when did these come out? i have a set laced up to profile small flange sealed hubs that i'm gonna be putting up for sale shortly. i just don't know anything about them? thanks in advance,
mike

Italian rims, came around about 1981-82 from what I recall. About the same time Cinelli stepped into the market, they may have had a similar distributor like BPP (Bicycle Parts Pacific) which specialized in road.

Amborosio had a reputation in the 70's/80's for their tubular (sew-up tire) rims, clinchers were good too.

I ran them for quite awhile on my bikes, they were hard anodized, grooved sides, very light and very stiff when laced properly with a high flange hub. I ran them with SST's, so they were super-stiff.

They made a cheaper rim too... wider, usually anodized red, blue, gold - crappy rims for the most part.

But the hard anno's were the best rim out there for the lighter guys IMO (160 lbs. or less).

[ July 31, 2006, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: Shawn Sheely MN-1 ]

thanks for the info shawn! they'll be up for sale once i get some pics.
mike

I am thinking those were the same rims as super pro MX rims? If so they came out around late 77' early 78'......but thats just a guess.


Rod

yeah - Ambrosio bought that company I believe.

The Super Pro and the hard anodized are not the same rim. They may look similar but they are different. I boght a set of Super Pros hoping they would be the same. I no longer have them as the 70s weren't my bag but from what I recall the hump is taller and the wall thickness is greater on the SPs.

I agree that the hard ano Ambrosios are the only real Ambrosio rims. I don't recall the other colored rims (which are also different) from back in the day. The hard ano rims where the cool rim to have in 83-84.

I have a set laced to specialized low flange sealed hubs with rusted out chrome spokes

Here are my NOS 20x 1 3/8 Skinnies




ENjoy

also, weren't the HardAnos' heat treated and in the more popular 20x1.75 size - where as the later colored ano models not treated and only available in a wider 20x2.125 or 1 3/8(as far as 20" went) to compensate the strength, which still didn't cut it and is why they weren't ever considered anything special ... atleast thats how I vaguely remember it

[ August 02, 2006, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: Dr.Frankenripper ]

These are much lighter and stronger than ARAYA wheels

C & G rims were quite similar (although much less "beefy" looking). Anno colors, grooved sides. And manufactured/sold roughly 1977-1979 I believe.

for real..

How much did the ambrosio 1.75's weigh? Lighter than Araya 7x?

I have a set of the same rims in Seadoit's pic above. They're laced to low-flange sunshines. I bought them second hand when I was a teenager. I beat on them pretty good and they took a lickin'. I still have them and they're currently running on my mid-school throw-back RL-340 (re-done early 80's Carrera style). They'll be coming off there and back on to my Skyway where I borrowed them from once it's done. (Then I'll need a set of Ukai's to complete the RL).

I liked them because they were a little different than the typical Araya's and Ukai's most people I knew ran.

Lee

I ran a set of Ambrosio on my 20" and Cruiser up through 87 and would really like to find a set for my 20". They were a medium gray color with the grooves sides. I never really knew that many people that had them, but I really liked them.

These I bought a year or so ago for $250 for one of my Profile projects. Some of the best rims back then.

Okay, 12:42am PST the Saturday after Thanksgiving........

Dishes are washed (for the fourth time in the last 30 hours) and the kitchen is clean once again (as my oldest is here from college and has had tons of friends over). So, as I get ready for bed I have plenty of time left to read this thread and walk downstairs to grab one of each of these hoops in 20x1.75 size and set them one at a time on the postal scale.

Here are the readings:

Weinmann (7B style) 15.4 ounces
Araya 7C 15.8 ounces
Araya 7X 14.9 ounces
Araya 7B (OG series Powdered) 14.5 ounces
C&G Super Pro 13.0 ounces

Those are the ones!! Ah, I would love to have those, even without the hubs!!

I am pretty sure these were not the favored ones, rigged them on my DY before, feels gd though.

Here's my originals from BITD. Unfortunately one has rather large hop in it, as I cased it many times on some big landings...great looking rims in my opinion...



Oh yeah Surf, you don't have to punish me by showing that wheelset!! Beautiful!!!

I remember a set of Ambrodio 1.75's that the surface was rippled or ribbed. Anyone know what im speaking of?

The ones with the ribbed sidewalls are the Durex. Look at Seadooits photos back further in this thread, and you'll see the rims have ribs on the sidewalls

Those rims have a cool gray color

No more punishing then those Profile Bars you show

I just had a guy on ebay tell me that those 1.75's weigh in at about 14oz a piece.

To add to the list, I just weighed a UKAI shineyside box rim (not speedline) at 14.75 oz.

Amazing, I posted info "needed" about these rims about a month ago and I had to hound Diamond for the 411, now there's all kinds of ya with these....LOL!

Here's mine... This picture is about 2 weeks old however I'm still polishing them out and almost done.

These were the dark grey and they were less than perfect so I voted to strip them off. The "hard" anno is hard to get off. I used Lye and had great luck. In this photo was a spot I sanded with 400-800-1000 and then 2000g before the Met-Al polish... Wait until there done laced to the Phil's

Crazy - I've never heard of anyone taking the hard anno off, but they look cool.

Hard anno is a bit different than regular anno in that the surface is penetrated much deeper, this helps to stiffen the aluminum, which was a quick way to stiffen things before aluminum started getting good in the late '80s.

These rims were not well known, most guys were into graphites and hutch/profile/GT hubs mated up with Araya 7x or Ukai chromes. Usually smoother riders would be sporting them, Todd Blazer comes to mind.

I liked them even better on my 24, I would use DB spokes 4x, high flange hub in the back, medium in the front, alloy nipples, electrical tape for the rim strip, and 20 superlight tubes with comp-3 1.75's. They were mighty light, and plenty strong for racing.

The wider, colored rims I mentioned earlier... I believe they were the 1.75+ and the hard anno were more like a 1.5. They had ridges as well.

I gave a couple stacks of the colored ones away, if you want to hunt them down - it's been quite a few years, but the name of the place is Gateway Bikes/Schwinn? in North St. Paul, MN.

Fresh.

Beautiful rim.

I had them on both bike near the end of my hard core racing days in the 80s. I never had an issue with them and they seemed very strong. Plus, I was never a guy who had a lot of colors on his bike, so I loved the gray.

WOuld love to have a set to get my current Free Agent Limo as close as possible to my last race bike.

I have a set of gold Ambrosio rims that i've had since xmas 1980. There a 1.75 with the grooved sidewall not bad but the nipples would pull though the rim before they would snap a spoke which was not to good. Also pinned together not welded.

Hey Shawn MN-1, good to see ya around again...

I finished the polishing last night and there a mirror finish now. That hard anno was hard to get off, but the real bioch was sanding the alloy machine marks out to get the mirror finish. I'll post a pic later

I finished the polishing last night... Now for the lacing process... Phun!!!

anyone have the little red/gold Ambrosia decals??? how bout the Durex decals... Needle in-o-haystack

Sweet polishing job. I wouldn't have ever though of doing something like that, but they look good.

Thanks...It was a major job sanding the machine marks smooth.... I PM'd ya..