Originally Posted by Kommisar89

It's kind of strange reading about all of you guys riding such sweet rides back in the sixties - I don't remember seeing a "10-speed" back then in my neck of the woods (which was New Orleans at the time). Kids like I was then rode those banana seat bikes with the ape-hanger handlebars and adults rode 3-speed, flat bar bikes. Or so it seemed. I think it was around 1970 or so when I first got a department store 10-speed from Maison Blanche (Dillard's today). It was 1974 when I bought my first "real" bike - a Bottechia Special - from Gus Betat & Sons. I don't have a picture of the original but it was almost identical to the attached photo I found on the web. Yeah I know it was a pretty modest machine but for a 12 year old it was awesome. I bought it too big at the time, figuring I'd grow and ended up riding it until '96 when I had the unfortunate luck to be hit by a tow truck. I healed, the bike didn’t. I searched in vain for a new Bottechia but sparse availability and lack of $$ made that a Quixotic quest. I rode an old Peugeot for a while until I bought a new Bianchi last year. I’d still like to run across an old Bottechia one day, especially a Professional.