The somewhat different barn find
06/17/2025
Not everyone is lucky enough to inherit an old barn with a Bugatti in it or to come across a previously undiscovered Porsche 901 in a wooden shed while wandering through the countryside. But almost everyone has a cellar or an attic where long-forgotten things are stored under dust and cloths.
While clearing out our cellar recently, I came across the Cilo bicycle pictured here, which I bought new in the 1980s. After a few years of use, it had been overhauled by something better.
In fact, this "bike" is now around 40 years old and it is of the "half-racer" type, a long-forgotten type of bike that was built somewhere between a racing bike and an everyday comfort bike. The differences to the racing bike were the mudguards, the pannier rack, the lights and the differently designed brake levers with double levers on the cranked racing handlebars.
Founded in 1914 near Lausanne in Switzerland, the bicycle manufacturer Cilo filed for bankruptcy in 2002, but in the 1940s to 1980s also supplied the undercarriage for Tour de France winners and other racing champions.
Back to my Cilo Halbrenner. After dusting off and pumping up the Maloya(!) tires (also from Switzerland), the bike could be ridden quite well again. There was no sign of any actual damage, which would have been guaranteed on a car that had not been driven for 40 years. The only question is what to do with this bike now ...
