Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 5,045
Likes: 15
From: Lancaster County, PA
Bikes: '39 Hobbs, '58 Marastoni, '73 Italian custom, '75 Wizard, '76 Wilier, '78 Tom Kellogg, '79 Colnago Super, '79 Sachs, '81 Masi Prestige, '82 Cuevas, '83 Picchio Special, '84 Murray-Serotta, '85 Trek 170, '89 Bianchi, '90 Bill Holland, '94 Grandis
It's very difficult, in part because De Rosa was less consistent than other marques in this regard. This was in part because De Rosa was still a low-volume producer in the 70's, making a relatively high percentage of team and custom bikes. So you see chronological overlap between features like heart BB cutouts vs. slots, long-point vs. short-point lugs, more vs. fewer heart cutouts, etc. Having said that, I know Hilary Stone has been compiling info on De Rosas since he started coming across and acquiring them a couple of years or so ago. I think we can expect a timeline from him, hopefully sometimes soon, that will at least give us a jumping off point. I'm happy to comment on features I know something about, which is a few but certainly not all of them, as with Colnagos I'm more interested in some vintages of De Rosas than others. I lose a lot of interest around 1980 when De Rosa went to cast lugs.