Frank Paino Appreciation Society

[grantw]

It appears that there are a few Frank Paino fans on the forum. Share your bikes here!

For starters here's mine;


DSC_0002_01 by _granty, on Flickr


DSC_0004_01 by _granty, on Flickr


DSC_0009 by _granty, on Flickr

[WyvernRH]

What a good idea! I'll assemble some photos!
Cheers
Richard

[xerlex]

I haven't owned a Paino yet, but every one I've seen has been super nice. Is there any info on Frank anyone cares to add to this thread?

[grantw]

Yes , good to have a clearinghouse of Paino information. There are many anecdotes but they're hard to track down. So the knowns I know are:

Frank built bikes using columbus tubing and campagnolo dropouts and cable guides
Custom cast seat stays with Paino forged in the shoulders
Fork crowns with a forged heart on the shoulder and P inside. Intricate tangs inboard
Slotted BB with Campy cable guides on top
Thinned lugs (varies but they blend into the tubing like he wanted them to melt)
Some bikes have hand stamped serial numbers on drive side of BB

Many Paino's had Campagnolo GS groups and Cinelli/3T Stems and bars ( stems often pantographed with Paino in a variety of fonts)

Had a shop in Miranda on the Kingsway during the 1980s
Also sold Ultima branded bikes (frames sourced elsewhere perhaps as they lack the touches of the Paino branded bikes and had Japanese components)

Frank's bikes had the Rainbow colours as he built a bike for Gary Sutton (see Justin's classic thread via rotorburn or if you prefer cycle exif, so I'm guessing he made a track bike or two as well

That's all I know for now

[WyvernRH]

Found some photos of my Paino's, I have listed them in what I think is order of age oldest to newest from the build and the transfers. Talking of which, I have seen at least 5 variations of the Paino badge and script, not counting the 'Ultima' badge. There may be more.

My wife's Paino, a small touring frame, Probably Tange 5 with investment cast long point lugs. I reckon this one is quite early as the decals on the downtube are 'wraparound' one piece and the 'Paino' text in the badge is pretty chunky block text with a plain spade symbol, no cyclist.

My light Blue Paino, Tange investmant cast lugs and bottom bracket withTange dropouts. As light as a feather so probably top notch Tange tubing? An example of Mr Paino's worst quality paint jobs. Grey downtube decals, Paino is now script in the headbadge witrh a white cyclist in the spade.

My Dark Blue Paino, Columbus oversize tubing with Ritchey dropouts. Beautifully finished frame with an excellent paint job. White downtube decals but gold cyclist in head badge with Paino in script. Maybe one of the last frames made?


Paino paint jobs seem to vary from the sublime to total crap. Although the light blue bike is built beautifully the paint job is an instruction sheet on how not to paint a bike. The later, dark blue bike is perfect. This variation and shades of quality between seem to apply to most Painos I have seen.

From what bikes I've seen the shop at Miranda was like most frame shops in that within reason they built what the customer asked for. Also they built frames, not bikes. Often they would sell and fit the bits too (and very nice bits) but often the customer would fit whatever components they wanted or could afford, more often than not Japanese as time wore on.The Campag everything with pantographing was top of the range, the stuff I've seen ranges from panto'ed everything clad in Super Record via some bits panto'ed, only staytops with cast in 'Paino' , Paino in the fork crown only etc etc... many variations, as many as there were customers maybe
Cheers
Richard

[grantw]

Nice collection Richard!

[xerlex]

I'd heard that Frank was a pioneer or at least early adopter in Australia of using a lathe to mitre tubes, but I may have my wires crossed. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[matt1986]

Had a shop in Miranda on the Kingsway during the 1980s
Also sold Ultima branded bikes (frames sourced elsewhere perhaps as they lack the touches of the Paino branded bikes and had Japanese components)

Can anyone confirm that Ultima bikes were re-branded production bikes? I picked one up (for a friend) in original condition recently: Tange 2 tubing, Shimano 600 arabesque groupset, ambrosio wheels. A nice little machine. Even came with the original receipt from the Miranda Bicycle Centre, with what might well be Frank's signature at the bottom. $600 in 1985.

[drubie]

Had a shop in Miranda on the Kingsway during the 1980s
Also sold Ultima branded bikes (frames sourced elsewhere perhaps as they lack the touches of the Paino branded bikes and had Japanese components)

Can anyone confirm that Ultima bikes were re-branded production bikes? I picked one up (for a friend) in original condition recently: Tange 2 tubing, Shimano 600 arabesque groupset, ambrosio wheels. A nice little machine. Even came with the original receipt from the Miranda Bicycle Centre, with what might well be Frank's signature at the bottom. $600 in 1985.

As near as I can tell, the "Ultima" branding isn't so much a product, rather a generic sticker set used by a few different frame builders (Abeni used them too). The Paino bikes (like my Elan) use an "Ultima" sticker set, sometimes with a modifed head tube sticker. Mine has a tiny "elan" stuck over the "Ultima" underneath the spade symbol for example.

I'm not sure there is anything much in common with many of the bikes with Ultima stickers on them, other than at some point they went through a local frame shop. Mine (not, as far as I know, anything to do with Paino) hasn't got a serial number on it at all, which indicates to me it isn't a production bike in any conventional sense, but more likely a custom frame.

[matt1986]

Had a shop in Miranda on the Kingsway during the 1980s
Also sold Ultima branded bikes (frames sourced elsewhere perhaps as they lack the touches of the Paino branded bikes and had Japanese components)

Can anyone confirm that Ultima bikes were re-branded production bikes? I picked one up (for a friend) in original condition recently: Tange 2 tubing, Shimano 600 arabesque groupset, ambrosio wheels. A nice little machine. Even came with the original receipt from the Miranda Bicycle Centre, with what might well be Frank's signature at the bottom. $600 in 1985.

As near as I can tell, the "Ultima" branding isn't so much a product, rather a generic sticker set used by a few different frame builders (Abeni used them too). The Paino bikes (like my Elan) use an "Ultima" sticker set, sometimes with a modifed head tube sticker. Mine has a tiny "elan" stuck over the "Ultima" underneath the spade symbol for example.

I'm not sure there is anything much in common with many of the bikes with Ultima stickers on them, other than at some point they went through a local frame shop. Mine (not, as far as I know, anything to do with Paino) hasn't got a serial number on it at all, which indicates to me it isn't a production bike in any conventional sense, but more likely a custom frame.

Interesting, I'll have to take a closer look at the frame next time I see the bike, see if I can find any hints as to its origin.

Cheers,
Matt

[grantw]

Doing a bit of googling and I stumbled across some trademark information.

IP Australia has this record for Ultima
ULTIMA CYCLES with trademark number 594735 was lodged on 25/01/1993 and has a status of Lapsed/Not Protected. The applicant/owner of the trademark is registered as Frank Anthony Paino.

Which you can see here


He had also registered the Business name Chain Reaction in August 93.

On the Paino side of things There's an interview with Scott Taylor at sweat and gears

I had a custom built frame made by Frank Paino of Miranda in 1985. It had Columbus tubing fitted with Suntour Superb Pro and Mavic GP4 tubulars. My brother also had one made up to the same specks but with a Campagnolo 50th Anniversary ensemble. At around $2000 both were very expensive bikes for there time. Frank would build them at the back of his shop which took about a month.

[drubie]

ULTIMA CYCLES with trademark number 594735 was lodged on 25/01/1993 and has a status of Lapsed/Not Protected. The applicant/owner of the trademark is registered as Frank Anthony Paino.

Well, that's interesting. I always figured my own (not Paino, but cycles ultima) bike was earlier than 1993. Fascinating nonetheless and an impressive bit of detective work.

[grantw]

Trademark registration is effective for 10 years in Australia, so it's possible that the reference on IP Australia is for a second registration of the trademark and that Ultima was originally registered ten years earlier - so around 1983. That makes sense given the other bits of information to hand.

[singlespeedscott]

Gee that frame looks familiar.

[jacob_T]

Loving these bikes.
Would love to pick one up one day.

[WyvernRH]

Gee that frame looks familiar.

Yup that's the one...

Cheers
Richard

[singlespeedscott]

Gee that frame looks familiar.

Yup that's the one...

Cheers
Richard

It come up alright.

[ammie7]

Yes the lathe mitre' is a very good indicator, as is the ball peine marks on the lugs. This was to save weight and add structural integrety. To have a tapered joint in a triangular structure, leaves all stress's equal in all directions.