Classic & Vintage - Dang, here's what I've been looking for but...

Well, except for the color. I'd prefer blue. But look at the starting price on this thing! It's a really clean bike but it's only a Special from cripes sake.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360125625849&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting


http://i20.ebayimg.com/08/i/001/2c/68/cd4f_3.JPG

Probably set the reserve at the starting price.

The seller might be able to get $345 for the saddle alone! I'd like to have that, and the pump. And the dork disk is certainly unique, too.

Go for it!!!!! It's just the ticket man!

The price is high for a basic carbon steel frameset, bottom-of-the-line cottered steel crankset, Valentino derailleurs, etc.

The seller might be able to get $345 for the saddle alone! I'd like to have that, and the pump. And the dork disk is certainly unique, too.

Unless you know something I don't, that's just a run of the mill Record saddle that came on a lot of midline Italian bikes in the 60's and 70's?

The seller might be able to get $345 for the saddle alone! I'd like to have that, and the pump. And the dork disk is certainly unique, too.

Well I don't know about the saddle but he might be able to get his price for the bike. Maybe. It's rediculous but in the summer I saw a red 21" Bottecchia Special in similarly nice condition go for $330. But as a starting price? Wow. Just wow.

I'll cross my fingers and hope he gets no bids and relists at a lower price. Although I'm not sure I really want this one. My intentions are to essentially rebuild the bike into a replica of my old bike from back in the day which would mean a repaint, decals, and significant change of components. This one is really too nice to do that to, not to mention I'd have to pay a premium for its condition only to end up totally restoring it.

Given your above post, I think you're gonna pass and I think you'd regret it if you bought it.

pm sent re. my Bottec.

My intentions are to essentially rebuild the bike into a replica of my old bike from back in the day
Ah, a Rosebud project . . .

Ah, a Rosebud project . . .

'K, I'll bite...what's the Rosebud project?

pm sent re. my Bottec.

Hmmm...I don't see your PM. You have to resend.

the color might grow up on you. the bike looks great though.http://animepisodes.info/images/f80ff32e08a25270b5f252ce39522f72.jpg

'K, I'll bite...what's the Rosebud project?

Go to Netflix, rent a copy of Orson Welle's Citizen Kane watch the whole movie and your question will be answered...:D

'K, I'll bite...what's the Rosebud project?

http://instead-of-a-cigarette.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/rosebud.jpg

Ok, Google was faster than watching the movie:

"Rosebud is the emblem of the security, hope and innocence of childhood, which a man can spend his life seeking to regain."

So yes, this would be a Rosebud project :D

Yes, but watching the movie is its own reward; it's riveting In case Google didn't fill you in, Rosebud is the name of Charles Foster Kane's boyhood sled, from which he is separated, and the word on his dying lips, after all the thirst for power. I think that all of Welles's movies are great, esp. The Magnificent Ambersons and my favorite, The Third Man (though he didn't direct that one), set in Vienna just after WW II concluded. They're all about power and corruption.

The price is high for a basic carbon steel frameset, bottom-of-the-line cottered steel crankset, Valentino derailleurs, etc.


Agreed, this is at best midline Italian product. I think based on the tutto Valentino gruppo, it's late '60s / early '70s rather than mid-70s. I don't think it's teh bottom of the olive barrel, though, and it is nice looking. A lot of Chicago kids rode bikes like that very happily back in the day.

Are those Ballila brakes?

This is not a closet unmarked Columbus or Falck double-butted frame adorned with an entry-level gruppo, in my opinion.

This all does not mean it won't be a nice ride.

Agreed, this is at best midline Italian product. I think based on the tutto Valentino gruppo, it's late '60s / early '70s rather than mid-70s. I don't think it's teh bottom of the olive barrel, though, and it is nice looking. A lot of Chicago kids rode bikes like that very happily back in the day.

Are those Ballila brakes?

This is not a closet unmarked Columbus or Falck double-butted frame adorned with an entry-level gruppo, in my opinion.

This all does not mean it won't be a nice ride.

I rode one for 22 years, from '74 until '96 when I got hit by a truck. Then I dragged the wounded bike around with me as I moved a couple of times over the next 5 years. It finally ended up in the Colorado Springs dump. :( Anyway, it's a very nice ride and certainly has that Italian style and flair. It's hi-tensile steel and when properly set up it's about 25-lbs. It's a bit whipy for a strong or heavy rider. The brakes are probably Universal centerpulls a model below the Model 61 (the ones that just say Universal and have the red washers). I'm not sure of the exact year of that one but they cost $175 in 1974.

My '74 differed somewhat from that one in that it came equipped with Campagnolo Tipo hubs laced to Fiamme Yellow Laber aluminum clincher rims rather than the more common Gnuttis with Dolomiti steel rims, Simplex deraillers in place of the Valentinos, a recessed 7mm stem bolt, a clear plastic dork disk, and an unusual Ofmega crank that was cottered steel but with 5 arms instead of three and aluminum chainrings that resembled Nuovo Record rings. Since I would be replacing the hubs, rims and crank at least on a bike like that and having it repainted Bottecchia Blue it doesn't seem worth it to buy such a nice example. In fact a clean frame and fork with the Carnielli stem still in it for cheap would be perfect. But at any rate, I'm recreating a memory rather than a bike. :D