DAHLQUIST CYCLEWORKS
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      • Dahlquist Cycleworks Delivery
      • Teens Era BSA Path Racer
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1940's Bottecchia

Before Bartali and Coppi there was Bottecchia. Ottavio Bottecchia was the first Italian to win the Tour de France in 1924, repeating his success in 1925. His life reads like an Italian opera, and his death, under mysterious circumstances (including the possibility of murder by the Fascists), the stuff of legend. I urge you to read Peloton Magazine's Issue 74 article, "The Doomed Champion: Ottavio Bottecchia."

​Here is my late forties/early fifties Bottecchia, one of the first bikes my friend Charlie Dixon restored for me, over a quarter century ago. Charlie saved the original paint and transfers (the silver undercoat presented a real challenge), and made the bottle cage for the adjustable stem. He carved the racing number on the top tube from a 1930's celluloid dresser tray, made the flint catchers, and tied the shifter cable with leather. We decided to leave the mix of period-correct components as found, i.e. Huret pull-chain derailleur, Durkopp front hub, Lam Super-Dural rear brake (intended to slow the bike, not to stop it!) etc. At present we think the bike was likely built for time trials. (The only thing we would do differently today is to forego the cork bar tape and wrap the bars with cloth). To this day the Bottecchia is one the prizes of my collection, chiefly because of the history Charlie and I share.


I was teaching at a community college in Waterloo, Iowa, nearly four hundred miles and six hours from Charlie's home in Missouri, the day Charlie and his wife Donna Mae delivered the Bottecchia to my home. After several memorable days of bike riding, hefty helpings of summer sausage and my bachelor stew, washed down with copious amounts of beer, dancing to the Blue Band in downtown Waterloo, Charlie and Donna Mae returned home, and I was left alone with my two cats to admire the Bottecchia. 

Two or three days later, the cats got in a tussle and knocked the floor lamp into the bike, leaving a large nasty scratch on the down tube. I phoned Charlie to give him the news; the following day he jumped into his truck and drove the four hundred miles back to Iowa to do the necessary touch-up. The Bottecchia was and is  that important to the two of us!
1940's Bottecchia ©Daniel Dahlquist
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  • Home
  • Bicycle Stories
    • Story of America in 2 Bicycles
  • American Bicycles
    • American Bicycles >
      • 1890s Columbus Bicycle
      • 1892-93 Stover
      • 1893 Elliott Hickory
      • More American Bicycles >
        • 1895 Columbia Model 45 C.A. Fudge
        • 1895 Gormully & Jeffery Rambler No. 12
        • Patee Track Bicycle
        • 1895 Patee Gents'
        • 1895 Patee Ladies' Loop Frame
        • 1895 Sterling (As Ridden by Bobby Walthour)
        • 1896 Buffalo Soldier Bicycle
        • 1897 American-Made Humber Roadster
        • 1897 Crescent No. 9
        • 1899 Sterling Shaft-Drive
        • 1899 Monarch
        • 1900 Gormully & Jeffery American Bicycle Co. Rambler
        • 1902 Columbia Model 92
      • Some More American Bicycles >
        • Teddy Roosevelt 1904 Campaign Bicycle
        • 1907 Cruso Double Bar Semi-Racer
        • 1908 Tribune Blue Streak Racer
        • 1909 Sears Peerless
        • 1915 Sears Chief Motorbike
        • 1915 Truss Frame
        • 1916 Mead Ranger Coaster Brake Special
        • 1919 Haverford Black Beauty 'Pacer' Arch Bar
        • Tyger's 1918 Mead Racer
        • 1918 Columbia Military Model
        • 1919 Crown
        • 1920s Mead Ranger Motorbike
        • 1923 Mead Racer
        • 1923 Iver Johnson Model 90
      • Even More American Bicycles >
        • 1926 Columbia 50th Anniversary Motorbike
        • Supplee Hardware Suhaco Special Crown Wannabe
        • 1920s/30s Greyhound Semi-Racer
        • Marshall Field Tricycle
        • 1930s/40s Drysdale Special Track
        • 1936 Schwinn Liberty First Generation Klunker
        • 1936/37 Iver Johnson Model 90
        • 1937 Schwinn Paramount Track
        • 1939 Mead Ranger
        • 1939 Schwinn Superior Sports-Tourist
        • 1943 Dayton Military Bicycle
      • Additional American Bicycles >
        • 1949 Schwinn Paramount Sports-Tourist
        • 1954 Mead Ranger/Schwinn New World
        • 1956 Schwinn Paramount Sports-Tourist
        • Mead Coventry Flyer
        • 1972 Schwinn Super Sport Custom Coffee Bike
        • 1983 Trek 850
        • 1985 Schwinn Voyageur Custom
        • French Gray Mead Crusader
      • Further American Bicycles >
        • Napoleon and Josephine
        • 1987 Schwinn Paramountain
        • Iver Johnson Lightweight Touring Mens' & Ladies'
        • Schwinn Paramount Tricycle
        • Tyger's Teesdale
        • 1981 Jeffrey Bock Light Touring
        • 1981 Trek 950
        • 1983 Moulton-Made John Howard
        • 1992 Schwinn Paramount S.A.S.S. Buell Mountain Bike
        • 1997 Rivendell Road Standard
        • 2017 Rivendell Appaloosa
        • 2020 Ridin' with Biden
    • American Balloon-Tire Bicycles >
      • 1935 Schwinn Excelsior Double-Diamond Clunker
      • 1940s Schwinn Excelsior Clunker
      • Scotty Bandito Cowboy Bike
      • Roadmaster Rat Rod
  • Belgian Bicycles
    • 1930s Delfa
    • 1940s Sieber
    • 1950s Jean Aerts
  • British Bicycles
    • 1895 Humber Path Racer
    • 1897 Humber Tandem
    • 1907 Full-Nickel BSA Path Racer
    • 1910 Raleigh Superbe Cross Frame
    • 1911 New Hudson Imperial
    • Unique & Unity Juvenile Bicycle
    • WWI Humber British Army Postal Service Bicycle
    • 1920s Hercules
    • Hercules NFS & Humber Messenger Bicycle
    • More British Bicycles >
      • 1930s Royal Enfield Roadster
      • 1930s Special Sunbeam
      • 1932 Royal Sunbeam
      • Humber Bermuda
      • 1936 Hetchins Brilliant No. 2
      • 1940s Maclean Featherweight
      • Robin Hood Camping Bicycle
      • 1947 Humber Roadster
      • 1949 Paris Tour de France
    • Even More British Bicycles >
      • Bicycle Institute of America Mystery Racer
      • The Double Bar Humber Number
      • 1952 Humber Sports
      • 1952 Carlton Silver Clubman
      • 1967 Marshall Field Raleigh 5 Speed Sprint
      • 1970s Bob Jackson
      • Ephgrave No. 1
      • Dahlquist Cycleworks Delivery
      • Teens Era BSA Path Racer
  • Canadian Bicycles
    • 1926 CCM Motor Bicycle
    • 1940s CCM Flyer Track Bicycle
    • 1976 Marinoni "Quebec" Special
  • Chinese Bicycles
    • Tiananmen Square Tribute Bicycle "Forever"
  • Dutch Bicycles
    • Netherlands Raleigh City Bike
    • Netherlands Raleigh Prestige
  • French Bicycles
    • 1903 Peugeot Roadster
    • 1903-1910 Tour de France Racer
    • 1910/Teens J.B. Louvet Truss Frame Racing Bicycle
    • 1920s L' Automotion
    • Automoto Champion du Monde
    • Bobet's Bicycle
    • 1961 Rene Herse Touring
    • Bobet Cyclo-Pedia Touring Bicycle
    • Blue Bobet
    • 1955 Peugeot PHX-10
    • 1960s/70s Peugeot UO-8 Juvenile
    • Motobecane Wine Bike
  • German Bicycles
    • 1939 Durkopp Track Bicycle
    • 1940 Achilles Gents & Ladies Roadsters
    • 1940s/50s Durkopp Diana Sport
    • 1940s/50s Durkopp Diana Loop Frame
    • Repurposed WWII German Military
  • Italian Bicycles
    • Bianchi Military Bicycle
    • 1940s Bottecchia
    • 1941 Legnano Tipo Campione Del Mondo
    • 1949 Gloria Garibaldina Extra
    • 1950s Fausto Coppi
    • 1950s Legnano Tipo Roma Track Bicycle
    • More Italian Bicycles >
      • Gino Bartali Team Bike
      • 1950s Legnano Tipo Roma Road Bicycle
      • Early 1960s Legnano Gran Premio
      • 1961 Bianchi Rekord
      • 1967 Torpado
    • Even More Italian Bicycles >
      • 1970s Eddie Merckx Colnago
      • 1970-71 Pogliaghi Italcorse
      • 1974 Carlsbad CA Masi Gran Criterium
      • 1976 Pogliaghi Selection
  • Japanese Bicycles
    • Miyata Mister
    • Kyokurei Post-War Roadster
    • Post War Maruto Deluxe "High Class" Roadster
    • 1960s Five Speed Fujicycle
    • 1973 Schwinn World Voyageur
    • 1973 Fuji S-10-S Special Racer
    • 1974 Schwinn Voyageur II
    • 1985 Fuji Opus III
    • 1987 Team Fuji Funny Bike
  • Swedish Bicycles
    • 1930s/40s Hermes
    • 1947 Crescent Roadster
  • Poetry
    • A bientot mon ami
    • Bicycle Haiku
    • Bicycle at Rest
    • Bill Harley and Major Taylor
    • Four Sunflowers
    • ​Mile-a-Minute Murphy
    • Neruda: Wrong on Bicycles
    • Tribute to Tyger
    • On a Mountain Road in Virginia
    • Forever Bicycles
    • The Humber Chainring
  • Events
    • 6/11/2022 Dream Team Presentation
    • 7/19/22 25th Anniversary
    • 8/26/222 Auburn Vintage Bike Show
  • About
  • Contact