Hopefully all can overlook the previous owner's rattle can job on this early 70's Italian frame...

At first glance it looks like this frame took a head-on collision. Weird part is, front fork has zero damage, head tube looks straight, no stress fractures in the paint. The mound shown wrapping under both the TT and DT circles the lower 3/4 circumference of the tube.

Sucks, frame is really obscure, but it doesn't fit me and was loaded with a full 1972 NR group so if it's toast, it's toast. I'll re-use the group elsewhere.

Curious to hear what others think about it.

Shame.

Ya, I wouldn't take that on.

Hit hard, who knows what it looked like before the bronze was puddled on it.
This might be a good practice frame to learn to fit in s new top and down tube.
This frame is a basis for a "shop bike" ride to the coffee : donut place on a work break and not lock up very well.

Head on damage. Seen one where the fork was fine yet the TT and DT took damage in the same areas.

Toast, in my opinion. Unless the frame is exceptionally rare or collectible.

Marmalade, Nutella or butter...

A frame that severely damaged and poorly repaired can fail catastrophically without warning! Sorry....



verktyg

Chas.

Toss it...it is toast...or, at the VERY least, a LOT of work!

If it was a full Campy group, it's probably a good frame; so probably a good fork. Too bad it's such a small one; but even so, someone will want the fork. What are the dropouts? There may be some point in saving them as well.

This is a '72 Liotto I posted a while back, the one that was only available in the USA through the CycloPedia catalog from '71-'73 if memory serves. Got it in a package deal or bikes that were bought at an estate sale, then left to rot in a barn by the buyer. Source of that Unica-Nitor Henry III modified a week or two ago. Guy had rats in his barn and they took a few nibbles along the leather saddle edges.

I noticed the bulges when I bought it but couldn't tell what was up given the crappy aftermarket paint. Pic of the bike as purchased, pic is an odd angle, fork is straight.:



It's light tubing, 27.2 ST dia, Campy dropouts, full NR group (rifling on thick BB cups), although the smaller bits like the pump umbrella, cable clamps, dust caps, and pedal cages on these were pretty rough, as was the fork chrome and chromed rear triangle. 3TTT bar was toast, gouged to hell from center to beyond where tape starts (like, 3" wide band of deep gouges). PO was a bit of a hack.

It's an unusual frame. Highly sought after? Not really. Seem to be a lot of mixed opinions about Liotto bikes. Luigi is praised by some as a hack that walked a few blocks from his workshop to the Campagnolo factory to pick through their rejects pile to build up his bikes and praised by others as a master crafstman. I personally think he builds some pretty awesome bikes, although this one probably isn't the best possible example.

As soon as I can get the fixed cup off (it's being a total bear, soaking now), I'll probably toss in the attic to sit, although I doubt you'd have a lot of luck removing the fork ends, they're well braised in.

It is always cool to have an unusual frame!

Toasty!

The same thing happened to my first Capo, a 1960 Modell Campagnolo. The fork and front wheel were fine, but the downtube and toptube crumpled just behind their respective front butt tapers. I had a shop pull it back into shape, and I rode it a few more years until a crack started to open up around the downtube. I gave the frame to a friend who taught auto shop and bicycle repair, but if I knew what I know now about the value and rarity of these frames, I would have asked a good frame shop to replace the tubes.

It's pretty common. Sometimes the frame takes all the damage, sometimes the fork, sometimes the front wheel. In a head-on, it's rarely the wheel which suffers alone.