Modolo - burning brighter, but for a shorter time.

In an age when steel was real, and tour victories were measured in hours not seconds, Italian Modolo brakes were the advanced alternative to the venerable Campagnolo Record.

Over a period of 20 years, one could argue that Modolo was responsible for far more innovation than most component manufacturers – especially in road brakes and handlebars.

A rose by any other name ....

I have a fascination with the steels used for frames in the 80s and 90s. Perhaps because that was when I started to ride bikes, but more likely because that’s when I started to learn the secrets of the steels.

For many reasons, quality steel (in the manufacture of lightweight bicycles) became very unpopular by the start of this century. But it was far earlier that some of the key players in the steel tubing industry had closed their doors.

Japanese Ishiwata tubing did not have marketing success that the bigger tubing manufacturers had. However they did produce high quality CrMo tubing, used by custom framebuilders worldwide, many top tier manufacturers, and was tubing choice for the Japanese Keirin. Fuji used Ishiwata tubing in their Keirin frames back in the 80's, and in the very early 90s many Bridgestone frames were made of blends of the Ishiwata tubings.

Tange Phoenix

I have been looking for a new ride for the lady in my life. She's never ridden a steel bike, so now seems the right time to convert her to steel.

In doing so, I questioned the usual suspects, and quickly came to a decision - late 80s Japanese steel road frames are overlooked. They are very well made, of good quality Tange tubing, and often disguised under a mass market brand that's not "cool".

The retro fixie crowd has generated a huge amount of hype for anything old,  Italian, lugged and made of Columbus tubing. English Reynolds is not so highly regarded, even though their later tubesets were quite advanced (and race wins frequent).

In the late 80s, due to the boom in MTB manufacture in Japan and Taiwan (and small frame builder demand in the US), Tange of Japan began building tubesets that in many cases bettered what the Europeans made.