CLAotW: 1978 Austro Damlier Vent Noir II (Richmond)

 This one you should just read.  Really nice to find one of these popping up.  I'm gunna bold what Sheldon Brown had to say, cuz it's that interesting:

 

1978 Austro Damlier Vent Noir II 56cm Full Campy Gran Sport Gruppo - $900 (Richmond)

This is a 1978 Austro Daimler Vent Noir II in excellent original condition. (I am not 100 percent positive about the year but AD only made this model for three years and I think this one is a 78, later ones were normally equipped with Shimano) The only deviations from the original build are the following: new brown leather bar tape, new tires, new saddle, and new brake pads. It is fully equipped with Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport group. I had it professionally restored and overhauled by a vintage bicycle mechanic in town. The finish is a gorgeous gray-silver chrome coined "smoked chrome" by Austro Daimler that you really must see in person in the sunlight to truly appreciate. The Vent Noir (means night wind or dark wind) is so named because of its dark or "smoked" chromium finish. These are beautiful riding bikes given their nicely lugged Reynolds 531 frames. Sheldon Brown who worked for AD had this to say about the Vent Noir's finish

"The company also introduced the Vent Noir. A step below the Team frameset, it had a very unique feature. The frame went through a "secret process" which made it impervious to scratches. It was not painted. From what we could tell, it was hard-chromed (the type of chrome you use on engine crankshaft journals, not the kind for hubcaps), and then some sort of anodizing on top. You could take a knife or a file, and you couldn't scratch it. The factory never did tell us what they did. But it worked!
I left Steyr-Daimler-Puch of America in 1980, as the moped market was on the decline. I left the industry at that time."

Bars and stem are Cinelli Olymian, Zefal Leather toe Straps, all other components are Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport in excellent working condition. All dust caps, cable housings, bushings, bearings etc are original and pristine

To save my own time, I'll let the pictures speak for the bike, with a little research you can find out a lot of information on this rare bike.