My only experience with Torpado was in the mid-1980's, when the shop I worked in carried them for one or maybe two seasons.

We bought them from a distributor in North Caroline (I think; might have been South Carolina).

Whoever it was might have been new to importing bikes, because, unlike any of the other importers of Italian bikes in popular price ranges (e.g., Atala, Bianchi), all the Topado models, including a couple of models selling for less than $500, were available in one-centimeter size increments. All we had to do is have the customer test ride three plausible sizes. The size that felt right was then an easy sell.

Which was great for those of us on the showroom floor with racing experience, since we could explain the benefits of a semi-custom fit for high-performance cycling, but I imagine that many or most dealers found the sizing confusing (Why all the sizes?), off-putting, or pointless.

Not surprisingly, the importer stopped importing the bikes pretty quickly. That was a shame. They were pretty bikes of high quality. And the top model, which was priced comparably to the equivalent Bianchi, came with a Campagnolo aluminum freewheel, which could have been sold for a pretty penny. I think we sold only one of that model. I advised the buyer to have us remove the campy freewheel immediately and install a Regina, which he did.