 |  | | | |  | |  |  | 90s ELOS Team Frame |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 1:34 am |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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peter,
Thanks for the sleuth work. You've been the only source of info on this Columbus ELOS Team frame so far.
In a recent email from the seller he said he got the frame from someone in the UK who raced it in France and maybe got it there - so was it a French or UK team???
ELSO is listed in the 1989 Columbus tubing catalog and I've seen it mentioned being used on some 1995 Bianchis.
The top models in the 1994 and 95 Gitane catalogs are lugless TIG welded Columbus Genius tubing and they have straight fork blades.
It's not listed in the 1990 US catalog but like you say this maybe was a European model. This seems to narrow it down to 1991-93 because it's lugged and has curved forks.
My guess is that Gitane special built some frames in classic Gitane racing blue and yellow for some pro/am team in the UK or France in the early 90s (or maybe some dealer special ordered it). It came with a Shimano 600 sealed bearing headset so unless it was changed by someone it probably had less than top end components. |
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Chas.
SF Bay Area, CA USA
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1984 Criterium
1969 TdF
1971 TdF
1974 TdF
1984 TdF x 2 Bikes
1970 SC
1971 SC
1972 SC
1984 SC
1984 Team Pro
1985 Professional
1990s Team Replica |
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| Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 6:52 am |
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| Gtane |
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| Joined: 14 Sep 2007 |
| Posts: 681 |
| Location: UK |
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Chas,
It looks like something happened with the top end frames in the early 1990s. For example, it's interesting to see the C Record equipped Replica II in 753 as the second to top model, with the top Team Replica model in Vitus with Sachs Huret. Unusual to see a C Record bike taking second place.
There seemed to be less consistency with frame materials with some manufacturers during the early 1990s. For example, TSX appeared briefly with some and longer with others as did EL (EL/OS) but these were replaced with Genius among others. So lots of chopping and changing going on. Bianchi, as you have mentioned, is one that I too have noticed these changes with. And of course, during this time, carbon was beginning to hit the market more frequently so steel was fighting for survival. Finding information on all this detail now is surprisingly difficult despite being relatively recent.
It could well be that some models were only available to certain markets, hence the possibility of your EL, and if further country specific catalogues could be added to the library (as Peter suggests) I'm sure we would be able to piece this together far more quickly.
Here's a Columbus ad from 1988, and no EL - http://tinyurl.com/yk7n7pf So it is highly likely that EL was first seen in 1989.
Tim |
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Everything has a cycle |
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