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@Ludd
For many years now I have owned this rather elegant frameset. It came to me very used, painted up as a Concorde in PDM-era livery and with a mixed groupset of Campag (including a bit of Record) and Shimano. The tubing was labelled as specially reinforced Columbus. After a few years' use as my summer bike, I decided it was time to clean it up, at which stage I discovered the name "Pogliaghi" pantographed (if that's the right word) into the shoulders of the seatstays, and suddenly the "SP" logo on the fork crown also made sense.
I have never really got to the bottom of where the bike originated. Sante Pogliaghi was dead long before people started making frames with internal brake cable routing, didn't he? I know the brand changed hands a few times. Did Basso or Massi own the name at some point? But would they have used these fancy lugs?
Mario Vaz did a quick and cheap respray (including a mis-spelling of Pogliaghi in his gold lug-lining pen on one of the seatstays!) and I carried on using it for all sorts of rides, particularly the Ride of the Falling Leaves, the Dun Run (in 7h30), a three day Paris to London ride and numerous FNRttC excursions.
It proved to be an exceptionally comfortable ride, if not amazingly light, and it attracted quite a bit of attention with its crimped "Gilco" style down and top tubes and slightly fancy lugs that seemed at odds with the internal cable routing for the rear brake.
It was after one of those FNRttC rides - to Whitstable, to wit - that I was cleaning the Kentish crud off the frame and noticed a crack in the paint surface on the underside of the downtube, just below the join with the head tube. Eek. A bit of scraping revealed what looked like a fairly elderly crack - already showing some corrosion - almost half way round the tube. Time to retire this frame.
It then lived hanging up in our utility room, serving as a reminder of the many happy rides I'd had on it. I did wonder about getting a new down tube brazed in, but never felt strongly enough about it, and have been distracted by many other bikes since then.
I have no idea whether this is something that a Pogliaghi fan would want to take on as a project, or if it's just a case of making a decent fork available, but I think it's time to offer it here.
It's a 55cm frame, spaced at 126mm at the rear (I ran it as a 7 speed mostly, but it flexed out to take 130mm hubs easily enough without cold-setting). It has a functioning headset in place, and its BB shell is Italian threaded. It's in Forest Hill (SE23).
Price? Tricky one, given that I have no idea how salvageable it really is, or how desirable in this poor cosmetic state. Please let me know if I'm way out, but would it be of interest to anyone at £125?
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