Chombi1 

I got it in a trade with my brother, me handing over my Trek5500 OCLV framest, and from him, This Bottecchia Professional SL, a full bike with mostly Campy Triomphe gruppo on it. The Trek was a bit too modern for me, while the Bottecchia was just too small for him to ride (51cm). It's smaller than the minimium 52cm size I ride, but I think the 1cm deficit is still workable with the seatpost adjusted appropriately and with a 120mm stem....
He thinks it's a 2001, but I suspect it could be from an earlier year. Maybe someone here can chime in to confirm the model year for the frameset. Surprising though, for a post 80's model Bottechia, it still has a 126mm spaced rear triangle.


It is full SL as stamped on the BB. and as the remnants of the Columbus tubing decal indicates.

The frame is as full featured as my Montello, with surprising extras that most would not expect from a Bottecchia. Looking into the BB shell reveals a careful, clean build with flush miters on all the tube ends that do not poke out past the shell. I really find the paint and graphics (especially the "Bottecchia" script) on the frame quite beautiful, as far as Italian bikes go....




The dismantling of the bike and cleaning of the frameset went really well and quick, thanks to my newly acquired Park work stand. Only hard item to remove from the frame was the fixed cup which had red Locktite on it, but with careful use of my Park fixed cup wrench and careful, hard taps from a mallet on it, it eventually came off without damage to the cup and the frame. Lots of grease used on the bike and I think it helped preserve the finish and kept away any rust from forming, with only just a few small rust freckles on the chromed fork which all came right off with WD40 and crumpled aluminum foil. There's just a few paint chips in the usual places which I plan to touch up before the build. Otherwise the paint and decals are in great condition, almost brand new, after my initial cleanup. Thinking of going with maybe 1st or 2nd gen Chorus on this build. I think the quality of the frame deserves such.
I already have an RD and Chorus Monoplanar brakes for the build, spares that came off from my recent Pinarello Montello refresh build, so I have a longways to go to get a gruppo completed for the bike. This will be a long winter project.
Always dreamed of owning an Italian bike in Ferrari red. The darker shade of red is more like what was used on Alfas, but I think that is just as good.

16Victor

Sweet. You got the better deal! Looking forward to seeing the finished effort.

tyler_fred

I love red Bottecchias. I've never seen one personally but I could picture myself with one of these!! Or a Montello!!

malcala622

This is a very sexy red for the Bottecchia. I haven't had the luck in finding a red bicycle to add to my stable and this thread has me a bit jealous.

Im a bit confused as to what the Bottecchia size is tho...

jpaschall

I mean, the bike is hot, but man that view is something.

T-Mar

I see what appears to be a Carnielli anniversary decal between the shifter bosses, which will give you the year.

Chombi1 

The BB has a "51" stamped on it, and it does measure 51cm, c to c. Strange, you'd thunk they would do a 52 cm instead, like most other makers.
Sorry I did a typo, I actually meant to say my minimum size for rideable frames is 52cm, not 54cm....

Chombi1 

Carnielli decal says "1989" wasn't sure I would trust it for determining actual year for the bike,.....but maybe it explains the 126mm rear spacing?

trailangel

Nice frame! Looks like a 54 or 55 to me.

malcala622

Does seem bigger than a 51/52cm in those pics but nice trade off regardless.

obrentharris 

Beautiful bike. The fork is very bling bling; lug lining, cutouts, engraving.

It looks like I could ride up onto Bolinas Ridge on a clear day with a very powerful telescope and examine your bike from there!
Brent

Steve Whitlatch 

Beautiful frame! I can`t wait to see it all built up.

DMC707

hell yeah -- love that skyline

Insidious C. 

Congrats! She's a beauty.

T-Mar

I wouldn't expect it to have 130mm spacing until at least 1990, when Campagnolo released 8 speed. Certainly, it would appear to be late 1980s based on the spacing, pump peg, dual bottle bosses and internal brake cable routing. The 80th anniversary decal is in the correct location and only appears to have been used that year. I have not seen these as part of reproduction sets and, to the best of my knowledge, Bottecchia dealers did not hand them out.

The only item I see of concern are the Columbus decals. They are the pre-1988 version. Due to stock carry over and poor rotation practices, it is fairly common to see these into 1988 but I wouldn't expect 1989. Still, the year can also be narrowed down via the palmares decals, assuming they are OEM. It would be no earlier than the last listed Campione del Mondo victory, which I would expect to be 1986. Bottecchia won another World Championship in 1989, so if that's not listed, it's no later than a 1989 model.

Chombi1 

Thanks T-Mar for the info.
As for the tubing, definitely SL per the stamped "SL" letters under the BB.
After doing some research on the net, it seems like Bottechia was known to do decal carry overs like other makers did, depending on what was at hand, so maybe they had a handful of older Columbus SL decals that day they were finishing up the frameset. The I also seen a couple of pics of other Professionals from the same time frame as this one and it looks like the unusual location of the tubing decal on the down tube, South of the bottle mounts was maybe normal for these Bottechias....

T-Mar

The normal location for the tubing decal during this era was between the shift levers. However, in 1989 the 80th anniversary decals got the location and the tubing decal got moved low on the down tube. Here are some images from a 1989 Bottecchia Cromor model that surfaced recently. Note that it is the 1988+ tubing decal. I'm assuming your palmares decal had the 1986 CdM reference but not 1989?

Lazyass

Nice. It looks big for a 51cm. That's a tall headtube.

Salamandrine 

126 was still very common if not the de facto standard into the early 90s. There was a transitional period of a few years after 130 was introduced in the high end.

My first guess was 89 or 90 when I saw the picture before reading through the thread, so 89 sounds reasonable to me. Whatever, the bottom line is that's a very cool frame.

DiabloScott

1. very pretty
2. Triomphe gruppo strongly points to 126mmOLD
3. yeah, looks like a 54 to me too

Look at this one:

NY Cyclique: Bottecchia 54cm road frame w/ Columbus SL

Chombi1 

The upper "Campione del Mondo" palmares has 1986 as the latest year called out. The Carnielli 80th Anniversary decal is under clearcoat as all the other decals on the bike are, except for the disintegrating old style Columbus SL decal, which I guess was typical on almost all Italian bikes from that time. I guess everything checks out for a 1989 Professional SL per your descriptions (I just took off the question mark after the 89 on my sig), so I can just replace that with 1988+ style Columbus decal. Who really knows what the story was with the old decal on the bike. Maybe it was factory or the original owner (not my brother) might have replaced the 88+ Columbus decal he had in hand when the original came off for some reason.
BTW, the frame does measure as a 51cm. Maybe 51.5 at most. It is strange that in my posted pics, the frame looks bigger, like a 54..... Could be the tallish stack height headset that's currently on it causing a it.
Thanks again for your help nailing down the model year for my frameset T-mar!

Chombi1 

To add, I just found these pics from an eBay seller showing the same old Columbus SL decal at the same spot on the frame. Also falling apart, like the one on mine.....


I suspect that this bike might be an 88 or earlier model because it does not have the 80th Anniversary Carnielli decal.
The serial number on my bike is low, the 8th frame out of the production line for that model that year. I suspect the old decal was a carry-over item between 89's and the earlier model they were trying to finish up.

trailangel

How you measure?

Chombi1 

Center of BB to center of top tube.... Measured it like four times tonight and it is definitely a 51cm size frame. Maybe 51.5cm at most.

trailangel

I don't see how that's possible.
Straight up or along the seat tube?