Curious about this De Rosa... Age? Specs? Value?
 

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forums here, so I apologize if this ends up in the wrong place.. I honestly cant tell how vintage this frame is. A friend of mine lives on premises at a storage unit facility, and this bike has been sitting out all summer long (three months or so). He checked with his neighbors, and the property owner and it seemingly belongs to no one and was abandoned. He called me this weekend and asked if I was in want of a new/old road bike. He gave it to me for free, but I feel like it might be worth something, and am wanting to reimburse him some if it is in fact an item of value.

I checked the bottom bracket for a serial number, and had no luck. As far as I understand, De Rosa frames don't change a whole lot from year to year aside from their decals, so included are some photos of the decals that are on the frame. Any information about the frame would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance, photos to follow

- Austin
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$1200 to $1500, I doubt it was abandoned, I think you check with the police.

Hey Jet, thanks for the reply.

I didn't realize it was worth THAT much. I just read the found bike ethics forum, I called the police and made a report. As I couldn't find the serial number an officer is being sent out
to have a look at it. We'll see where it
goes from here.

Nice bike, the carbon fork is a replacement. It is not that old. An abandoned DeRosa... unusual at best.

Yeah I figured the front fork was after market. How old would you guess it is repechage? A few years? 10 years? Mid-Late 90's?

I'm currently at work, but I left ithw bike where the officer could have a look at it. He'll be giving me a
call after he runs the serial number, provided he can find it.

I agree most people love Their De Rosa so the odd of the owner abandoning it are slim. I am sure there a serial number somewhere it might on one of the dropouts or just so faint it is hard to see.

Well I'm not sure what you would call an item left in the elements for three months other than abandoned... I'll check the drop bars for a serial when I get home. Where a serial wpuld
normally be found on the bottom
bracket it simply says de rosa, so faint numbering is out.

Thanks for the reply bianchigirl.

If there's a removable plate under the bottom bracket for cable routing, you might look under that. That's where the serial number is on my Marinoni.

Your right is it has been sitting unattended for 3 months it is abandoned but more likely by a thief or joy rider not the owner. Did you friend try and discreetly contact any of the renters near where the bike was left?

NO the serial number may be on the dropout not drop bars. The dropout is the part of the frame that holds the rear wheel.

I am not familiar with De Rosas but some companies put the serial on the underside of the downtube or on the seattube.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...6&d=1405981815


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OK! Thank you for the suggestion Dfrost, I removed the cable routing plate and found an MC stamped there.

Thanks again Bianchigirl! Pardon my ignorance, I'm relatively new to ID'ing bike parts. That diagram will come in handy, appreciated! I believe the serial number is where you suggested, on the dropout :T117

As for the Authorities:
I'll have to get back to the officer with these letters/numbers. He came out after I got home from work, he looked without any luck for the serial number. I gave a description to dispatch, so before he came out he checked local lost/stolen reports and nothing matched this bike. He wasn't a whole lot of help: he said he did what he could looking for the serial number, it wasnt reported lost or stolen locally, it was abandoned for roughly 90 days(which he said is the abandonment period), he thanked me for my effort in finding the owner, and implored me to give it to the rightful owner if they should make themselves known to me while riding around town. I asked him what he would recommend me mentioning in a classified ad in the paper, and to my surprise he actually advised against it altogether.

I think I will go ahead and put a vague description in the classifieds and see if someone calls in and is able to ID components.

Otherwise: are there any other suggestions for handling this situation?

The newspaper advert I think would be an invitation to larceny.

Agree completely. As odd as it sounds, to some people, and old bike is just an old bike, to be discarded when you've become bored with it. Could've been someones boyfriends/girlfriends bike and was abandoned out of spite. Circumstances beyond your control have landed that bike in your lap. Clean it up, enjoy it, and move on. People abandon all sort of valuable things everyday due to odd life occurrences. You've done your due diligence in checking to see if it was stolen.

At this point it may not do any good to check craigs list but discreetly asking at some of the nicer bike shops may yield some results.

That is quite a find! I found two Trek's that were abandon or stolen. They were identical and had moving labels on them. The bike shop that sold them had stickers on them so I called and provided the SN's asking if they had records of who may have purchased them. Never heard back so I sold them. They were the bottom of the line so not even worth 1/8th of the De Rosa you found.

I did not do a thorough campaign for finding the owners as I wasn't sure if they gave them up or not. They weren't worth much and if they cared, would have advertised. To post on CL would invite trouble. I did read the items stolen requests without a match.

In your case, I would have called local bike shops to see if anyone had reported a stolen De Rosa. Too valuable not to make a more serious effort than mine. The other approach is to keep it and keep your eyes open for reports of stolen De Rosa's for 6 months or so.

In some locations, Portland Or, the police don't do anything about stolen cars other than file a report. They can't be bothered with small items. They are too busy writing speeding tickets to generate revenue. Personal property recovery does not have an incentive as a metric for career success.

BTW @Bianchigirll, nice choice of marque for naming diagram! Thought it would have more of a Celeste color!

Keep it and ride it and enjoy it. Maybe get the cop's card and keep it in your wallet in case you are ever accused of theft.

OH I just snagged that off someone else's post a few years ago. If I new how to photoshop (or anything for that matter) I would that to one of my bikes.

Alright.

Thanks to to everyone that has replied to this thread. I got the serial number to the sheriff, and it came back "no record found." Thanks for the suggestion jet, I did get his card, though he emphasized that it's on record I made an effort to locate the rightful owner, so from a legal standpoint I am covered.

thanks BianchigirLL and SJX426, while I live in a small town, it is an active town, so there are a handful of bike shops that I will check with. I wonder if any of them are de rosa dealers...?

In the mean time I will be riding this lovely bike for my commute to work. I'll continue to check the classifieds in the paper, and on the local radio stations website. Though I'll thoroughly enjoy the time I get the use of the bike, however long that may be!

UPDATE:

The sheriff I worked with was at my place of business this afternoon, as someone had called
in and ID'd the neo primato. It is now with its rightful owner.

What an awesome bike! Rode it to work everyday I had it. My old univega speciallissima just doesn't ride the same��

You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

Good for you doing the right thing!

Hooray!

really an awesome gesture.