Mel Pinto catalog

1. Date: 1970 to 1975
   

2. Derailleur brands: Campagnolo, Huret, MAVIC, Shimano, Simplex, Stronglight, Sugino, SunTour, Super Champion
   

3. Derailleurs: too numerous to mention - see individual pages

I know very little about Mel Pinto, except that:

1. •He was typical heroic wholesaler of specialist cycling products of the times - much in the mold of Ron Kitching in the UK. A messianic figure bringing the rich European culture of cycling to a barren and philistine land.
   

2. •He established his business in 1958 in Falls Church, Virginia, USA, part of the Washington DC conurbation - and actually ‘inside The Beltway’ - as they say in The West Wing.
   

3. •For some years he organised criteriums (criteria?) in Washington DC around The Ellipse outside the White House.
   

4. •He liked to decorate his catalogues with a range of logos, including bizarre heraldic symbols and a cyclist made up of the characters ‘M’ and ‘PINTO’ (how many hundreds of variations can there be on the theme of bicycle-like graphics made up of gruesomely contorted combinations of letters?).