My Retro ALAN

Bobbinogs

Well, I posted a few threads in various parts of BR after I was kindly given an old ALAN by my mother in law when her husband sadly died on a club run last year. The general advice was to invest some time into getting the bike up and running and how right you all were!

I have generally overhauled it although, TBH, it just needed some TLC. Hence, some 2nd hand wheels (thanks to Velonutter), new chain, cassette, gear levers, cables, pedals, brake blocks/pads, handlebar tape, tyres, tubes, an old saddle and a lot of elbow grease...



Funny thing is that, even though this is probably one size too small (as seen from the saddle height) it does actually fit perfect on the hoods when compared to my Spesh. My Spesh is fairly bling (RS80s and all that) but I nearly always pick the ALAN for special rides like audaxes. Also, I have noticed that whenever I ride the ALAN, I just seem to want to keep on going and I end up going out for ages and come home smiling. I guess my FIL knew a thing or two about bikes.

For those interested, I wrote to the chap who made the frame back in Italy and he confirmed it as mid 80's.

Berk Bonebonce

Excellent bike.

In the mid-80's the ALANs were the only off the shelf frames that did not have ridiculously steep angles.

FransJacques

That frame's not small, it's got a perfect amount of exposed seatpost and the saddle to stem drop and the stem length are all really nice. In fact, I'd say it's a touch long for you b/c it seems you've tilted up the bars to decrease the sadde to hoods distance. But I wouldn't touch that stem, it looks like a XA which are nice, reliable stems even tho the XAs used to creak. But you could get cool colour coded inserts to go in them.

The white saddle, hoods and bartape reminds me of the nicer bikes I couldn't afford when I was a kid just starting out on biking.

The light blue anodizing is exactly was I was talking about in the Vitus thread a couple threads down. The new Chain Reaction Vitus totally missed out on the anodizing concept done to the Vitus and Alan frames. Kelly rode a yellow Vitus a lot for some reason although I've seen pix/video of him on green (no doubt), silver, black (some were carbon), and dark blue.

Cool thing about Vitus and Alan is you could swap any of the Al tubes out for carbon. In fact Guerciotto and Colnago both rebadged carbon-tubed Alans. Some had just the 3 main tubes, other had seven, and the Alan had 8 since their HT is separate from the head lugs. IIRC Vitus had an all alu 1 piece HT and head lug combo.

What a find tho, big thanks to your MIL! Ride it in your FIL's honour.

welkman

My best mate has a ALAN cyclocross steed and has done many joyful miles on it since picking it up second hand a few years ago. I think he got really lucky with it, beutiful bike.
Really like the vintage ALAN.

ynyswen24

Beauty

Anonymous

Love it! Would look even better with some natural sidewall tyres

ademort

Takes me back. If i remember rightly the frame retailed at £200 in about 1980 and as an apprentice i could never afford one. I love that frame, even now. I thought that somebody won a world road title on one.
Ademort