DonkeyShow

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/...542621367.html

Columbus slx tubing, great condition. seller has a 10 day old ad asking $450. Love the color and been wanting something cool and Italian. What would be reasonable to offer? It's also 20 minutes from my house.

randyjawa 

Long have I admired these frame/fork sets. This one looks to be in good condition. Though I have not checked sold values on Ebay lately, my guess is that the asking price is not unreasonable. I would offer and pay $350.00 in a heart beat and go as high as $450, if need be. But that is just me and I am a SUCKER for chrome fork/stays socks coupled with chromed head tube lugs. These are some of my favorite bikes in my collection and all three feature that cool chrome that, truly, blows my kilt up. The one drawback to all the chrome is that you have to keep it clean, dry and waxed to prevent oxidation. My present collection of vintage road bikes is small but most feature the chrome bling...

Bianchigirll 

If it was near me it would be tempting but I’d try for $350 because I’m cheap

Poor Ottavio. you have know the lore….

DonkeyShow

Beautiful bikes randyjawa

How bad is dealing with an Italian threaded bb? No plan or parts on hand to build it currently if I do scoop, but I too am a sucker for things I lust after.

randyjawa 

Italian bottom brackets are as easy to work on as any other, in my opinion. Ensure that you have the right tools (not a hammer and punch) to do the work, and Bob's your uncle.

himespau 

I'd be happier at $300, but I'm also cheap. I'm tall too, does that explain why I'm cheap? I keep hearing that us tall guys are especially cheap.

I've always liked the looks of those SLX Bottecchia frames with all the bling. Since there's not a BB in there, you can go with whatever you want. The cartridge BBs are a lot easier for me to grab onto than the older loose ball Campagnolo BBs, but that's just me. The big thing to remember with Italian Threaded is that they both go Righty-Tighty unlike JIS threaded where the drive side tightens counter clockwise.

DonkeyShow

I offered $340 and local pick up and they told me to go look at their ebay listing that's currently at 80...

3alarmer 

..
...CL ad now says "best offer". They are solid bikes in the larger size that I ride. I have had three of them, all made from lesser Columbus tubing sets than that one, which I set up with indexed shifting. Even the Aelle and Cromor frames I've had seem to be a pretty nice handling bike, because of the geometry. I have trouble dating them as to year, because they made and sold those "team replica" steel frames for a long time. Just had a big fire at the factory, so I guess production is halted for a while.

Italian BB is not difficult, but you need to make sure that if you are using an old style cup and cone BB spindle, the drive side cup is torqued in there pretty hard, or they will back out in use. Usually people nowadays build them up with a sealed unit BB, so it's not so much of an issue. I wouild ry to calculate what it would cost me to assemble it into a complete bike (in parts, wheels, components), then subtract that number from whatever similar complete bikes are now going for on your local CL. It's usually somewhat of an expensive project to build up a bike from a bare frame.

So try to keep that in mind when you decide on your offer. I would probably try for less, based on what I see similar complete bikes selling for in my location. OTOH, maybe you have or can find a donor bike cheap enough to switch over all the parts/wheels.

3alarmer 

...e-bay pricing is probably going to put it out of reach, speaking practically. But now you get to see what the overpriced e-bay market values it at.

DonkeyShow

Maybe I'll get lucky.

3alarmer 

.
...maybe it's different back in D.C., but there are nice Italian bikes all over my SF Bay Area CL. They used to all be pricey, but pricing for almost everything in a steel frame with DT shifters has taken a hit here.

In 90% of the cases, assuming the stuff on the complete bike you buy is of decent quality (and it often is on an Italian bike that has not been stripped of its components and rebuilt with stuff from the parts box of the guy who wanted the originals), complete bikes turn out to be cheaper.

ramzilla

Bottecchia is definitely an under appreciated bike. The one I used to own back in the 70's was fantastic. It had sew up tires & only weighed 20 pounds!