Lilac Angel for Larissa

Over the last three weeks I assembled this bike for the girlfriend of a cycling buddy in Bremen. He wanted his girlfriend to start riding and she asked for something that looks good and suits her personal taste.

Tobi (the guy) was able to buy an old OLMO Speedy Gonzales dated from 1990 or 91 with a complete Shimano 105 7-speed setup for less than 20.000 Yen. It took me two weeks to deassemble the whole bike, grease all parts, spot-repair some rusty patches and scratches, grease, lubricate and adjust headset and bottom bracket as part 1 of this project.

Larissa wanted to have some combination with black and lilac as the dominant colors and chrome and white in the back. As they are still young and work in poorly paid jobs (hospital, kindergarten) they didn't wanted to spend too much money. As opposed to professors working in poorly regarded academic institutions that regularly poor thousands of Euros into the garage equivalent of Greece.

We decided on the main components and technical specs and we purchased the necessary spare parts such as chain, cabling, handle bar tape, brake pads, new saddle, Look pedals and new Schwalbe Ultremo tires. In the end we spend less than 35.000 Yen in total on this bike which was somewhat within the budget.

I think the result is a good looking, feminine bike with a sensible design. The main color is black with lilac cables, saddle and tires outlining the contours of the bike. White is the second colour within the triangle of the upper, lower and saddle tube. Design wise everything fits together.

From a technical point of view the bike is now in good shape and the Shimano 105 components work very well. Shifting is smooth and the braking is now super-aggressive. During the project I found out that the outer chain ring had to be exchanged but I was able to buy a NOS Shimano one from the Eighties as replacement.

As the original components were used there were hardly any compatibility issues. Only the truing of the rear wheel took quite along time in order to get the right mix of tension, torsion and trueness in both directions.

If there is one thing I love and hat it is the glossy black handlebar. It looks very good and very sexy - the combination with black leather would be perfect. However it is a pain to wrap the handle bar with this tape from Fizik and I would recommend to use it only with "pure" handlebars, in other words, don't try to wrap brake or shift cables with it.

Larissa was happy when she picked it up on Sunday and so was her boyfriend. I had fun doing the consulting and assembly. Having done previously the Pescarolo and the Kotter, this has been the third bike I assembled for someone else. This will never become a work to earn a living, however the combination of doing something with my hands and making people happy is a quite satisfying one.

More pics are here.

Olmo Evolution One

Well, today is my birthday. Thank you David & Ludwig for your good wishes. I took half a day off from work and my new white Olmo out on a longer ride in splendid autumn weather as a kind of birthday present to myself.

After fiddling and tweaking for weeks on the white Olmo I feel now very good with the (almost) final result. The original idea was to built up a Eighties aerodynamic craze bike (a good example is here) with "aero dynamic brakes", slim seat post, shifters on top of the down tube, internal cable routing, Recessed spoke holes on the hub and a complete Shimano 600 AX group.

Although I am now the owner of a complete 600 AX group set, I encountered some problems: First, the Olmo frame doesn't provide for shift cable routing on top of the chain stays. This used to be the standard for older frames, but this Olmo frame is just too new.

And second, the Shimano 600 AX crank set with 1'' pedal connectors isn' really a thing of great beauty. I gave up on this idea and as I had already bought Campagnolo Super Record brake levers with Olmo pantographs I thought it would be nice to buy some Campa parts for the drive train as well.

The Olmo is now equipped with a Super Record front derailleur and a Gran Sport rear derailleur as well as a Gran Sport crank set. Gears are shifted by Shimano 600EX Arabesque frame shifters, friction type which I believe are the most beautiful baroque shifters ever made.

One problem I always encounter with friction shifters is, that the threads in the braze-on adaptors are worn out so that the screws to connect the shifters to cannot be tighten hard enough. Friction shifters work with ... friction .... so the tighter they are screwed on, the more friction can be provided. If there isn't enough friction available, they tend to slip and this results in unintended gear shifting. The original M5 screws from Shimano are not long enough so that they interact only with a few convolutions. I bought some cheaper screws which do not look as fancy but do the job. But I wonder if there is any better solution?

There are a few things left to be done: I will give up on the aerodynamic idea in terms of bottle holder and buy a nice, old looking bottle holder for standard bottles. I also need to think about the cable routing for the rear derailleur again. And finally I would like to have rubber hoods for the Super Record brake levers. But as vintage spare parts they sell at 40$ a piece if at all.

The Olmo rides beautiful. It is fast and accelerates well. I had no problems to keep up with modern racing bikes on the Wümme trail. I had to get used to ride on the lower part of the handle bar only. With the track style handle bar it's almost impossible to have the hands on the upper part. It is certainly not possible to brake with the hands on the upper part. At first I had some pain in my back but now I got used to it. It is also new again to get used to clip pedals but now I can fairly quickly get in and out of the clip pedals. The braking performance isn't good at all but it is enough for standard situations.

This is a nice bike to ride distances of 50 - 100 km. More than that will be painful. I can also use It for commuting to work.

Having spend all this words of praise or my new white Olmo I need to add that I am currently working on two new bikes:

This is the basis for the first Fixie bicycle I am going to built:

And a good friend from Japan-days asked my to built up an old Cinelli bike for him. This will keep me busy during the long winter months in Bremen.

Olmo from the Ice

Despite the fact that I was raised in the sixties and seventies, my parents didn't own a television set for quite a while. I was forced to go to my grandparents who were living next door when I liked to watch TV. 

From this angle the bike almost looks like a stealth fighter plane.

My favourite programs as a kid were "Krempoli", ""Stanley Beamish, "Mini-Max" and the Augsburger Puppenkiste, a marionette theater that would make any kid of today asleep within 10 seconds. Michael Ende, Ottfried Preussler and Max Kruse all wrote famous pieces for the programm and one I remember in particular were the stories about Urmel. And the charcter I liked most was the sea elephant. One day, when I retire, I want to become like the sea elephant from Urmel. 


So this is perhaps why the name OLMO, which is or was one of the famous Italian steel frame builders of the sixties, seventies and eighties, is high in my personal list. When I started to become interested in old steel bikes a long time ago (autumn 2010, to be precise), the first bike I fell in love with was the Moser Leader AX evolution This is a nice frame but it very hard to get them in large sizes and . now it is somewhat too modern for me with TIG welded joints and unifork. The second bike I fell in love with was an Olmo. I now own too Olmo frames (I have sold the Faggin and the Peugeot in the meantime to finance them). and the blue one from the Nineties will become my commuting bike and the white "Olmo from the Ice" will become the showpiece. 

Still a lot of choices to be made, but here are some photos showing the actual status after working on the bike today. The frame was rusty and in poor conditions when I got it first from Vienna. It was grit-blasted and painted and I bought a set of new decals. Almost every component has a special story. Note the leather grips on the track handle bar, the Shimano 600 AX aero brakes and the Arabesque shifters.


There's so much to write - but another time when the bike is ready. Enjoy the photos.

Campagnolo Super Record Brake Lever with Olmo Pantographs plus leather grips.

Shimano 600AX front brake - Eighties arero craze porn

The cockpit: Olmo stem with Italian flag

Pantographed fork and Arabesque shifters

Gran Compe Saddle

Front view on pave

Rear view on pave