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Sorry, you're right, Dugast. You'd never imagine that cream rubber tyres would looks so good! I like the FMB though, got a nice French flag on them too :)
The FB hubs in the 1950 Fonteyn catalogue are solid axle, the 1954 Holdsworth Aids is the first one with the Campag quick release hubs and BHC were advertising theirs in the 1955 catalogue. They definitely rushed them out, the quick release front hub just re-uses their rear barrel to accommodate the thicker drilled axle. Interesting looking at the Stronglight 1957 catalogue yesterday, talking about the 57 cranks their advice for cyclists upgrading from their 49 cranks was just to replace the right crank and rings. Pretty sure people were jamming Campag qr skewers in their Airlites as soon as they could get their hands on them!
I've got a feeling the Italians themselves don't pay those optimistic prices on Ebay. I suspect the 20% vat will bring prices down a bit, although no change for US and Asian buyers >.<
I got a nos Stronglight Competition headset a couple of years ago for £90 and thought I was splashing out. Amazing the inflation in prices in the last 18 months. There are a couple of nice Magistroni headsets on Ebay at the moment courtesy of @Nbenja3!
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veloham
Agree it could have been assembled at any point over the last 70 years - it sort of feels right though somehow. If it’s been living out in Italy for decades it would have been primo exotic.
‘What is this Chater Lea?’
😂
Didn’t know those Dugast tyres were being made still/again (FMB?) they’re pretty cool.
Now you mention it, I remember hearing that about retrofitting QRs in Airlites, I wonder if Brits started doing that before BHC started making them.
I’ve been looking at Gnutti or FB hubs and wondering how early their (under license from Campag) QRs appeared over here.
Having been out of the buying/selling old bike toot game for some years I’ve noticed there seems to have been a big L’Eroica effect in Italy - certainly in the optimistic pricing on eBay anyway.