin' Donuts...YAY!

Restored '89 Schwinn Waterford Paramount...


'13 Colnago K.Zero, restored '89 Schwinn Waterford Paramount and '07 Ford Police Interceptor...


Speedy Gonzales says, "It's time to go to Dunkin' Donuts"...

 

Yesterday I took this one out for a ride. Might be my favourite bike. It may also be because of the triple crank...

 

Road racing season is over (man, my legs hurt)...so now it's time to relax for a few months and take my 25 year old mountain bike (Trek 8000) for a whirl around the block. I really groove on the Brooks Pro saddle...it just keeps getting better with age...and as my dad would say, "Son, nothing beats a Brooks!" My dad track raced on Brooks saddles in the 1920's...they haven't changed much over the years.

Late entry: DD coffee is in the bottle.
Later entry: Man, my lawn looks like "shit sandwiches".

 

Score!

Found 18 cents on the ride!

YAY!

 

State Champ 'pose down' on the Thursday shop ride tonight! Showed up for the local Thursday shop ride and Erica (pictured on left below) has her 2015 Ohio Criterium Champ jersey on...so I say, "That's bullshit...I'm going back home to fetch my 2013 Ohio Time Trial Champ jersey...and then we're going to have a 'pose down', sister!" So we had a 'pose down' prior to the ride...good times...

 

When in Australia in my youth - a fellow bouncer called me "a silly bugger". I now pass that title on to you.

 

Maybe I will just take back the title "silly bugger" with this post... Wrote this today for a bike nerd site.

A very special Champion Strada/Legnano Roma Olimpiade

In the mid fifties Thord Lönnquist, Stockholm, Sweden, started his company ECI (Europeiska Cykel Importen) and soon his bikes started to break the Crescent/Monark dominance among racers. He established contacts in Italy and France to go about it seriously. In the early sixties he started his own team, CK Champion, and some of Sweden’s best cyclists joined him. “The yellow” (Crescent) and “The blue” (Monark) teams now had stiff competition to meet in “The Green” team. Thord also registered the name Champion as a bike brand.

The earlier fifties frames are said to have been made in-house but during the sixties frames were bought from, among others - Legnano, Urago and Torpado. Thord pioneered in bringing continental race parts and frames to Sweden. The seventies and eighties saw Colnagos, Cinellis, Bianchis, Gelianos, and a lot of other brands rolling out thru the shop doors. Thord ran his bike shop, jammed with top of the line frames and components, up to the late eighties and then his son took over and still runs it. Thord died in 1998 - much too early.

As the early team frames were Legnano I do have a theory that the green colour of the team was just a function of it being Legnanos signature colour – and being that - the team adopted it.

The bike presented here is a Champion Strada but it is also a Legnano Roma Olimpiade. Legnanos top of the line offering. The bike is probably from 1964. Apart from the obvious difference regarding the decals it has all the tell tale signs of a LRO – the longer and slotted seat lug, 27 mm seatpost, the seatstay attachment to the seat lug, investment cast Campagnolo dropouts, etc. The LRO normally has a serial number horizontally at the back of the seat lug – and so did this frame. I write “did” as it was ground away at the factory or at least before it got painted (see pictures). Instead this frame has a totally different kind of serial number on the bottom bracket shell. There are indentions on the head tube where the Legnano head badge was supposed to be mounted and fastened.

The only thing that puzzles me is the Vitus decal.

Equipment is Campagnolo Record, a Milremo stem, a CTA handlebar, Mafac Racer brakes. The bike originally came from Thord Lönnquists own collection of vintage bikes (along the way he had became one of Sweden’s leading authorities on the subject) that, after his death, was sold among fellow collectors. I am its third owner after Thord. I do believe it has its original parts. As almost all racing bikes in Sweden at that time it was built for its owner and there is no such thing as catalogue correct (I believe there was no catalogue for Champion at the time). I have not had the time to check the hub lock nuts yet but the hubs have the “Record” text. Sorry for the sad looking tires but they do not hold air anymore…

I am really glad I got hold of this bike. I normally only collect bikes in my own size (58-60 c/c) but for this one (57 c/c) I make an exception. I have been trying to get one of Thord´s (or Thordan as he was called) Champion bikes for a long time. Thordan was sort of a character – he had a reputation of being kind of harsh and reserved. The first time I met him, in the mid eighties, I got that impression too. But we soon got to talk about vintage bikes and I – at that time a young and novice collector, soon got to see a passionate and warm person – willing to share and help. I knew him as a fellow collector and we helped each other out with parts and restoration problems many times. I do miss him.

My plan for the bike is a cleanup, lowering the saddle height a little to get it to harmonize better with the frame size, sliding the saddle a little bit forward, a new set of tires and last but not least – adjusting the handlebar lower grips parallel to the ground.
I believe I have one of the nicest examples of early Champion: s known and I will cherish it not only as an example of a nice high quality vintage race bike but also as the legacy of an important man - for me - and for the Swedish bike community.







Ground away serial number at back of seatlug.



This is Campagnolo Record (pre- Nuovo Record).







More pictures here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/45306161@N03/albums/72157657732299410

Edit: Realized Legnano will be 99,99999 % unknown here as it is a watch site. Even on bike sites it will be unknown to 98 % of modern bikers. It is one of the most legendary brands.
http://condorino.com/2013/04/10/the-history-of-legnano/
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/Legnano/Legnano_history.htm
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/Legnano/Legnano_main.htm
http://www.retrospectivecycles.com/pages/history-of-classic-italian-bikes

 

lovely day for a bike ride indeed........ its just too damn hot to pedal.

 

No riding today...BUT...

Speedy Gonzales made our 2015 masters road racing team pic tonight.

Where's Speedy?

 

Masters team ride today (part of the team, at least)...great weather in the mid 50's on northern Kentucky roads. With the road racing season over, were now in the base miles phase for the next road season. I'm the one in the pic below on the right attempting to do the 'rock on' devil horns with my left hand...a fellow team member took the pic.

 

Perfect autumn day to ride the Schwinn Sprint fixed gear machine...good times.



Psycho Pseiko 6309 machine came along for the ride...more good times.

 

Here we ride bikes every day; sun, rain, snow. Nice trip it seems though.

 

Is that a Police Interceptor Crown Vic in the background?

 

Yes sir!

It's my 2007 Ford Police Interceptor (P71 base police package) that I purchased new from a Ford Fleet dealership in 2007 (first pic below). Following purchase, I had it modified with Ford Racing 3:73 gears / Trac-Lok LSD and an SCT tune. It's my daily driver and I occasionally drag race it at the local track...as well as show it at local cruise events...AND use it to haul my bikes around to local races. I got into cop cars while serving as a full time Cincinnati Police Officer from 2004 to 2006 while furloughed from Delta Air Lines (second pic below).

 

You've had two of the coolest jobs going!
The Vic is too cool. But it needs moonies.
Love your style man.

 

Thanks @pitpro.

I run the moonies (OEM stainless steel center caps) during the winter months to save the OEM full wheel covers from road chemical damage...I'll be doing the switch soon.

 

What kind of performance can one expect from Potemkin? Topspeed, quartermile, 0-55 mph, 55-0 mph and G: s cornering?

 

Potemkin? As in the battleship Potemkin?

Top speed: About 130 mph.

Modified config 1/4 mile: 15.5 seconds with the current Ford Racing and SCT mods (3:73 gears, LSD and 15HP tune).
Stock config 1/4 mile: 15.9 seconds (250HP at crank, 297TQ).

0-55 mph: I have no idea...but I believe the drag race time slips may show this...I'll have to look.

55-0 mph: I have no idea.

Cornering G's: I have no idea.

 

@Mad Dog the moonies look way cooler IMO! And I'm not sure I like the idea of you with a gun (too much Dunkin Donuts coffee)...