At the risk of leaving the Univega core of this thread behind, a pic of my '72 Italvega, reworked into a freewheel singlespeed, is attached. I love the way it rides ...

Italvega frames were built by Torpado in Italy for Ben Lawee; I think producition shifted to Japan in '77 or so, and then to Taiwan by '83, but that second date is pretty squishy. Italvega bikes featured a full range, from straight gauge tubesets (mine) to Columbus tubesets built up with Campy Nuovo Record into 20-21 lb. beauties. Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, but the really high end offering disappeared from the line when it became Univega. That said, the Univegas I've seen - and there are a lot of them out there - compared really favorably to the quality Japanese marques of the era.