Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Basso !

I just picked up a very pretty Basso and am looking for any information I can get on the older steel frames or serial number identification. From what the previous owner briefly told me its late 80s or early 90s. The bike is almost fully campagnolo but the custom paint job is making it very difficult to id. Everything's in great condition, very clean, only a couple of paint blemishes. How does Basso scale up to other bikes, and how can I decode the serial number short of emailing Basso directly? Any hints to identifying older campy parts would be helpful too. thanks.

Can you post pictures? It would help tremendously. Is there a model name on the top tube, or a tubing sticker on the seat tube? (If it was a custom paint job from the factory, they might have been included.)

I had a Basso Ascot in the mid 90's which was made with Columbus MS tubing. The most distinguishing feature was the unusual shape of the frame tubes. The down tube was shaped like an inverted tear drop, the top tube was lemon shaped, the seat tube was narrow at the top and flared to a standard diameter at the bottom bracket, and one chainstay was triangular at the bottom bracket. These features would be easy to pick out, regardless of a repaint.

They also made the Gap and Loto models, which were more basic frames. The tubing changed over the years. At first they were made from Columbus tubing, possibly SL for the Gap and SLX for the Loto, but I could be wrong. They also had their Astra model, which was made from Columbus EL or EL-OS. Later in the mid 90's Basso switched from Columbus tubing to Dedacciai.

The company was started by three brothers in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Marino Basso was a professional road racer who won the world championships in Gap, France, in 1972. Alcide was the moving force behind the production, and his brother Renato handled the accounting side of the business. The company was regarded as making good quality frames, although the brand is not as prestigious as some other Italian builders such as Colnago or DeRosa. That is not to say that they're bad bikes though. They sponsored the Histor-Sigma pro team, and possibly Lotto (but I'm not sure about the Lotto team).

hold you bike closer to your mouse so we can see it LOL

I always wanted one of those MS frames they were quite ground breaking but the tube set did not seem to last long.

Unfortunately my frame developed a crack after 5 years of hard riding, but I don't think it was necessarily the fault of the tube set. The seat binder bolt mounted directly through the seatstays, at the back of the cluster. That seemed to put a lot of stress on the area, and the crack developed on the underside of where the seatstays joined the top of the seat tube. It seemed like a bad design to me.

I took some pictures, here's a link for viewing goodness, hopefully it works, I've never used flickr before.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52017481@N06/4787030827/in/photostream/

Sadly there are no stickers on the bike that might aid in identification, there is only one from Palo Alto which I believe is the shop that might have done the paint job. As far as odd tubing goes, everything looks pretty standard to my eye, the down tube may taper in a bit at the head tube. The only fairly unique feature of the frame is the engraved rear break mount and engraved crown, I got shots of both.

Fyi, serial is 502171

thanks for the help!

Need pics. I raced a Basso in the eighties. Loved it.

Need pics. I raced a Basso in the eighties. Loved it.

check my earlier post, there's a link to pictures on flickr

Very nice bike

I took some pictures, here's a link for viewing goodness, hopefully it works, I've never used flickr before.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52017481@N06/4787030827/in/photostream/

Sadly there are no stickers on the bike that might aid in identification, there is only one from Palo Alto which I believe is the shop that might have done the paint job. As far as odd tubing goes, everything looks pretty standard to my eye, the down tube may taper in a bit at the head tube. The only fairly unique feature of the frame is the engraved rear break mount and engraved crown, I got shots of both.

Fyi, serial is 502171

thanks for the help!

Thanks for posting the pictures, but I'm afraid that I don't have any good answers for you. Contacting Basso directly is probably your best bet. As Viperplayer5220 said above, nice bike!