1948? Galmozzi

This is the iconic picture of Gino Bartali shifting the Campagnolo Cambio Corsa shifter, possibly astride a Galmozzi, often his bicycle of choice. Bartali was a pretty decent rider. He won the Giro d'Italia three times and the Tour de France twice. He probably would have won more, but that inconvenient World War II intervened, then near the end of his career that pesky Fausto Coppi arrived on the scene. 

Below is a watercolor based on the photo. I would like to credit the artist, but such is the way of the internet, I don't know who painted it. I'll just have to give him a two thumbs up.

 

To the left is a copy of Tullio Campagnolo's drawings of the Cambio Corsa. Bear with me campers (or is it, "Bare with me"?) this will all come together eventually.

So much for the hors d'oeuvres, the appetizers. Now the main course, a late 1940's Galmozzi. We'll call it a 1948, as in 1949 the Cambio Corsa was superseded, or rather "joined",  by the single lever Paris-Roubaix. Whatever the age, it was old ... and rough.

Per Aldo Ross:
Gunnar, the two-lever Cambio Corsa continued in production after the introduction of the single-lever unit (not called Paris-Roubaix until after Coppi's win in 1950). The P-R shifter cost something like three times as much as the Cambio Corsa, thus could be sold as an economical alternative. The Cambio Corsa and P-R were both still being marketed even as Campagnolo introduced the Gran Sport derailleur, and were still being used on new bikes into the mid-1950s.



















                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

One can never have too many visual aids or pie charts (actually had a management consultant tell me that one time). Here's a video of a restoration of the above Galmozzi frame. You are permitted to skip ahead and come back to this, but be warned, it's worth a minute, 43 of your life, if only for the musical background.

Here's the results of the above work.

Rory Mason found this when he was working for Cannondale in Europe and he is responsible for the beautiful restoration. Rory and I trace our relationship back to Dan Ulwelling who died in January of 2006. He was one of the finest men I have ever known.

The dessert? Today I bought this bicycle.