joe englert

Just saw an ad on cr for a Battaglin...the interesting thing is that the bike has a label on it...on the top tube where the little italian color square is that says "made by Pinarello" ..curious...I thought Battaglin was made my Battaglin...as opposed to Concorde and some other brands that were, in fact, made by another company

thinktubes 

Shoot first, ask questions later....

dddd

Battaglin was a racer, and, like a lot of other racers-turned-bike-vendors (such as Coppi), would find a builder to hook up with to build and sell the successful racer's marketable brand.

The trick is sometimes a matter of keeping track of changes in suppliers, but in other cases the builder is kept secret, obviously not the case here with the esteemed Pinarello brand being plastered on the Battaglin.

But then the question might be, who built Pinarellos, and starting when?

Pinarello was a highly-esteemed brand in the very early 1980's iir.

I prefer the potentially higher-quality of frames built by contract-builders, whose steadier production rates assure that skilled, proven workers and methods are retained more continuously than with brands whose sales performance waxes and wanes according to the success of a racing team or teams.

BTW, the Battaglins are excellent road bikes for the needs of aggressive riding, won't hold a rider back! The craftsmanship and paint quality is also pretty darn good from what I've seen.

ultraman6970

I believe you are talking about a green bataglin in a site I wont mention, but the bike is actually in SF, right?

That bike is a repaint, 1st time I read about that made by pinarello thing, maybe the moron that repainted the bike (poorly) thought that battaglin was less famous than pinarello or something?

Bianchigirll 

Some pics may help. I do agree with dddd that finding out who supplied the frames when is paramount to answer the question. I know in the late '80s to early '90s Bataglin was under the 10 spd drive umbrella ( I even saw a few frames painted in our team livery with Geurociotti decals on them) so it is possible after 10 Spd D folded battaglin contracted with Pinarello to build frames.

Guerc 

I've seen the bike pics of that light green bike on the site-that-shall-not-be named-but -starts-with-C. Yes it looks like a repaint. At that point I would never trust the decals to be authentic. At least it is a real Battaglin, given a full set of Battaglin-logo'd cast lugs, regardless of the actual builder.

I remember in '94 Battaglins were being sold under the Performance catalog. The catalog advertised them as Columbus SL but "robotically TIG welded" in Taiwan with unicrown fork and no more distinctive lugs. At that point I pretty much figured you were getting a Giant with Battaglin decals. Probably a decent bike but not worth a premium.

ps- I once owned a ColumbusMAX Battaglin. Every tube was oversized or shaped. Cool bike.

ultraman6970

You going to westmisnter this year??? You didn't last year...

3alarmer 

...yeah, Joe, I saw that one too. I got no idea, and I actually own one of their bikes.

joe englert

thanks for the insight...i passed on it....my fav battagliin is the red white and blue that Roche rode on his triple crown success

cb400bill

Pics and link for posterity.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/bik/4290969893.html

fietsbob

as soon as they retire Its common for famous name racers to have a frame built bearing their name

Steel frame companies can start in garden Sheds and Garages..

Hoy, Boardman, and such may have just sold naming rights for ongoing Royalties .

not even Managing the Importer contracting the Chinese to apply the Logo ..
and ship them back to the West.

Bianchigirll 

Westminster? No, I don't have a dog nor too much interest in..... HEY you not suggesting?

repechage

I like the color. Kind of Kermit like in a good way.
Race bikes should be bright. Red is overused.

ultraman6970

haha... not suggesting anything, oh well last year wasnt that bad, some how people was passing of good stuff, last year was weird compared with years before.

dog? westminster the swap meet... not the dog show

ultraman6970

Thats exactly the same bike, it was in ebay then the user took it down, now is at CL? That paint job is just as bad as you can get, that bike is good to take the components out and use them somewhere else because get that painted how it should would be more than the asking price of the bike.

dddd

It's one of those love-it-or-leave-it bikes I guess. I won't mention parting it out, other than to say that someone will probably consider that.

Is the seller "flexible"?

ultraman6970

No idea, sent an email and never got back even with the phone number so who knows, and since the bike was in ebay aswell and the guy took it off... who knows which are the real intentions behind the guy.

joe englert

well...after looking at those pics...im thinking its NOT a repaint..mainly due to the fact that the columbus sticker looks old.....i did "lowball" the guy a while ago and he DID get back to me..but is sticking to his price

repechage

Looks bigger than a 53 cm though. More like a 55 center to top.
An eclectic set of components,whoever did set it up thought about it. And either got a bargain on a too big a frame or was optimistic as to size.

lotekmod

I agree with the size assessment. I ride a 55-56cm frame and my eye is trained to look for that head tube size when scouring for sale ads.

dddd

Depending on a particular model's relative bottom bracket height and fork leg+crown length, the head tube can be deceiving.

I've got a Merckx Century (Thanks, Joe) that looks like a 56cm, but measures 58.3cm C-Top.

Yep, just a bit too big for Joe (well, unless it's a 7-11 or a Masi).