Took a break from warming the cat today to go into Vancouver, with the ultimate goal being a dinner gathering for cheap, good Chinese noodles. I wandered down Broadway through gently falling rain during the afternoon, including a visit to Campione Cycles, center of all things Italian cycling in western Canada. My road bike has a steel Cramerotti frame, which I purchased with a bike fit from Giuseppe Cramerotti himself. I've checked the website over the past few years and noticed that there didn't seem to be anything newer than 2005, but happily that reflects the state of the website (a low priority), not the state of the business. Campione and Cramerotti continue on today with a range of steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon frames for road, track, and time trial.
What I especially like about Campione is that when you walk in, you don't see bikes: you see frames. Behind the frames are glass cases holding Campagnolo gruppos like they were museum pieces. On the wall are rims of all kinds in all colors--not wheels, just the rims. When you buy a bicycle from these folks, everything is built up from scratch.
Monday is a slow retail day, so the fellow manning the front desk had a lot of time to talk (Giuseppe was in the back talking animatedly in Italian with a rep from Deddiaicai). Turns out Tio has been living in Canada for 25 years since moving here from the Netherlands in his mid-20s following an early career as a top Dutch time trialist. He's a bit disappointed with the cycling culture locally and doesn't believe that it can produce any top riders, but he also has been volunteering to build a new indoor velodrome in nearby Burnaby (only 200m--that's a lot of corners). Tio may not race anymore, but he certainly hasn't lost his passion for the sport.
I'm not sure the conversation would have ended if a fellow riding a fixie hadn't walked in asking for help with his flat tire (?--dude, if you're gonna ride a fixie, learn how to fix it). Tio was helpful--once the fellow walked his straight-from-the-wet-road bike off of the Berber carpet surrounding the Campagnolo clothing racks and around on the lino work surface. A wink from Tio, and I was back on my wander.
Campione: snooty? At some level, yes. A reminder that cycling is a beautiful sport and that bicycles are beatiful machines? That too.
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2 comments:
dude, you're missing all the great weather! it's been blue sky and in the upper 60's out here.
sounds like you're having a good trip tho.
L: Vancouver did get some blue skies Tuesday, so I'm not getting a vitamin D deficiency or anything. For now, the aspect of actual weather happening is still novel and interesting--especially since I'm probably heading back on Thursday.
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