1983 Pino Morroni

Sometimes it is not so much that you "find" that very special bicycle, but rather, it manages to find you. This would certainly explain just how it came to pass that I received an entirely unexpected telephone call from Mark Agree back in July of 2008 wherein he coyly asked whether I might possibly be interested in purchasing a rare example of an unmolested Pino Morroni road bike heretofore not even known to exist as far as the greater vintage bicycle collector community was concerned. Oh, and by the way, the frameset just happened to be appropriately large enough for me to throw a leg over and actually ride should I be so inclined (...it was but for this very fact that I received said call, inasmuch as Mark almost certainly would have purchased it for himself had it been closer to his own size).

As we mark a decade in time since his passing on February 11th of 1999, Pino Morroni has assumed an almost mythical stature in the pantheon of American cycling history. Eccentric, idiosyncratic, overly animated, always opinionated, and yet far more often than not, still held in high esteem and even acknowledged as being without peer in some respects by colleagues and competitors alike. His is the mantle of "mad genius" whose products and ideas were frequently well ahead of their time if not always commercially viable at such point as he saw fit to actually introduce them to market. Still, his bicycles, components, and innovations were successfully employed by the likes of such luminaries as Eddy Merckx, Francesco Moser, Felice Gimondi, Gianni Bugno, Greg Lemond, Wayne and Dale Stetina, and Andy Hampsten.

A native born Italian and former competitive cyclist himself who moved to America in 1958 and went to work as a machinist for Chrysler in Detroit before eventually returning to the cycling realm, Pino’s personal history and technical accomplishments have been recounted in other readily accessible print articles and online forums such that I will not attempt to document them here yet again other than to provide my own personal perspective in summation. In an era of competition dominated by the pursuit of shedding all manner of disposable weight, Pino’s use of technological advances in metallurgy, machining, and other design innovations as applied to the construction methodologies inherent to building both a bicycle itself and its various components stands in remarkably stark contrast to most of his contemporaries who generally sought to reduce similar mass by merely milling, drilling, or otherwise modifying traditional frames and/or ancillaries to remove weight. Rather than overly indulge the whole (...yes, pun intended) "drillium" concept, Pino’s preference was to pursue simplicity and eliminate weight ... BY DESIGN. It is in this context that I see Pino, and to a similar extent Harlan Meyers of Hi-E fame, as championing a distinctly American version of "weight weenieism" that serves as the perfect foil to that much more typical manifestation of said philosophy perhaps best exemplified in that same era by the legendary Art Stump. In fact, if one were to pose the hypothetical question, “who was the ‘best’ builder of custom lightweight bicycles in the United States during the decade of the 1970’s?”, I am of the opinion that any answer constituted of Mario Confente, Albert Eisentraut, Harlan Meyers, Pino Morroni, or Art Stump (...said names being presented strictly in alphabetical order) would be "correct" inasmuch as these were the men who comprised the very core of a vanguard that helped to re-establish America’s relevance with respect to competition oriented bicycles.

With respect to this particular bicycle, it previously belonged to James (Jim) Biniecki, who along with his brothers, was notably active in the 1960’s greater Detroit area hot rod and custom car scene. In fact, it was Jim’s early automotive interests that led him to first dabble with chrome plating at his father’s Van Dyke Welding company and eventually found the renown Warren Custom Plating and machine shop located on 8 Mile Road in the industrial suburb of Warren, Michigan. Collectively, the Biniecki brothers also actively campaigned several show cars over the years, most of which served as a rolling showcase for their specialty services. Probably the best example of this would have been their nationally famous "Chrome Coffin" - a drag racing oriented "T" bucket on rails which featured a fully chromed Logghe tube chassis and chrome plated, fuel injected DeSoto hemi engine. While I have no specific knowledge as to how Jim Biniecki and Pino Morroni originally came to know one another, it would seem likely to me that since both men were experienced machinists and each shared an interest in customized automobiles, as well as the fact that their respective shops were literally within two miles proximity of one another, all of which meant that these two men were involved in the same circles, at the same point in time, in the same region of the country, they were simply bound to interact at some point. And when they did, they became fast friends and respected contemporaries with Pino thereafter employing the services of Warren Custom Plating exclusively to perform chrome work for his various projects.

I should point out that this bicycle in its original configuration is NOT AT ALL what I would prefer to see in its immediate future – at least not under my tenure of stewardship.  This is likely due to the original owner being but a VERY casual rider, and as such, Pino would appear to have chosen to equip his highly personalized present in acknowledgment of that circumstance (...i.e. while there are a few high end Campy bits to be found in the form of Record down tube shifters as well as a Super Record alloy headset and rear derailleur, much of the componentry comes from the rather pedestrian early 1980’s Gipiemme Sprint group supplemented with a suitably contemporary top-of-the-line Gipiemme Cronosprint crankset, mid level Galli Criterium brake calipers, and swept-back style handlebars with early spring action Saccon brake levers).  It is my intention to very carefully photograph and document the bicycle in its original state and thereafter remove quite literally all of its componentry so as to carefully itemize everything before placing the vast majority of same aside to be held in abeyance so long as I continue to retain possession of this bike.  Then, I will reassemble this Pino bicycle using only select pieces from its original equipment (...the Pino pantographed stem, Pino cartridge bottom bracket assembly, the beautifully crafted Pino custom headset spacers, etc.) along with a host of various modified O.M.A.S. (...Superleggera headset, Corsa crankset, Titanio hubset, lightweight water bottle cage, and a raft of their titanium and alloy hop-up bits), 3ttt (...Superleggero handlebars, Criterium seat post, Competizione Superleggero saddle), and Campagnolo (...Super Record front and rear derailleurs, brake levers and calipers, those original Record down tube shifters, and finally Superleggero pedals and cages) items, all of which would be absolutely accurate for a late 1983 model year bicycle.  In this manner, the resulting rebuild will be more consistent with my own personal tastes without in any way compromising my ability to return this Pino to the EXACT state in which it was originally built should unforeseen circumstances ever require.  Of course, one might argue that it would be even more appropriate to use circa 1983 Gipiemme Cronosprint components almost exclusively in rebuilding this bike, and I probably would do just that if I had all of them readily available at hand.  Alas, I do not.  However, I do happen to have all but one of the other aforementioned bits in NOS or near NOS state quietly sitting around awaiting a suitable project – and I reason that this one most certainly qualifies by any measure.