over the years i've owned many of the "classic" european road bikes and have ridden many more.
(ie: colnago's, pinarello's, chesini, viner, rossin, guerciotti, battaghlin, basso, olmo, vitus, bertin, etc. + poghliaghi, cinelli, ciocc, scapin, merckx, masi, grandis, gios, bianchi, rigi, AlAn, mondonico, tommasini, etc..)
I very much liked a number of them , but most of them I could take or leave.More than a few were dissappointments and a surprisingly high number of them downright sucked.
My all time favorite after nearly 30 years of ownership has been a 1980 DeRosa Professional SL Strada and I wouldn't sell or trade it for any other bike save possibly a DeRosa EL-OS.
In a pinch, I could be relatively happy with a late 70's sante poghliaghi italcorse strada, an early web-btm bkt de rosa primato(genius os) or a merckx 753 but without question, I'd always miss and be comparing them to my DeRosa.
