My new 80’s Frank Paino road bike.
I’d been eyeing off this road bike on eBay for a week now, the asking price was $600 (starting bid). A few hours before the auction ended I mailed the seller and offered $400, and explained that I was just after a junker to do the Sydney to Wollongong ride with. He suggested that I take a look at the bike in person which I did on Sunday.
Daryll was a nice guy, his house had a huge sold sign on it outside, he was basically having to move out because the new buyers are moving in to the house he’s been renting (with his wife and kids). He was moving, and a bit tight on cash, that was the only reason why he was selling the bike. He was more concerned about selling the bike to someone who was going to treasure it than the money and he liked the idea of me riding it to Wollongon (ie: actually using the bike). He also had another sprint bike (Daryll’s a sprint racer) and he was saying how the Paino was much better at cornering than his sprint bike (which was a bit of blang: carbon + aero wheelset etc).
I mentioned that there was a Jim Bundy bike going on eBay for $350 (like Frank Paino, also a very respected Australian frame builder from the 80’s) and Daryll mentioned that Jim Bundy actually wanted to buy his bike, inspected it in real life and said to eBay it for $900, which Daryll did a while ago but got no bites, thus he re-listed it at $600. I ended up walking out of there with the bike at $475 which is an absolute steal.
Now for a bit of history on the Paino:
– In the 80’s Frank Paino had a shop in Sydney (Miranda Cycles) and he built cutom road bike frames. Gary Sutton (who is currently the NSW Institute of Sport’s head cycling coach) won a world championship on a Paino in the early 80’s and that gave Frank Paino the right to use the world cup colours on his frames.
World Cup colours.
3TTT Tecno Tubo Torino stem.
3TTT Tecno Tubo Torino Olympic Competition bars.
The frame’s got some lovely details on it. The geometry is pretty aggressive for a bike from the 80’s.
The bike features a complete Campagnolo groupset. Headset, bottom bracket, everything.
Fantastic old skool friction shifters on the downtube. Funny how my old Europa road bike when I was 16 had the same gear (shifters don’t “click” into gear, you feel your way instead).
Campy baby.
Crankset.
Columbus tubing. When only the best will do.
She’s crafty!
The only non-original parts are the saddle (my own Selle, replacing a brick of a Selle Italia that came with the bike) and the wheelset. Daryll replaced the original wheelset as 27inch tyres were getting hard to find. He kept it in period though and got Cheeky Transport in Newtown to build up a classy Campagnolo 700c wheelset with Campagnolo hubs, Campagnolo Montreal rims and stainless steel spokes.
Seatpost has a fantastic tilt design.
She’s super light for a steely.
More pics here. I forgot to mention, when I checked my email this morning there was a mail from MWG who suggested I take a look at this bike. LOL! I took her for a ride today. Love the gear shifts, hate the narrow bars. I’m just more used to wide mountain bike bars but I’ll try my best to get used to riding road bikes again. Next update: Autosol and serious elbow grease!!!