There have been some other great threads recently about vintage Bottechia's and about bike surgery, here is mine!
About 20 years ago I bought a '72 Atala record Professional and used it over the years for cyclocross as previously detailed at end of thread
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...t=#post9653858
I wanted to add cantilever brakes to make it a more dedicated cyclocross bike but decided that the frame was just slightly too small for me and I was hesitant to irrevocably alter the vintage Atala frame with its sculpted chrome lugwork. I made contact with another local C&V member Blindamood (Brian) and traded my Atala (which fit him perfectly) for a boom era Bottechia Giro/Professional frame that fit me perfectly. When Brian first got the Bottecchia several years ago it had a cheap re-paint and looked like this;
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Brian utilized the original components for other restoration projects, leaving the bare frame;
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I will miss the gorgeous Prugnat lugs of my Atala, but the simpler chromed lugs of the Bottechia are not bad;
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I first stripped the old paint, then put in an order with NOVA for cantilever bosses, cable guides, rear cable stop, pump peg, chain hangar to convert the frame for my CX uses. I have my own oxy-acetalyne welding equipment but this was my fist attempt at brazing on a bike. It was a fun project and went fairly easy, the post-brazing cleanup with a file was intricate detail work. There is definitely pleasure in using the torch and files to add and re-sculpt metal.
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The original seatpost clamp was a flimsy stamped extension of the seat lug. The clamp was damaged so I opted to just cut/file it off and replace it with a new forged clamp that I fillet brazed in place.
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One 20/20 hindsight discovery is I probably should have located the brake cable stop slightly higher on the seatstays for more direct routing.
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With the brazing work completed, I masked off the chrome and painted with etching primer, duplicolor automotive enamel touch up spraycan, and a clearcoat. The paint didnt come out quite as nice as I had hoped but I got impatient and went ahead and put it together so I can actually ride it. Color scheme is reminiscent of a popular 1980s Botecchia scheme. I will eventually get some script decals for it.
Crank is an 80s vintage Specialized 110mm BCD that I recently picked up at a swapmeet, looks like new. I setup the cable guides for the option of a front derailler so may add that later. Brakes are wide stance KORE cantilevers. Vintage Galli tubulars rims shod with Grifo pattern CX sew-ups. I have only put a few miles on it so far but it is a great riding bike, looking forward to racing it this fall.
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