Concorde PDM Team Bike Ex Pro: Wim Arras
This is something you will not find again soon! It's the former Concorde PDM team bike which belonged to former pro Wim Arras. This bike was used during the 1986 season and even participated in the Tour de France that same year. Wim Arras also won the 1st Stage in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and the 1st Stage in the Ruta del Sol that same year.
Wim Arras is a former Belgian cyclist. He was a pure race sprinter and rode for the Dutch PDM and the Belgium Lotto outfit during his career. Among other things, he was the winner of Paris-Brussels and seemed ready to compete with the sprinters of the international peloton. But after a motorcycle accident, his career was abruptly interrupted at the age of 26. I tried to find more information about Wim, but unfortunately it is difficult to find images of movies from 1986 in which Wim Arras is featured during his PDM period. However, I did find this 1989 video from the Tour of Dunkirk where he beat one of the best Dutch sprinters, Jean van Poppel. Arras rode for the Belgian Lotto formation back then.
The bike itself is still in a good, used condition. It has some patina here and there, but nothing really disturbing (if you take into account that this bike was actually used during races). The frame is made out of Columbus SLX tubing and has a lot of panto's. Back then this was one of the best and most expensive framesets from Concorde and this particular colour scheme was only used for the pro bikes of this particular team. Also take a moment to look at the wheels. The front wheel has only 24 spokes and the rear wheel 28 spokes. Something that was virtually non-existent at that time. The bike is furthermore equipped with a complete period correct Campagnolo Super Record groupset from 1986, which still is in a good condition.
This bike is an original team bike and has a unique frame number, rider name on the toptube and the milled Cinelli Bottom bracket, this is something that was only done for team bikes so that the mechanics could change the cables faster. Look no further, you will not find this again soon!