Hi,

I recently acquired a Benotto frame from somebody in Italy. It was painted in a strange red colour with some white decals.
I can confirm that it has Columbus SLX tubes (you can see the spiral lines at the bottom of the seat tube when looking from the top).
It has internal cable routing for the rear brake.
At the top of the seatstays and the fork crown it doesn't have the Benotto logo but the Signature. Even on the seatstays it is not embossed outwards but inwards (like being pantographed).
It has a braze on for the front derailleur and the rear brake bridge is not straight but an inverse V made by Silva.
At the BB it has the heart-shaped cut out and reads 55.5-56 then 74*. On the other side it reads B3 and it also has a I.
The chainstays are diamond shaped.
Campagnolo dropouts.

So I believe it is a Modello 3000 or higher and some people say that the "I" at the BB denotes that it was built in Italy.

I am trying to guess the year it was built so I can decide on the colour scheme to spray it in.

The SLX makes it mid to late 80's. But at the late 80's I believe the were using Gipiemme drop-outs and not Campagnolo. Also the brake bridge was straight; not this fancy Silva one and they had no internal routing apart from the TT lo-pro bikes.

yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/3-quarter.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/side.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/BB1.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/BB2.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/chainstays1.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/chainstays2.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/brake-bridge-under.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/brake-bridge-side.jpg
yiannis.uk/images/benotto/photos/dropout.jpg

You need to add the https bit in front of the above (I cannot upload photos or add URLs to my posts, yet).

Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance,
Yiannis

Pic assist:

With the twin bidon mounts I would guess at a post 1985 build.

It's not a Benotto 5000 but still a top of the line frame - SLX. I would start my model search at a Benotto 3000 too.