Only in Italy Part 2

 Only in Italy - Part 2

Regular readers will remember Part 1, the story of Zio Lorenzo's broken bike. Here's the rest of the story:

Marco and Aldo Gios saved the day almost one year ago but Zio's gorgeous, made-to-measure Mondonico frame seemed too good to give up on. C'mon, a Made-in-Italy, lugged Columbus steel frame by an Italian master-builder, a guy you know personally who is now retired, meaning there will never be any more of them? Some dream of owning one, Zio Lorenzo is fortunate to have three of 'em! He wasn't going to just toss this one!!!

Michele Favaloro to the rescue!!! He started out as a teenager TIG-welding custom steel MTBs. You can see the repaired dropout above with a rattle-can touch up paint job by Zio himself.

Here's what it looked like before. This crack looked to have been there awhile and Zio guesses it was the result of damage in shipping since this bike's been all over the place - the old "trains, planes and automobiles" story not to mention in-storage at various places where it may have suffered unseen whacks. That might also explain a cracked stem this bike suffered a few years back?

Zio thought for sure the broken dropout would need replacement and the re-brazing would burn the paint off the chain and seat stay, so he bought a reproduction set of decals and asked for a simple red-all-over repaint, to match Heather's Mondonico bike, still in-storage with our friends at Albabici.

But as you can see, that didn't turn out to be the case. Michele instead repaired the broken drop out, burning off just a bit of the green paint so Zio could touch it up, though the rattle-can shade of green's not an exact match. But the beautiful original tricolore paintjob being saved makes that a small price-to-pay, especially when it saves paying for that complete repaint, right?

Meanwhile, the GIOS bike (above) that replaced it went up to Piedmont Cycling Resort in the summer and is now waiting there for next season along with Heather's (behind it in the photo)

 

It's replacement down here in Sicily now is another tricolore, Zio's Torelli 20th Anniversary bike (made by Mondonico) this one with lots of gorgeous chrome as well. This is the bike he thought he'd just fly up and bring back from Piedmont before "Plan G" was hatched back in December. Instead it came down with us in the car back in August.

Things worked out well all around! Mille Grazie Michele, Marco and Aldo!!!