1970's Olmo Gran Sport

 This is the latest and probably the last revision of this bike.

Originally it was constructed as a Cross Bike for fire roads; and a chance to show off some Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport (GS) components. For the longest while I did not identify the maker until I could be sure. I am now sure it is an Italian Olmo Mexico like this one Vintage Olmo Frame . This frame appears to have the same combination of lugs and lug cut outs, seat clamp seat stay ends and fork, so there is enough similarity to ID my bike; the only difference is the dropouts. My bike has Campagnolo short dropouts will the Mexico has Gipiemme dropouts. Either that it could be a Competition sans any identifying marks identifying it as an Olmo.

When I first put this bike together I was going for a Gran Sport grouppo but I was foiled by not being able to find Grand Sport brake calipers with standard length arms, so I ended up with Triomphe  levers and calipers with some generic gum looking hoods, until I could find the appropriate Gran Sport brakes.I first bid on a set of GS levers, which I got for a very good price. I then bought some "OEM" gum brake hoods. The hoods are likely replicas, but they look so good, no one has found a way to tell the difference. Then bought a set of Campy standard NOS GS arms from Boulder Bicycle/aka Rene Herse and used them to replace the arms from the Triomphe calipers I already had.(Boulder Bicycle is a great resource BTW). But the OCD in me would not allow this to continue, so I found some of under the cap slotted washers and flat nuts that came on the GS and Nuovo Record brake calipers (also from Bouolder Bicycle). This process has been very frustrating process. Originally I bought a set of GS calipers but the arms were too short. I sold these calipers and bought the set of Triomphe I had been using. Had I just waited a little longer, I could have simply switched the arms on the original GS calipers, or bought a NOS set of GS standard brakes and levers (with hoods) that Boulder Bicycle recently added to their store for $200; either way I would have spent less and done a lot less piecing together, but as they say hindsight is always 20:20. I finally found some OEM dome nuts and they do look good.

So here it is;
  

Front GS Bake caliper with the OEM shiny dome cap

  

The GS levers with Globe World logo gum hoods.

A GS rear derailleur with a Regina Corsa 14-27 freewheel and stainless rear housing.

A GS crankset; the large chainring is an Ofmega 51t and the arms have been filed down to meet with the crank arms.

GS rod actuated front derailleur.

The GS downtube brase- on levers were the same as Nuovo Record, however the clamp on were sometimes different. I modified these with a short threaded stud so I could use the GS clamp-on tensioners. 

I put together this wheelset with Nuovo Tipo hubs (used with most Gran Sport equipped bikes) and some Velo Orange PBP 700c box section rims.

and of course no bike of this kind would be complete without a Selle Italia Turbo saddle.

I still have a Mavic Shimano 105 wheelset with some Kenda 32mm cross tires, and this is the only 700c off road bike I have; so simple wheel change (and a little rear derailleur tweaking) allows me to jump back and forth between road and off-road.

Different Models of Campy Triomphe Brakes

A while ago I needed a set of Victory/Triomphe brakes, where at least one was a standard (aka long) reach (needed for the rear wheel). I could not find a standard set in Victory (short reach pic below), the reason it turns out is they don't exist), so I bought a set of standard Triomphe. There was always something weird about one of the calipers but I installed them and they worked so I let it go.


I was now able to give a little for time to the weird Triomphe caliper. One thing that changed from Nuovo Record to C-Record was the brake adjuster Triomphe and Vicotry are of the C-Record era). The old style (Nuovo Record) was a divot on the top of the arm and a corresponding bump on the adjusting wheel. This was replaced with a system with no
divot or bump Above is a Victory without the divot and bump. Eventually Campagnolo went back to the divot and bump when C-Record was phased out). The above photo shows a Victory without the divot and bump and below is a NR with the divot and bump adjuster.


What is weird about this Triomphe is it has a bump and divot adjuster. At first I thought since Triomphe is a copy of Nuovo Record (Victory is Super record), someone must have graphed the left arm of a Nuovo Record caliper onto this Triomphe caliper, but after more research I discovered there are no NR or Record brake arms without Patent or Brev on them. I then discovered that indeed Campy did make a limited amount of Triomphe brakes with the divot and bump adjusters, so what I have is simply a mismatched pair. Below the brake on the left is the front with the common brake adjuster for Triomphe; right is the divot and bump





The brakes also came with mismatched pivot bolts, the standard adjuster with a rear recessed bolt and the divot and bump with an old style exposed bolt. This leads me to believe the divot and bump style was most likely an early style.

The calipers were sold as NOS from Bulgaria, so I guess it's the chance you take..