Taurea Vittoria Margherita 1940s Road Bike

When you devote yourself to vintage bicycles, then you sometimes come across rare bikes, like special models from the 1980s. And once in a while you might be lucky enough to have an encounter with an extra extra rare bike. Just like this Taurea road bike from the 1940s with Vittoria Margherita shifting.
Taurea was a bicycle company from Turin, northern Italy. It's name referred to the heraldic animal of Turin, the Bull (lat. Bull = Taurus).
In the 1940s Taurea became pretty successful in building racing bikes and started to run a cycling team which was later named Taurea-Pirelli. The team members were strong riders who took part in the Tour de France in three consecutive years and won several stages in the Giro d'Italia.
Having a road bike from the 1940s is nice enough, but it is topped by having one with the special shifting, that this bike has. It is the legendary Vittoria Margherita shifting.
This system has rod-controlled arms on the chainstay which are moving the chain when the rider backpedals. It is simple and easy and certainly much better then the alternative of getting off the bike then removing, flipping and replacing the rear wheel. The system is reliable and the tension wheel leaves just enough ground clearance, an important consideration in an era of bad roads. Unlike more fragile gear changing systems which were on the market in the 1930s and 1940s, the Vittoria still worked when clogged with the clay of the road.
This bike is perfectly fit for a collection or the wall of your living room.
You can, of course, shock some of your friends by overtaking their electronical shifted bikes on this masterpiece from the 1940s.