Real Bikes: Billy Handjob's Olmo

This bike will always be a bit bitter sweet for me. The story is that in 2005 when Josh and I were working at Freewheel our buddy and coworker Mark decided to sell his commuter bike to buy one of more appropriate size. That bike was this Olmo.

If I'm remembering correctly Mark had bought it off a customer for a song, or perhaps he was even given it. He was selling it with all of the matching pantograph parts (and some that weren't), because he is a gentleman and knows that you've got to keep something like that together.

The sale included:
Olmo Competiton Frame and Fork
Campy Record headset
Campy Record pantographed crankset and rings
Campy Record pantographed seatpost
Campy Record pantographed brakeset
Campy Record pantographed brake levers
3T pantographed stem
Campy Record bottom bracket
Campy Record quill pedals
Dura Ace downtube shifters

The real kicker was that he because he got it cheap/free he only wanted $80 for the whole thing. Now that's pretty much the deal of the century (did your jaw just drop>). Josh got to him first and told Mark he wanted it. Problem is Josh was broke and couldn't come up with the cash, so it fell to me. I told Mark hell yes I wanted it, but didn't have the money myself either. It's hard to imagine not being able to find $80 for this once in a lifetime buy, but that was our situation. He was broke as fuck and I was still super in debt from living out of my van for months on end and only making $7.25 assembling bicycles.

B. Ridget's cousin Billy Handjob was on the hunt for a bike so I convinced him to purchase it and I would build it for him. At least this way we could make sure it went to a good home. The original build utilized a drop bar and the left brake lever and the original wheelset was Surly Hubs to Open Pros.

I looked through my photos for some early shots of the bike and these are what I found:


Billy's Olmo and my Marinoni circa 2006


Stupor Bowl X


Billy and detail of crank from my portrait series winter 2007

When he showed up for the barbeque on Sunday, I drooled over it as I always do and took some photos. As you can see he has ridden the holy fuck out of it year round in all conditions. The wheels have long since died and much to my chagrin he's rolling some Origin 8's. He has also replaced the drop bar with some pursuit bars.

Let's dig into the details






pantograph 3T stem


note the red white green paint which is carried onto all of the components with the exceptions of the brake calipers




The lines of the brake panto really show the hand worksmanship








check the red white green










So yeah, I'm still jealous. But dude understands what he has and has treated it well but never shied about riding it wherever or whenever. Seeing a beautiful bike being ridden into the ground always warms my heart.

Geek out.