Alois Imholz, 1936-80s, Switzerland
History & Specifications
On the last working day before Christmas 2017, a cell phone call reached me at the bus stop in the evening. It was a Mr. Weber, who had read about the bicycle exhibition in Winterthur. He told me about his old Imholz racing bike and asked me if I would be interested. So in the new year I traveled by train to the Zurich Oberland and met the kind old Mr. Weber. In the underground car garage the bike was dusty and had been out of service for some time. He assured me that the frame was of the same age as he was, 1936. He bought it as a second-hand bike in the 1950s, had the rear dropouts replaced and fitted a modern change instead of the Oscar Egg gears. At the beginning of the 1980s, he had enough of his fellow racing cyclists’ remarks and had the original Imholz St. Gallen paint removed and the frame repainted in red with new Imholz decals. The components installed were a mix of Campagnolo Record, Shimano Dura-Ace, Weinmann Carrera, Nadax bottom bracket, 3ttt handlebars etc. I gladly took over the racing bike.
I particularly like the hand reworked complete GF+ (Georg Fischer, Schaffhausen) lug set of head tube, seat tube, bottom bracket shell and fork crown. The front dropouts are also GF+, the replaced rear dropouts are Campagnolo with “Open C” from the mid 1950s.
In 2019 I was preparing for my first vintage race, the Eroica in Gaiole. I decided to go with this Imholz race bike, found a Regina Synchro 14-32 tooth freewheel, installed a Campagnolo Rally rear derailleur with Nuovo Record parallelogram, a longer chain and a Campagnolo Record wheelset with Mavic MA2 pneumatic rims. The 28mm wide Vittoria Corsa Control tires proved their worth in the race as did the large 32 sprocket. After 90 km in the legs and long climbs it was exactly what I needed. With great joy I reached the finish line in the evening together with Michi with 106 km in my legs.
The bike is very well maintained and in very good optical and mechanical condition.
Frame size seat tube 56cm center-top, top tube length 58 cm center-center, weight approx. 10.5 kg