FINDING THE SECOND OLMO GRAND PRIX

The light blue Olmo was discovered through the Buy and Sell weekly paper.  It was my good fortune to stumble upon the blue Olmo Grand Prix while visiting my oldest daughter and her family in Winnipeg one Spring day.  I picked up a copy of the B&S on it's release day and checked the bicycles section.  One of the listings was for an Olma - $70.00 and of course, a number to call.  I did call - immediately.  I should note at this time that Olma is not a spelling error on my part.

A half hour later and after a bit of a street searching, I laid my eyes on a pretty, but in need of some TLC, Olmo Grand Prix.  The standard Campagnolo, Modolo, Ofmega component grouppo, complimented the bicycle.  Oops!  Not Modolo.  The brake set was Campagnolo Nouvo Record and in great shape.  And the transmission was Nouvo Record also, not the Nouvo Grand Sport that one would expect.  The blue Olmo was a nice bicycle and certainly worth more that the $70.00 asking price.

I did, however, haggle for the Olmo and, eventually, walked out the door with it for forty bucks, as I recall.  The lady admitted that she was glad to see it go and offered me a free, woman's Department Store something or other, just to get it out of her way also.  Though I had no use for the woman's bike, I did take it off of her hands, and dropped it off at the back door of the "Bike Dump", an appropriately name non-profit effort in downtown Winnipeg that, among other things, gives needy people bicycles.

I was bit lucky to get the blue Olmo.  Lucky because the advertisement read Olma instead of Olmo.  However, I also had made a point of getting the Buy and Sell, as soon as it came out, and I acted immediately, on the information offered.  The lesson here is do not wait for a better moment.  Have cash in hand and act, if and when the opportunity arises.  And, if you keep looking, you will get a chance to buy an old road bike, from someone, from somewhere, for something.  You will probably be asked to pay a lot less, than you would believe.  It happens to me all the time.

The blue Olmo was a very nice bicycle, that had suffered at the hands of a make shift  mechanic.  The crank set, Bianchi pantographed, was shot and did not belong anyway.  The front derailleur, also shot, had been allowed to rub on the teeth of the big ring until both the derailleur and sprocket were worn badly.  Both were in need of replacement.  The Campagnolo Nouvo Record rear derailleur was fine, as was the shifter set.

The original Campagnolo Nouvo Record brake set was in great shape, the levers bearing no "fell over again scars", that are so commonly found on vintage road bicycles brake handles.  This suggested to me that the bicycle had been cared for reasonably well, never having been ridden hard.  True, the Grand Prix was in a state of disrepair, when I got it, but the bicycle did not appear to have been poorly treated.  Just subjected to the horrors of a misinformed mechanic.

NEXT - BUILDING THE SECOND OLMO GP