Brewsmith 

Picked up my first vintage Italian today, a fairly complete 1971 Bottecchia Gira de Italia. Components are in really good condition, appears the front hub/wheel is a replacement and the suntour barcons are obviously aftermarket. Frame is in good structural condition, has a very minor ding on the top tube and plenty of chipped paint but I think it will shape up well with some TLC. Measures a rough 61cm to the top of the seat post, and is alarmingly light weight. I have tried to find more info on these early Bottecchias, but it seems they are kind of few and far between. This is also my first foray in to vintage campy bits, so any ID help would be welcome also.

My plan is to tune and touch it up and ride as is with the 'patina' and possibly do a full restoration if I like what I feel. To that, if anyone has recommendations on a decal supplier or a hail mary on a headbadge, please share

Thanks for looking and if anyone has any info on the bike/components, please chime in. I would love to get more info about these bikes out there!













Drilled out cogs seen in the rear


DIY Drillium on the rear brake


Full Album
Postimage.org / 1971 Bottecchia Giro de Italia

cb400bill

Looks like a fun bike.

H Lloyd Cycles show a couple of Bottechchia decals on their website.

daf1009

Very nice...have fun with the riding and the restoring...and...as always requested...post lots of pictures!!!!

ramzilla

Nice bike. But - those weird rubber pedals have to go. And, looks like it's time for new tires too. Throw in a new seat and, it will be ready.

Brewsmith 

Agreed, the pedals are garbage. I have a set of fairly rusted out campy pedals that may serve as a temporary stand in until I can fins something nicer. I do have a same era (I believe) black brooks competition saddle and a 1972 b17 narrow in very dark brown that I will be swapping out with the unicantor. Thanks for the input, if anyone has a similar year or model (apparently the differences between the Giro and a the Professional are slight, possibly even same frame with some different components) please post up some pictures for inspiration!

Brewsmith 

Getting ready for a touchup and found the columbus stamp near the headtube/top tube in one of the larger paint chips. Kinda cool.....

Steve Whitlatch 

Cool bike!

Brewsmith 

And for those keeping track, the frame, fork and headset weight in at 6.58lb, seems super light in hand.

I'm currently having some trouble matching the black for touchups, teslors black looks a little dull in the lights. Under scrutiny I can see where the paint was not evenly sprayed on the fork and the bottom side of the top tube, so I may end up doing a full respray. Just looking to keep it black so it shouldn't require too much prep

cbutler

Nice bike!

In the '70s, Continental makers usually had a "Pro model" in their line-up which was full Campag Nuovo Record.

If the cranks and brakes are original, and I suspect they are, your Bottecchia would be second from the top. I would suspect that the frame is Columbus SP due to it's size.

The original wheels would've been tubulars, likely with Nuovo Tipo hubs. Installing tubulars will give you a dramatic increase in performance.

I expect the plain steel seatpost was stock, yet a Campag GS post supporting a Brooks Pro would be a lush change.

Cane Creek makes nice and inexpensive tan hoods, although, they probably won't fit due to the adjusters on your levers. Consider some plain Universal 61 levers with Cane Creek hoods.

Cloth tape. yes cloth.

Campag GS or Record pedals with toe clips and straps.

And Nuovo Record DT shift levers.

Brewsmith 

Thanks for the input cbutler, pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking also. I actually have tubular wheelset laced to Nuovo Tipo hubs that came off my well upgraded, but poorly stored Grand Jubilee that I may switch over to this, and throw these clinchers on the GJ for general tooling around. I'm pretty smitten with this frame so far, and with some of these upgrades, it will likely become my fair weather ride.

I haven't used cloth tape yet, and like the leather that is installed currently, are you recommending for comfort/utility or period correctness?

I'll keep my eye on the C&V sales forum to see if any campy seatposts, pedals and/or dt shifters show up at a reasonable price (for those reading with any in you possession, PMs welcome!)

rmfnla

The Pro model has always been one of my favorite bikes.

Not only did it come full Campy the frame was finished better, especially around the dropouts.

FD looks like it could be mounted a bit better on this one...

RobbieTunes

If I can help, let me know, as I'm local..... great bike.

Bottecchia, by many acounts, is a true hero.
There remains a belief that he was murdered by the Fascists in Italy, possibly for doing the same thing as Bartali.
For that reason alone, I look at Bottecchia's in a different light.

Another reason is that one of my hero's, crank_addict, has one.
He da man.

devinfan

Very nice, understated and classy! Only thing I'd recommend other than the pedals is givie that nice Unicanitor a polish with some brown shoe polish before counting it out, it suits the bike and I think you might be surprised with the result.

CroMo Mike 

This is my 1972 Bottecchia professional.

I'm not supposed to tell this story, but I stripped and repainted it in 1982 using a spray gun and automotive lacquer materials including light grey primer, silver basecoat, candy blue color coat, and clear coat. The candy blue is a close match for the original color. The decals came more recently from an eBay seller in Australia. I like the new paint much better than the fragile original, and the new decals are much more durable than the original water slides. I've owned this bike since new, and ridden it more than 30k miles. It has a little less "feel" than my '87 Bottecchia and my '82 Colnago, but still not bad.

If you look closely near the Columbus dove stamped on the tube you might see numbers indicating the tube thickness - mine said .6-.9mm, which is SL

jpaschall

Are the points where the forks meet the fork ends crimped sort of flat? I've never seen that treatment before.

Brannigan

Love it. Might strip the paint down to the fully chromed frame underneath.

Brannigan

Mine has that too. But what mine does not seem to have is a frikin serial number.

CroMo Mike 

Mine has a different fork/dropout treatment. Something like you see on other bikes. Mine does not have a serial number. The chrome under the paint isn't finished, so leaving is bare of paint isn't a good option.

SJX426 

I have a 72 Giro D'Italia. The frame difference between the GDI and the Pro is none. What differentiated the two was what was hung on it. The pro was all Campy with the GDI a big mix. You can see mine here, but it is not all original. Bulgier has a cat with descriptions. This is the condition as purchased. Still that way!

Randy has a nice discussion too: https://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpeeds_1/Feature_Bicycles/Feature_Bicycles_Itlay/Bottecchia_Professional/BOTTECCHIA_PROFESSIONAL_1_Start.htm

~[IMG]1972 Bottecchia Giro D'italia 60cm, on Flickr[/IMG

rmfnla

That's what I was talking about in Post #11 .

The Pro was better finished...

SJX426 

GDI fork
[IMG]P1020437, on Flickr[/IMG]

Rear DO:
~[IMG]P1020436 on Flickr[/IMG

FNS32

heres mine, dont know much about it
[/URL]

randyjawa 

The Bottecchia does not have a full polilshed chrome plated surface. Only the lugs, fork and stays socks are polished chrome. The rest is, indeed, chrome plated, but it is not shiny, nor does it look very good, at all, as can be seen on this Model Special...



I don't have a really good picture of the Giro/Pro but there is a small spot, just near the top of the left shifter, that shows the unpolished chrome...

Brewsmith 

Yea, if you looks close at the columbus stamp it does say .6-.9mm so I guess it is an SL frame (or the precursor, thought they didn't start differentiating until '77 but could be wrong). My frame is also devoid of serial numbers, but the RD, which I am assuming is original as most of the bits other than the shifters seem to be, says patent 71.

Also, upond further inspection, it seems like the lugs did receive some thinning, albeit a bit coarsely. The pictures below show what I am talking about.

Lastly, for the saddle, is shoe polish the best move? More so than proofhide? I know that the polish is mostly aesthetic and I would like to put some life back in it as it seems super comfortable, just dont want to have a brown stain on my pants forever

RobbieTunes

Polish, buff well, then cover with neutral polish the next day and buff that. Helps to seal in the color.