-=> Quoting Richard Glazer to John O'neill <=-
 
 RG> Hi John. You mentioned a steel bike that is made in my neck of the
 RG> woods.  Marinoni bicycles are so popular here that every second racer
 RG> has one. It is a  family owned business. They are not known to be very
 RG> fancy looking or extremely light, but reliable and cheaper then most
 RG> frames. The mechanics are A1. The  only downfall to the bike is their
 RG> paint job. The paint is very sensitive to  scratches. Not enough
 RG> coatings of clear and paint colour. Would have been  better if they
 RG> would have used powdered paint. The cost would have been more  ... I
 RG> don't have one mind you. I don't like getting something everyone else 
 RG> has. 
 Thanks again!  Around here we don't see that many Marinoni,  the 
 popular nearby frame maker is Tom Kellog and his brand is Spectrum
 Cycles, they start at over $1400 for the frame alone.  Two Bike 
 shops here order Marinoni frames and they say the same things you 
 do.   I don't have a firm current price yet but it should be 
 around $700 for a frame made of Columbus Brain tubing, and that
 is a bargin.  The weight seems to be in the same ball park as
 other lugged Italian frames I see advertised.   Sure there are 
 lighter steel frames (tell me if I'm wrong) but I would pay big 
 bucks for every once lighter (in lugged steel).  Outside of steel 
 Cannondale is very popular here, several guys I know will ride 
 nothing but them.  The reason I did not buy one is both my father
 and brother in law bought them and soon returned for the liveliness
 of steel.  Another shop I go to showed me the Trek 5000 OCLV carbon
 fiber frame.  It is a very light sexy frame, I was very tempted to
 go that way.  The reason I did not go carbon is I kept thinking 
 about the Olympic racers with those super bikes.  They had those
 mega-buck bikes to race on but most still passed them by to ride
 steel frames.  If I do not buy Marinoni I have also looked at 
 De Bernardi.  The problem I have here is none of the bike shops
 around here stock a big selection of the better road bikes.  
 70% of there inventory seem to be mountain bikes.  It would 
 be nice to be able to test ride two or more manufacturers bikes
 before buying.  
 Thanks for confirming what I have been told about Marinoni.  If
 that many racers are using them in Canada they must be good.
 As far as paint I'll do what I have been doing with my old
 Panasonic, Touch it up with model paint when needed. 
 Thanks again,
 John O'Neill
 
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