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R.M.O. Liberia pro team bicycle 1991

Posted by phil jeffery on January 12, 2009 at 19:39:43

Hi,

I posted a few of my bicycles last week, and would like to keep going with my show and tell if anyone is interested in them.

Today's bike has a bit more interesting provenance than the others; it's a 1991 professional team bike that belonged to Marcel Wust. Marcel was a fairly well known sprinter in his day, and may have gone on, but a fall in around 2000 put paid to his cycling career. He is blind in one eye as a result of the accident. I am told he spends a fair amount of the year in Australia and I have thought about trying to make contact, but I don't want to appear star-struck, and it may be a just a bike to him.

One of my favorite sections of "Winning" magazine used to be the features on the team bikes. It'd be interesting to know whether they ever did one on the Liberia bikes. Maybe one day I'll try and find out.

I got this bike at the end of the 1991 season through a friend of mine who was a bit of a local legend for being picked by RMO Liberia to ride for them. His name is Clayton Stevenson. Clayton also competed the Olympics in 1988. These days however, he's not the slightest bit interested in cycling except in the most casual way. He's still happy to talk about his competitive days however. He boasts of visiting Sean Kelly's house and having the great man personally serve him tea...now who's star-struck!

You assume that team riders get the best of everything equipment wise, and I guess that's mostly true,but the flipside of that is that they have to also be rolling test-beds for new technology. Clayton reckons that when Carbon wheels were being trialled, the brake compound that they were using was making it's way into the pawls of the clusters, causing early failure and in some cases total seizure of the block! It seems unlikely, but who am I to say, I wasn't there.

I raced this bike for a couple of years before hanging up my spurs in 1993 . It has not really logged a lot of kays as it was not used for training, so is still fairly fresh but is showing it's age a little now. I do the odd sprint triathlon and the like on it for fun, but that's pretty well it for this one. It's not like I don't have other bikes to ride.




The frame is lugged Reynolds 753 with full Mavic SSC groupset. Saddle is Turbo-Matic. Bidon cages are some generic crap that don't really belong on the bike, but it's easier to leave them there than remove them. I have Time pedals on at the moment, just 'cause that's what I used, but I still have the original Mavic-Look pedals which will eventually go back on. There is a lug on the top tube about 200mm back from the head tube which is for attaching your race number. I proudly fixed my race number at the first opportunity, but when I got to my bike the next morning, the pricks had moved it to the "approved" position on the bike, and chipped the paint on the downtube while they were at it...thanks a lot!






There's something about French designed gruppo; it's just that little bit different to the other's offerings!




No serial numbers here; just the rider's name.




I love these 42cm Cinelli crit bars; the slope down to the hoods is perfect for me and it's a shame they are no longer available or i would heve them on every race bike I own. The Campag ergo levers were an attempt to get the shifters off the down tube. It didn't work and I still don't know why. The Sachs rear cluster is supposed to be perfectly compatible with Campagnolo. All's well that ends well, the downtube shifters are fun to use. Let's go, American Flyers!


I have never seen a Paris-Roubaix wheelset in Australia, and Clayton seemed to think they were a very limited release. There is very little wear on them; the brakes are still on their original (Mavic) pads. This bike's made to go, not stop (thanks, Ettore).


I got this more or less NOS jersey off ebay last year for 10 quid. I reckon I look like Charly Mottet (or maybe Robin Williams)!




Here's Charly chasing Gianni Bugno on an RMO bike of the same year. The bikes and riders look great, but those old Bell helmets haven't aged well, have they?!

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