Chiorda

[Trex]

Newbie here. I have an old all-Campy Chiorda that I bought years ago. The frame is nicely made with adjustable rear drop outs, "Chiorda" stamped on the top of the rear seat stay, a nice reinforced bridge on the chain stay behind the seat post and the rear brake bridge is reinforced, too. Lower fork, back end of the rear seat stays and chain stay and the head lugs are chromed. I know, pictures would be best but, I am terrible with getting pictures up-loaded. I'll work on it.

Anyway, Chiorda probably didn't make the frame. Any ideas who might have made it? Maybe Bianchi?

Thanks.

 

[HEMI426]

Welcome to the Cabe, I'm sure you will find answers and alot of good info and people here. Post some pic's of what you want answers to and someone will help. I'm from WPA.

 

[Schwinn1776]

Welcome to the CABE Enjoy!

 

[juvela]

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Bianchi acquired Chiorda in 1966.

At one time there was a Bianchi-Chiorda professional racing team.

Lower model Bianchi bicycles which were made in Italy following Bianchi's acquisition of Chiorda were produced in the Chiorda facility.

Your example sounds like a top quality model.

Only a small fraction of Chiorda's output went into Chiorda badged cycles. The overwhelming preponderance of their capacity went into contract work, producing hundreds of private label marques for chain stores, cycle shops, cycle distributors and the like.

In the U.S. market some of the better known chainstores for whom they manufactured bicycles include Sears, Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney & Kmart.


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[49autocycledeluxe]

first thing newbies need to know is we love pictures here on the CABE.

 

[juvela]

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have a price list from a Los Angeles, California distributor called I. Martin Imports who carried the Chiorda Professional model during the 1970's. it is an undated document, from internal clues it appears to date from the 1973-74 time

one detail in your description makes me think your example somewhat later - that is the embossed seat stay caps - this is something which did not come into fashion until a moment subsequent to the list here

it is all NR kitted and only available in team blue
there is a Gimondi transfer on the downtube
wholesale price at the time was 375USD


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[sykerocker]

An all Campy Chiorda. Ok, first question, what model Campy rear derailleur is on it? Second question, what's the crankset? Third question, are there any markings as to what kind of tubing makes the frame?

The reason I ask the above, is that there's two very different kinds of Chiordas out there. One is a worthy competitor to the high end, great marques of Italy. The other is a low end, but fairly decent quality, ten-speed that was sold in the catalog stores (the forerunners of WalMart, Target, etc.) back during the Bike Boom. I'm quite familiar with the latter, as they were sold out of a (name long forgotten) catalog store in Erie, PA and we used to see them at the bicycle shop I worked for. The bikes sold for $90.00 (a Schwinn Varsity or Raleigh Record sold for $100.00), and were probably the best ten-speed you could buy back then that wasn't sold at a bicycle shop.

They're easy to pick out. White gas pipe frame with the lugs painted black. Steel cottered crank, Campagnolo Valentino derailleurs and downtube shifters, Universal center pull brakes (the ones without a model name on the arms), steel rims with three piece nutted hubs. Steel handlebars with an alloy stem. The paintwork was definitely a notch under a Schwinn or Raleigh, probably more on the level of a cheap French ten-speed. And good luck in finding a frame size other than 21-1/2".

 

[Schwinny]

I had one of those Chiorda department store bikes. Mine was white, had a Sears decal and part # on it. I started noticing them everywhere. It was stripped and painted green. Bici de Strada style, turned into a stripped down 2 speed City street bike. It was a very nice bike but had no relation to its beginnings by then. I still have the steel Maccari Italian rims on another bike. They are really nice looking but terrible. Noisy stopping, and anything over 65psi and they spit the tires off the rim. Inconvenient.
I seem to remember that the identifying factor on these frames was the seat stay brake bridge being a plate.
But we digress....

After looking at so many of these early Italian and French bikes, I've come to the conclusion that the makers were nothing more than mechanical confectioners. The glazes paint, the fillings, grease