52telecaster

Picked this up for a song and am trying to figure out a year. The serial number is 365 on the seat lug. The fork is Columbus but the chrome on one leg is horrible. It came with some 600... Crank and brakes. Rear derailleur is a campy nr as is the seat post. The stem takes what I think is a 7 mm Alan wrench. I don't have one so I hope it isn't stuck. The seatpost did come out.

As for date, the 78 catalogue shows clamp on cable guides but this has braze ons as well as on set of bottle mounts. The bike is plenty light but it's difficult to tell what components it way have had originally. Any help is appreciated.

Serial#



700c brake clearance

machinist42

From what I can tell from the reflection of the sticker on the frame pump, the Columbus sticker is from 1978, if this person's work is to be trusted, (and it has proven to be reliable in my experience and vetting).

If you would please post photos of additional salient and useful details, (especially) the underside of the BB shell, the dropout and fork end treatment(s), the number of holes in the lugs, blah blah blah,,,. it would be helpful in confirming the date.

Also, maybe, remove the pump before taking another picture of the tubing sticker, please?

52telecaster

Just got home from a very long drive. I almost had to destroy the pump to get it out. It's too long for where it was put. I'll take more pics and hopefully better ones. There are no holes on the underside of the bottom bracket.

Kabuki12

I have one that is later than yours and it is about a 1972 . Yours is earlier. The paint on mine shows the miles and time. The original owner raced it back when it was new . I love the way the bike rides , very firm ride with 700 x 28 tires . It came with Campagnolo NR drive and Universal CP brakes . I changed it to Campy NR side pull. I’m not sure if the earlier ones had the nine holes under the bottom bracket shell, mine does. There is a possibility that yours is a repaint.

T-Mar

Yes, that Columbus decal was introduced in late 1977, for the 1978 model year. The earliest reference material that I have showing Windsor with brazed-on rear brake tunnels and bottle bosses is a 1979 advertisement in a cycling magazine. The front derailleur on the subject bicycle appears to be the version introduced for the 1979 model year. These suggest that the bicycle is no newer than 1979. The long rear dropouts seem anachronistic. Normally, I would expect the short, Portacatena style dropout on a bicycle of this level and era but I have seen a couple of other Windsor Professional with these braze-ons and long dropouts.

The one feature that I haven't seen on any other Windsor Professional are bar end shift levers with dedicated cable stops and guides on the upper down tube. All the ones I've seen have had down tube shift levers, either clamp style or with brazed-on bosses. The 1979 advertisement mentions "brazed-on control lever bosses", which implies down tube shift levers. So, if the bar end shift lever set-up is OEM, it would appear to be newer than 1979.

All the Professional that I've seen have been Campagnolo (Nuovo) Record with Universal 61, 68 or 77 brakesets. However, I haven't seen any confirmed 1980s models and Windsor survived until at least 1983. Still, the presence of the Campagnolo derailleurs, seat post and headset(?) suggest that components such as the crankset, brakes and possibly the wheels, are replacements. It would interesting to know the patent date on the rear derailleur.

T-Mar

Yes, there's always the possibility that the owner's bicycle has been modified and repainted. However, if you're basing the relative age on the relative value of the serial numbers, that's a false assumption. Acer-Mex, the manufacturer of Windsor was a full range, mass volume manufacturer. I've seen confirmed models from the very 1970s that still only have a four numeral serial number, so it would not appear to be just purely sequential. I suspect that the first numeral may be a year code but I don't have enough good data to have an even a moderate level of confidence.

Kabuki12

So true, as with a lot of these vintage bikes . Serial #'s were not as important to the O.M. I was also basing it on the mention of no holes on the BB shell. I believe that makes it earlier than mine and those braze ons were done when the bike was repainted. The advert from the distributor shows only two color options for the Pro , silver , or orange. To me , the op bike looks like a rose color of silver and the later Columbus decal doesn't jive with the other features that date this bike to be an early one. Who knows? Joe

steelbikeguy

Just in case it helps, let me offer this road test from the October 1975 issue of Bicycling....







Steve in Peoria

52telecaster

The rear derailleur has 72 on it but the seller said his friend built up the bike with what he had on hand.

Fork looks crude but I can feel ribs.

Very plain. No cutouts or numbers

3 holes

2 holes.

52telecaster

Also, the seatpost is 26.8.