View Single Post
Old 06-26-09, 01:02 PM
  #7  
Fivethumbs
Full Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 253
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 34 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 22 Times in 12 Posts
As far as the sticker goes, I'm sure it says tretubi rather than testubi. Tretubi meant that the three main tubes (top tube, down tube, seat tube) were made of the higher grade steel (in this case Aelle) while the seat and chain stays were a lesser steel. Unfortunately, Aelle was pretty much at the bottom of the Columbus tubing hierarchy already. It is straight guage (non-butted) steel. It's not chromoly but rather a carbon/manganese alloy. Here is some info about Aelle from a Columbus tubing brochure: SET FOR AMATEUR AND TOURING CYCLISTS. BUILT OF COLD-DRAWN, MICROALLOYED-STEEL THIN-WALL TUBING WHICH MAKES IS ESPECIALLY LIGHTWEIGHT. CMn STEEL - WEIGHT 2345 g. Aelle bikes were known to ride nicely; however they were not sought after and were inexpensive when compared to their higher level counterparts (i.e. Cromor, SL, SLX, TSX, etc.) Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything about the vintage other than I believe it's an 80's product. But it is really one of Carnielli/Bottecchia's lower level offerings.
Fivethumbs is offline