Some bikes tell a little more story than other bikes.
I picked this up going on 15 years ago now. It's previous owner had acquired it in the Netherlands, under the operating assumption it was a former Clemenso-Mavic team frame. A fair assumption - the Clemenso-Mavic team raced in 1982 under the joint sponsorship of Mavic (which this blog on a rare occasion talks about...) and Clemenso, a small frame builder based in Belgium.
On closer inspection though, a 1982 build date seemed improbable given the date stamped on the frame - 2 83.
I've since seen a white Mavic-Clemenso team frame that's marked 3 82.
Instead, the far more likely story had this as a Elro Snacks-Autobrabant-Mavic team frame. Originally it would have been an all red frame, and properly decaled as a Clemenso. This frame, though, had clearly been resprayed, possibly multiple times, and is sporting a Colnago-esque retinato style paint job.
A quick history of Elro Snacks' involvement in cycling. Elro Snacks was, up until 2012, a producer of "snack foods" in the Netherlands. Near as I can tell, this primarily meant meatballs, croquets, hamburgers and other meat products. The company was established by Jos Elen, the El in Elro, who was also the manager of the Elro Snacks--Autobrabant-Mavic team. Elro Snacks would sponsor, and Jos Elen go on to manage, a slew of teams through the 80s and in to the 90s.
Clemenso was a brand produced by Clement Schmitz, in the Diest, a city in the Vlaams-Brabant region of Flanders. He did in fact produce the Clemenso-Mavic team frames, but also built for Elro Snacks in 1983 and 1984.
In 1990, Elro Snacks became the lead sponsor of a team alongside Isolco (construction goods) and Walmar (no clue, you tell me), and they rocked the color scheme seen in the pics above. Red/Blue/Yellow/White bikes with a neon green, yellow and purple kit is a lot to take in at once - so's the Rolls Royce team car.
As I outlined in my Instagram post, the most likely explanation for the frame is this frame was carted around with Elen and his teams for close to a decade, probably getting resprayed multiple times and seeing multiple uses. In 1990(ish), it received its final paintjob, and was probably relegated to training, occupying a middle seat in a roof rack, or some purpose that's likely lost to time.
Just last year - a small period of time relative to when I got the Clemenso or last posted to this blog - I spied a frame on eBay that I truly never expected I would see, let alone make my own.
That, dear reader, is a 1990 Elro Snacks Colnago Super. Same team mechanic paint job as the Clemenso, thick, not terribly pretty, but incredibly of its time with its gauze-stenciled fade.
The two reside together, facing contra, reunited after 30 something years. Pretty neat.
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