South Salem Cycleworks Museum:
Owner Michael Wolfe’s 62cm Eisentraut bicycle

Owner Michael Wolfe’s 62cm Eisentraut

• Seat Tube: 62cm
• Top Tube: 57.5cm
• Head Tube: 213mm
• Chainstay: 42.5cm
• Wheelbase: 120cm
• Bottom Bracket Drop: 65cm
• Weight as equipped: 24lbs

About the bike:

I moved to Eugene in late spring of ’79, intending to resume college at U of O in the fall. I found a position as a bike mechanic at Hawkeye’s the Good Life. I’d purchased a Motobecane Gran Touring bicycle in ’76 for under $400 with modifications like black DiaCompe sidepull brakes and adding “safety” levers. The transition to wrenching in Eugene was abrupt. While I had some mechanical aptitude, it was obvious that I had a long way to go. The position was only for the summer, as when the student rush ended in the fall, there would be a pronounced lack of work in the shop. This fit as I was serious about resuming my studies in college.

I learned how little I knew about both the mechanics and the culture of the bike world, and by the end of summer, I was enamored, and when the head mechanic quit, the shop offered me a full-time job if I wanted it. Of course, I intended to resume studies winter term, but term by term, time slipped away.

I had come to realize how my Motobecane was a decent work bike, but truly lacked the exoticness of a Campagnolo-equipped bicycle. I had signed up for an employee discount on a Nishiki Pro, when my next-to-youngest sister called informing me that in a house she shared with others, one of the residents had a custom bicycle with all Campagnolo components for about the same price as my intended Nishiki Pro. She lived in Salem, from where I’d moved, and I was entirely unaware of any bicycle culture when living there, so it was with some doubt that I traveled to see this bike. It was my size, and while I didn’t recognize the Albert Eisentraut decal, the lugwork was evident even to my less knowledgeable eye. He’d bought it from The Touring Shop in Corvallis, an order made with a deposit from someone who’d chose to forego his purchase. The current owner claimed he’d put less than 100 miles on it for fear of having an accident and not being able to afford the consequent repair.

I bought it, intending to re-sell it in Eugene at a profit, helping to pay for the Nishiki Pro. The shop let me put it in a display window, and Bruce Gordon, who built in Eugene at the time, viewed it as a possible build when he was learning framebuilding under Eisentraut.

I did a couple training rides with my mentor, MicMark Edwards, a co-worker, and discovered that the bike rode so much differently than my Motobecane, that I fell in love with it. By that time, I had my wool and real-chamois shorts, my pierced-leather Detto’s with nail-on cleats, wool jersey and leather crochet-back gloves. I rode the Willamette Flyway century many times on the Eisentraut, and still remember the year that Lon Haldeman and Susan Notarangelo rode it on their tandem. Well, at least I saw them at the beginning of the ride! Neither myself, or my roommate, David Pittman, on his Colnago Super, were anywhere near capable of staying on their wheel!

While my Motobecane came with a suede leather covered nylon saddle, it was a painful saddle, and while the Brooks Professional was intimidating, I never found it uncomfortable. I did turn around on a century ride at mile 25 one year, as it continued to pour rain upon me, and I feared for the life of the leather.

The Eisentraut came with a GB bar and stem. The stem was probably a 9 or 10cm, and the bar, while it had the GB logo and ribbons etched in it, was a 38cm. I was a little puzzled at those dimensions and replaced them with a Cinelli 1R and Model 65 bar.

The Nuovo Record derailleur had a date stamp of ’72 on it, but the frame was undetermined. At some time, I had Paintings Specialties re-paint it, but the original paint was lacquer and the replacement decals weren’t as transparent on the Dupont Imron.  There is a single braze-on for the rear derailleur housing stop – everything else was a clamp-on, with the exception of the fender eyelets. The tire clearance is large enough to suggest it could accommodate 27” wheels, which if clinchers were to be used, would be the most widely available in the ‘70’s. I upgraded parts, and built a clincher set of wheels using Record low flange hubs and Rigida 1320 rims, as I learned the art of patching sewup’s time consuming and inconvenient. The wheels that came with it were Record high-flange laced with Robergel butted stainless steel spokes to Fiammi Ergal rims. Just about the lightest set of wheels one could find at the time. The Robergel spokes were prone to breaking, even in a 36h lacing, but the wheels really created the illusion of flight!

Decades later, I purchased some Campagnolo high-low hubs and built another set of wheels using Campagnolo Lamda box construction rims laced with DT Revolution spokes and alloy nipples, but it was more for show in the shop, as I had long ceased riding the Eisentraut.

I rode to Salem and back a couple times on the Fiammi Ergal wheels, always carrying spare spokes and a wrench. My younger brother, Pat, was visiting my folks at the time, and wanted to ride part of the way back to Eugene, but wanted to ride further east nearer Silver Falls. The detour made the ride back further than I thought, as it was dark as I approached the Springfield,Mohawk end of Eugene. I had no lights, and of course the Eisentraut had no reflectors, so I was pushing big gears attempting to get home as quick as possible and avoid being hit by a car. I succeeded, but a week later, I was picking blackberries for pies and jam, and the queen blackberry was in the middle of the patch, just barely beyond reach. My right knee buckled and I pitched into the middle of the patch. Somehow, I ascended the hill to reach my home. The doctor I saw afterwards, recommended surgery, but working as a wrench, my budget could not afford that, and so I worked with a brace on my knee as I recovered. My mom, stated matter-of-factly, that it was good I had a job with health insurance. To this day, I don’t know if that was sarcasm, or an assumption, but it triggered a decision to complete my college degree and get a job with such benefits.

I returned to Salem with a serious intent to complete my college studies in the spring of 1981. I worked at the cannery once more, and trained and raced the Eisentraut as a novice. I typically placed in the first 10 positions, taking a couple seconds, but always concerned with the possibility of crashing in a criterium. My training partner, Dave Rhodus, and I set off on a stage race from Sisters over the Santiam Pass, down Hwy. 126 to McKenzie Pass and back to Sisters, as non-participants as the race was open only to Category 3 and above. We left a half hour before the starting time, and were caught by the leaders at the top of the McKenzie Pass at the Dee Wright Observatory. The Eisentraut has a framepump on the seat tube, barring the use of a second water bottle. Reg made a small bottle that was designed to fit above the rear brake bridge, which I used, as there was nowhere on the course to replenish your water.

I rode my first double-century on the Eisentraut as well, using a Cyclos headlamp, in the early days of halogen lights. I continued riding the Eisentraut until near the end of the ‘80’s, where indexed shifting and cassette hubs were the norm, and as I was employed in the bike industry, it was time to experience and relate to that technology. But the Eisentraut still inspires me with the thin-filed lugs and smooth lines I rarely find in current frames.

The late Owen Mulholland wrote about Albert Eisentraut in 1987.

Side view of the bicycle

Front the front

And here it is from behind.

Of course, a Brooks Professional saddle mounted on a Campagnolo Super Record seat post. Note how beautifully the seat cluster is finished.

Close-up of the Campagnolo Super Record seat post.

One of the Campagnolo top tube brake cable clips.

Camapgnolo Record clamp-on friction shift levers.

The Albert Eisentraut downtube decal

The seat cluster.

Another view of the seat cluser

The Painting Specialties decal on the seat tube.

The bike's Campagnolo Super Record crankset

The bike is equipped with a Campagnolo Super Record front derailleur

The bottom bracket with the Camapgnolo cable guide.

The bottom bracket shell from behind.

Fastened to the cranka rms are Campangolo Superleggero pedals with Canpagnolo alloy toe clips and Binda straps.

Top view of one of the pedals.

Side view

Close-up of one of the pedals.

One of the Italian-made Specialized toe strap buttons.

Close-up of one of the buttons.

Serial number on the bottom brakcet shell.

The rear brake bridge

The rear brake caliper, also with a pre-1978 flat-bladed quick-release.

A blackburn alloy cage clamped on to the downtube.

One of the Mira stainless-steel bottle cage clamps.

The front brake caliper.

Close-up of the front brake quick-release. But the lever is flat, not domed, meaning it is pre-CPSC rules instigated in 1978.

The full-sloping Cinelli fork crown.

Looking down the front fork blade at the Campagnoolo high-flange front hub, the Avocet computerpick-up and the Campagnolo Lamda rim.

The other side of the Campagnolo hub showing the pre-1978 flat quick-release skewer lever.

The Cinelli bars and stem.

Front view of the cockpit.

The bike's left brake lever.

Side view of the other side of the stem

The right brake lever

The bars are wrapped with Benotto tape.

Close-up of a head lug and the top cone of the Campangolo Super Record headset.

The rear high-Low Campangolo Record hub.

The rear Super Record derailleur

The Campagnolo Super Record derailleur has Bullseye sealed bearing pulleys.

The bike's SunTour Winner 7-speed freewheel

The wheels are built with Campagnolo Lamda rims.

One of the bike's Specialized Turbo tires