This Elio Record Classic Road Bicycle from 1974 is a real super sportster with the look of a grand seigneur.
Elio is an Italian brand from Orbassano (Turin) which built absolute stunning top class frames in small numbers for many decades. Like quite a few of the brands of the area surrounding the city, later Elio frames were often made by Giuseppe Villata, one of the most skilled frame builders of Turin. Today Villata is the last one of the old Turin artisans who is still running a workshop and is keeping the great heritage of Torinese manufactures alive.
Our Elio has everything a road cyclist could wish for in 1974.
The frame is made of the lightest butted steel tubing Columbus offered at that time. These "tubi speciali" have been connected by lugs which have been filed down to the minimum that seemed to be acceptable back then. The bottom bracket shell had been lightened with cutouts and the shifting cables are guided by braze-ons - by far not a standard for high class bikes in those days. And as if to obscure all of its potential, the frame has been painted in a most moderate colour scheme the minimalist Elio decals complement the paintjob quite perfectly.
The groupset is of course the best one that was available: the legendary Campagnolo Nuovo Record (which should only be superseded at the end of 1974 by the then new Super Record). Yet like a number of other high class manufactures, Elio pre-empted some design features of the Super Record group. The chainring has been drilled and milled to a minimum and the seatpost got some flutes.
Additionally there are some nice Elio pantographs on the Chainring, the stem and the seatpost! The rest of the parts is top notch, too, like the Cinelli Unicanitor saddle for example.
Alltogether this huge bike with its 62cm frame weighs less than 9.2kg. Can you believe it? For 1974 and a frame of this size and regular materials, this is nothing less than amazing!
This is a bike for somebody who has a real crush on beautiful vintage bikes. Riding this racer on a historic cycling event is almost inevitable.
