Ultimate Bike Thread....

[URY914]

[URY914]

[BGCarrera32]

LeMond - The official site of Greg LeMond

Greg and the Professor

[CurtEgerer]

After LeMond retired, he got into open-wheel racing with a couple of years of Formula Ford. He didn't have much success. I saw him race at MidOhio and have some pics somewhere. Here's a good interview from back in the 90's discussing car and bike racing, Lance Armstrong, etc. :

Once Was King

The Gitane-Renault-Elf days ...

[intakexhaust]

^^^ Curt- Great interview and thanks for the link. Please post those pics.

[CurtEgerer]

Yeah, really cool to read an interview from nearly 20 years ago and his thoughts on the drug scene, etc. back then.

[greglepore]

Did a little research Curt-the Team Lemond trademark was registered here in 1987. Some bikes were built by Della Santa under that name. In fact, there's a beautiful one in "greg Lemond " livery, allegedly a team z bike from 90, on ebay now. No mention of the components, but the era seems right.

[BGCarrera32]

Met LeMond briefly twice at autograph signings back in the day after his Tour wins...while there was plenty of controversy later on regarding things he said (costing him LeMond frame manufacture by Trek before Armstrong ultimately admitted to doping) he is genuine and a good guy, someone I'd love to bump into again.

Also talked and rode *very* briefly with Sean Kelly. Fun stuff.

Here's a pic of my authentic 7 Eleven jersey worn by Tom Schuler, one of the original members of the team. It is mint.

[look 171]

LeMond was / is our American hero who gave the Euro boys hell. Now riding with King Kelly, a true classics animal, is the stuff of legends. Care to tell me more about that and that jersey? Is that pre pro days? I remember reading about those guys going to Europe to ride pro like it was yesterday. I literally went home after (high) school waited for the mail to come just to read about it in the four page Velonews. It was usually about a month late with the European race results. That or wait for Winning Mag.

[look 171]

Curt, I think someone got excited about LeMond and decided to pantograph the name on the SR. SR was just coming to an end when LeMond started to make bikes. Who knows, he may have started a small batch production run. All in all, that's really cool to have and I bet its so rare that we wouldn't see another one out there.

[BGCarrera32]

Originally Posted by look 171

LeMond was / is our American hero who gave the Euro boys hell. Now riding with King Kelly, a true classics animal, is the stuff of legends. Care to tell me more about that and that jersey? Is that pre pro days?

In 1997 there was the "Sean Kelly Tour"...as I recall he dropped in here as our local pro at the time, Joe Parkin, was one of the domestiques riding for Kelly on the PDM team (don't quote me on the exact team that's fuzzy). On a Friday morning there was a sizeable contingent of the local cyclists here in the Minneapolis area that were invited to roll out on 20-ish mile ride with him. There were about 150 riders, but the one thing I recall Sean doing was drifting around from the front of the bunch to the back and at least saying hello or giving a nod to everyone that was out on the ride. Pretty cool. That night there was a reception and question/answer panel and several of us got to talk to him and shake hands.

The 7-Eleven jersey was acquired by the uncle of a friend that owned a bike shop, said uncle lived in the Boulder area for a while and passed it on to me. I got the jersey around '89, and it has "Tom" written in ink up on the inside collar. Oddly enough, if you look at the majority of 7-Eleven images out there the guys are all wearing Descente manufactured jerseys. BUT- the photo below is right around '85 which if I recall is when the team came to fruition, and there is the Castelli mark. Schuler is dead center, with Davis Phinney on the left. I saw Davis race here in '88 or '89, he was a machine...

[look 171]

That must be cool riding and meeting Kelley. A few months ago, I went on a ride with Hincapie when he visited a shop pushing BMC bikes. He did just that, going slow talking with people. I had to spend 100 bucks for a BMC jersey to have him sign it. Come and think of it, you are correct, they were mostly Descents.

I love that photo. Funny I can ID 6 of those guys without thinking. Alexi Grewal said in an interview I read in a mag about 6 months ago when asked about today's cat 1s speed compared to the speed of the old days. He claims that are not too fast and it take some time to get them back. But when Phinney got away, there will be hell to pay and you just can't nail him back. We had Thurlow Rogers out here. Talk about a machine. They are at a different level entirely. he will ride us off his wheels from the front. If you were watching from the sideline, it looks like we just let him go.

[intakexhaust]

Lots of talk here of early Gitane riders... Fignon, LeMond and the 'Badger'. If anyone is interested, I'm thinking of selling an early 70's TDF (R-531 tubes). Original but been stashed and long forgotten. Some TLC and tubies are needed (I might have something good to pop on). Saddles are a personal thing and one would probably want their own so I would leave the axe hatchet on it. Although I might have a nice condition vintage leather Ideale around to complete the French theme. If anyone is interested, maybe in the next couple of days will drag the hag gypsy out and take some pics. Would rather sell it as it is without fussing with it, rubber, saddle, etc. as I've got enough other ongoing projects.

[intakexhaust]

Jacques Anquetil in the early 1960's rode Gitane but here he is in 1966 with Hutchinson and Ford sponsorship.

[Racerbvd]

[intakexhaust]

Magnus von Braun bike when he and Werner surrendered to the US

[look 171]

forget the bikes, I want that Jeep.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

Lots of talk here of early Gitane riders... Fignon, LeMond and the 'Badger'. If anyone is interested, I'm thinking of selling an early 70's TDF (R-531 tubes). Original but been stashed and long forgotten. Some TLC and tubies are needed (I might have something good to pop on). Saddles are a personal thing and one would probably want their own so I would leave the axe hatchet on it. Although I might have a nice condition vintage leather Ideale around to complete the French theme. If anyone is interested, maybe in the next couple of days will drag the hag gypsy out and take some pics. Would rather sell it as it is without fussing with it, rubber, saddle, etc. as I've got enough other ongoing projects.

Sounds like a pretty cool bike What size?

So to go along with the Team LeMond chainring, I just picked up an NOS 'Bernard Hinault' Edition Turbo saddle from Spain. Now I'd like to find something as a subtle tribute to Fignon to complete the trifecta, but I'm coming up completely empty on that one

[CurtEgerer]

I guess I could wear his trademark Renault-Elf headband

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

Now I'd like to find something as a subtle tribute to Fignon to complete the trifecta, but I'm coming up completely empty on that one

Grow a ponytail?