Originally Posted by
T-Mar
Unless they were aftermarket modifications, the pump peg and dual bottle boss sets indicate no earlier than late 1980s. During this period, the Prestige had a front derailleur hanger, so the absence of one narrows it down to a Tretubi or Racing. OEM chrome on the rear dropout flats would point towards a Racing, which would be confirmed by the presence of helical ridges inside the bottom of the fork's steerer tube.
I know I am disagreeing with T-Mar at my peril (by which I mean his knowledge far out strips mine, and most of what I know about Tommasinis comes from him), but I think Tommasini was doing dual sets of bottle bosses as early as 1982. My own bike has two sets (probably from 83, but possibly from 82) and I've seen several other examples that I can reliably date to 1982 with two sets. For the missing FD tab, since this is a rechromed/repainted bike, I considered that it might have been taken off. Stripping the paint in that section may be revealing. Also, I've documented two Prestige bikes that I'm fairly certain have original paint/decals, but which lack FD tabs. One was sold in Belgium, and had a few other unusual features for a Prestige, but the other was a US bike. That's a distinct minority, but they appear to be out there (I assume they were ordered that way).
Of the Racing models from the 80s I've documented, 5 of 7 have FD tabs. The build elements on the Racing bikes are all over the place, but there are two that I've seen that definitely have Campagnolo 1010/B dropouts, and both also have an FD tab (the others have DOs that are either unmarked, or made by Gipiemme, or I don't have that info). BTW, I promise to share this Tommasini database soon. It's up to over 200 bikes, all from the 70s to the early 90s. I need a few days off from work to get it into shape.
And @
Celloplus, if I'd have know how cheap an official Tommasini repaint was, I would have brought mine over with me to Amsterdam and used it as an excuse to take a visit to Grosetto! [deep sigh]