Specialty Files: 1989 Denti
Originally posted on November 10, 2016 at 1:01 am
Editor’s note: This story first appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #188, published in November 2015. Words and Photos by Jeff Archer.
Occasionally we get an orphan bike that can make researching very difficult. A “garage” builder may have made only five bikes for his friends, it could be a sample that never entered production or maybe it’s just a bike that was not intended for the U.S. market. This bike likely falls into one of the above categories. It is labeled as a Denti, but there appears to have been a previous set of decals that was removed. Denti is still in the bike business, but emails to them have gone unanswered. Since this is a fairly distinctive frame, maybe a reader out there will recognize it? If so, give us a shout.
The steel frame has huge fillets, along with extremely massive chainstays. Other frame details include chrome plating and small, brazed-on loop cable guides. The Campagnolo Euclid components represent the Italian component maker’s first foray into mountain bikes, and its engineers added their own take on the needs of the mountain biker.
The seatpost has a quick release for seat position, and the brake levers look to be overbuilt for a motorcycle and have oversized sliding quick-release mechanisms built into them.
The indexed Syncro shift levers are mounted on multi-adjustable stalks, which sprout from the brake levers.
Monstrous Monoplanar calipers handle braking where one arm pierces the other arm. All of the bearing surfaces do have the legendary Campy smoothness, and the crank is a work of art.
Reviews of the era panned the Euclid parts as overly heavy and not particularly functional. By the mid-1990s, Campy had given up on mountain bikes. If they had stuck it out, it would have been interesting to see what might have been accomplished in the intervening 25 years.
This bike can be seen at the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology, which is housed at First Flight Bicycles in historic downtown Statesville, North Carolina. If you can’t visit in person, check out the collection at mombat.org.
