# Olympia Spirit Junior



## Wingslover (Mar 24, 2018)

I've been overhauling gifted Schwinn lightweights for about a year now, and someone will be giving me a (what I imagine is) a mid-70s Olympia Sprint Junior. 

While the American bikes are pretty straightforward regarding tools, I have no experience with an Italian bike. I was wondering other than metric wrenches and irons, is there any sort of tool I made need that's exclusive to Italian bikes? (crank puller, ect)


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## juvela (Mar 24, 2018)

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Hello Wingslover and welcome to the forum!  

IIRC there has been more than one Olympia badge through the years.

Is your example this Olympia?




 

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/Olympia_main.htm

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## Wingslover (Mar 24, 2018)

Truth be known, I haven't gotten that far yet: I've been given pics of the handlebars, downtube, seat and not much else. I probably won't take delivery for at least another month or so: just hoping to eliminate surprises when it lives in our garage (I need to be able to make excuses to my wife for having a bike that I may not have tools to fix).


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## juvela (Mar 24, 2018)

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You don't give your location.

One U.S. agent for this marque at one time was Charlie's Bike Shop in Eastchester, NY.

Here are a few images of a 1956 Olympia Sprint -



 

 

 



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wrt to your query as to spanner twistin' -

you mention working on Schwinn lightweights but do not say if they have all been of the lugless variety with ashtabula chainsets or if you have experience with lugged models fitted with traditional three-piece bottom bracket sets.

if the latter, the only spanner twistin' difference will be that the fixed bottom bracket cup will be right hand threaded instead of left hand threaded as on the Schwinn cycles.  you mention "crank puller"  - all Italian manufactured cotterless chainsets take the standard 22mm puller.  these include ALES, Campag, Galli, Gipiemme, OFMEGA, Rino, ROTO, et al.

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## Wingslover (Mar 26, 2018)

Excellent and thanks!

I've only done the one-piece so far, but also took possession recently of a 78 Traveler with the three-piece. I've been waiting to finish my current before starting the new one, and then the next one...

I'm in Chicago proper.


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## juvela (Mar 26, 2018)

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wrt spannerin' -

one difference in all adult machines from Italy and the Schwinn models with one-piece crank is the handlebar stem diameter.  Schwinn employs size .833" and Italy uses 22.2mm.  Schwinn uses a handlebar clamp size of 25.4mm/1" for most models and the most common size in Italy at this spot is 26.0mm. adult bikes of Italy employ pedal thread of 9/16" X 20F whereas the ashtabula Schwinn cycles use 1/2" thread pedals.  your Traveler model will use the 9/16" pedal thread. if you take your time with the Olympia you can learn as you go and your experience with the Schwinn bicycles will see you in good stead.  

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here is an Olympia from about thirty years later than the example posted above.  they could get fairly fancy; this one is gold plated  -



 

 

 

 

 

 



the factory has been going since 1893.  there was a change in ownership in 1959 from the Borghi family to the Fontana family.

company still in operation today; here is their website:

http://www.olympiacicli.it/it

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1972 road model called Special Piuma (feather

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28164070@N04/sets/72157626012999824/

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track model circa 1950:





http://biciak.blogspot.com/2013/05/2103-cirque-du-cyclisme-interviews.html

"all for now folks"  

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## Mr.RED (Apr 5, 2018)

A gold pated bike I wonder what the weight of that would have been?


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 5, 2018)

it's probably not significant - gold plate doesn't have to be very thick - it won't go away, unless the substrate does first.


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## Wingslover (Aug 5, 2019)

Finally picked it up yesterday: Campy levers, hubs and derailleurs, Mavic rims, Columbus tubes and a little rust. No serial number as of yet. More soon....


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## juvela (Aug 6, 2019)

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Thank you for the update!  

A nice one.  

Chainset appears OFMEGA Competizione

Headset & pedals likely OFMEGA as well

Gear ensemble Campag Nuovo Gran Sport

Saddle pillar looks to be 3TTT

Dating looks like 1976-1979 time
you mention that hubs are Campag
the inner face of the axle locknuts will be marked with a specific date

Shall look forward to further imagery

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## Wingslover (Apr 22, 2021)

Our conversation about the LeTour reminded me of this; started finally taking this apart and will have a bunch more pics. For the life of me, the pedals and crank are rusted shut.


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## juvela (Apr 22, 2021)

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recent forum discussion thread on an Olympia _condorino _type machine located here -

help identifying Olympia Borghi


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