I'm volunteering at the New Brunswick Bike Exchange, and my current project (other than the maintenance class I'm teaching) is a vintage steel-frame Atala, with Shimano components (not Campagnolo, as suggested by the Italian name on the frame). For a bike of its age, it's remarkable: the 2x6 indexed downtube shifters are perfectly in alignment, the brakes work and fit, neither the seatpost nor the 1" steerer tube are frozen into place. The bike is remarkably light.
I removed the old bar wrap, and found underneath this flexible, articulated protector for the brake housing. This was probably one of the first bikes on which housing was routed under the bar wrap along the handlebar, for better aerodynamics. Engineers might have thought hand pressure would affect braking performance, and arranged to have the reinforcer above. I'd never seen such a thing.
It's the second of two lovely old bikes I've had the opportunity to work on (the first has a "Performance" brand name and is labeled as the official bike of the US team). I got infatuated with that first one, and have a label on it that it is not to be sold until I have a chance to ride it. I'll get my ya-ya's out for a couple miles, and then be done with it.
There's a movement among friends and volunteers at the bike exchange to have me buy this Atala for myself, but The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I just don't have the room for another bike, with my two and TEW's road bike and hybrid. Laura OLPH has suggested that the Atala might take the place of the Krakow Monster, the Surly Cross Check frame I've built up to be a Monstercross bike. It's true I don't ride the Monster much, and I don't love it the way I do the titanium Yellow Maserati, but I don't think it would be a good plan to have two road bikes, and nothing I could ride on trails.
That Atala is a nifty bike, though. I hope it will go to someone who will love it.
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