Thanks for all the advice. I got the expenses check, but I am headed out of town on short notice, so the Ciocc's schedule and mine won't jive for at least a week and a half.
Originally Posted by
oldbobcat
The Coppi is a "pre-bike-boom" campus bike, a little more special than a Peugeot UO-8 or Raleigh Super Course, because of its age and frame details.
The Ciocc is suspicious. The seller states "Columbus SL," includes a half dozen photos, but avoids a close-up shot of the Columbus decal on the seat tube. Come to think of it, he does a masterful job of avoiding other details that would definitively identify this bike as mid-level. such as fat oval fork blades and "stiffening" tangs.
Top level Ciocces came to the US during the SLX period, had chrome forks and stays, and were usually built up with top level components. SL and SP were not relegated to lower model frames, they simply fell out of use or were mixed with SLX.
Could you expand on stiffening tangs and oval fork blades? I am learning a whole new vocabulary on this site, and while I know what fork blades are, how fat is fat as it relates to this? I could only find one reference to stiffening tangs on Sheldon Brown and it dealt with vintage raleighs. Doing some more poking around I found some references to Colnago's club shaped stiffening tangs. Is there a specific look I should look for when I check out the bike?