Taking time out of my holiday to say: DAMN, DUDE! That is one pretty frame. My dream frame is very similar. I want a Colnago Master X-Lite.
Can't wait to see the finished bike. Christian. -----Original Message----- From: "frank theriault" [knarftheria...@gmail.com] Date: 12/22/2009 06:57 PM To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <PDML@pdml.net> Subject: Re: GESO - A Marinoni for Christmas (caution: Bike Pron) The bikies (especially Scott) on this list will appreciate this one. A friend of my room mate's called me yesterday just before I left for work and asked if he could deliver something. He also told me that Mark (the room mate) left a message with him that I should open the Christmas card he left for me before he flew to Nova Scotia for his Christmas with the family. I opened the card which said (among other things), "enjoy the frame". I'm thinking, "what, a picture frame?" I couldn't figure it out. The friend had recently stripped down his old Marinoni road bike and I'd been drooling over it. Five minutes after our conversation, there's the friend at the door, holding the Marinoni, big grin on his face, saying, "Merry Christmas from Mark!". Here's some quick and dirty pix of it: http://knarfdummyblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/marinoni-for-christmas.html Marinoni has been making bikes in Montreal since the '70's. They were so prized that many Euro pros bought them, stripped the paint off them and rode them painted with the sponsor's bike colours and logos on them (a practice which doesn't happen in these days of very unique-looking carbon fibre frames). Marinonis (until recently) were all steel, Columbus tubed and lugged frames. All of them are hand-made by the original owner, Giuseppe, who still handmakes all the bikes with his name on it. Here's a very interesting little article on him: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=2253a1ff-a288-45bf-9ada-e3ef22e91d56 http://tinyurl.com/yd8o6qs This one is from the early-to-mid 90's, made of Columbus SL tubing. It's not one of his premier models, but is a solid road frame that should last a long, long time (and it's my size - 56 cm). As you can see, it's a bit scratched, but not offensively so. I've had a banged up road bike sitting unused in a corner, so my winter's project will be to strip the parts off that one and have this beauty ready for the spring. A pretty damned amazing Christmas prezzie! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.