The Good China

Believe it or not, at one time these were considered bling wheels. Of course we did not call them bling then. They were the good stuff though. Record rims were rarely seen anywhere other than the pages of Winning Bicycle Illustrated. Mavic GP4s, GL330s, and G.E.L. 280s were the standard. Less common, but I always felt easier to build into a round wheel were Campy's reasonably priced Victory Strada and Victory Crono rims. You would see some Ambrosio, Araya, Wolber, and probably other brands that I'm forgetting, but GL330s and GP4s were by far the most common. The much coveted Mavic SSC Blue was another PRO only Paris-Roubaix rim. Like the Record Pave, they cost at least twice as much as GP4s, so you didn't see too many at the local races.

I only got the rims in the picture because one of the distributors had a sale on 28 hole models. Nobody used to ride 28 hole for anything but a TT, and so the idea of a 400+ gram wide and burly rim with so few holes didn't fly and resulted in overstock or something. In my quest for economy, I committed the sacrilegious act of lacing these top of the line Italian hoops to Japanese Dura-Ace hubs. That's life; they were still the nicest wheels in the house.



Vittorias were still handmade in Italy then. I used to buy 30-40 at a time each spring, with a unit cost of less than $30, and then pass on the savings to my friends and teammates. There were more expensive tires available, and the mystique of silk lured in some, but the cotton CX and CG from Vittoria was the best choice IMHO. For these wheels though, I obtained some extra wide CG Paves to complete the PRO program of the day.

As you can see though, these tires have more spoke rub wear on their sidewalls from storage than they do tread wear from being ridden. Live and learn. This tire still looks great but I'd have a hard time trusting something so old in a race, even though it's always been stored properly. The rear is a threaded freewheel 126 so it's of no use. I guess these will end up on a wall art bike. Makes me wonder about not riding the current good stuff at Battenkill this week. Trust me though, I'll ride it in the races where it will really help me. I'm a slow learner, but I do learn. Thanks for reading.