Need help to identify an old Bottecchia I just acquired
 

Hi All,

I've been reading some previous posts on identifying old Bottecchias. I owned a Special back in the early '70's myself and am pretty familiar with the brand but I'd like some help pinning this one down. Here's a description:

The "normal" stuff:
* Standard early '70's paint/chrome/decals (looks just like my old Special which I think was a '73 or '74)
* No braze-ons, 'REG' brand cable clamps and Campy cable guide at the bottom of the seat tube
* Forged Campy drop-outs and fork ends
* Standard Carnielli stem/bars
* Universal center-pull brakes
* Campy Nuovo Typo hubs
* Stronglight (Model 49D) alloy cotterless crankset (though I thought Bottecchia usually used Nervar)

The "oddities":
* Suntour barcons
* Suntour rear derailleur
* Crappy Campy Valentino Extra front derailleur
* Steel 28 x 1 5/8 rims (old designation for 700C)
* No model or tubing decals

Even my old Special had Fiamme yellow label alloy clincher rims with stainless spokes with a big 'R' logo (Rigida?) in 27" size so the steel 700C's and 'no name' spokes don't seem to fit. I also seem to remember that it said 'Special' in gold script on the top tube so I would have expected some model designation but there doesn't seem to be any. Same with the lack of a tubing decal. There's 'Made in Italy' decal near the bottom of the seat tube that's almost gone so perhaps the decals wore off. I'm sure the Suntour stuff was added later and I don't know where the Valentino extra front derailleur came from. It would be nice if it's an old Giro. I could picture somebody replacing the original tubular rims and putting on the Suntour derailleur later in the bike's life but who knows? I can upload pictures later if it helps. What do ya'll think?

-Derrick

Yes, it the most likely candidate is a boom era Giro d' Italia. I concur with your statements: a 49D is odd, the tubulars gave way to the 28's and the SunTour are not original. The presence of a Valentino is the real puzzle.

Need help to identify an old Bottecchia I just acquired
 

Thanks T-Mar - it's shame that somebody changed the old tubular rims but I don't think I'm going to bother trying to replace them with the original Fiamme red labels. I'll probably rebuild with alloy clinchers. Any idea where I can get the wheel building specs on the Nuovo Tipo hubs? I've been looking through pictures of old Bottecchia's to refresh my memory but I can't find any that show a tubing decal on a Giro. The special didn't have one and I found a shot of a restored Professional with the sticker on the seat tube just below the 'Carnielli' sticker but all I could find of the Giro was one shot of a rather rundown example with some non-descript blur at the base of the downtube. Couldn't tell if that was a tubing decal or not. I believe the frameset is Columbus Tretubi. Does that ring a bell?

-Derrick

To the best of my knowledge, the frame is the same as the Professional, only the components are different. The frame descriptions are identical in my old catalogs.

I assume that by "building specs" for the hubs, you mean spoke lengths? The Nuovo Tipo were considered 67mm hubs, so the "nominal" spoke length for 36 hole, 27"/700C rims is 311mm for 4x and 300mm for 3x. However. it can vary quite a bit from this, depending on the actual rim chosen.

T-Mar, that's awesome if the the Giro frame is the same as the Professional. Not sure where I got the idea that it was Tretubi. They do seem to vary some from year to year. I read an article recently that claimed that the European manufacturers in the early '70's couldn't keep up with demand during the bike boom and component quality and availability became spotty. For example, based on your descriptions and every picture I've dung up on the web, the old Special had Campy Valentino derailleurs, steel rims and a three spoke steel cotter pin crank. Mine (circa 1974) had Simplex prestige derailleurs, alloy Fiamme yellow label clinchers and an unusual Ofmega cotter pin crank that used steel arms and a five arm spider but with alloy chainrings. And I bought it new so I know that was oem stuff. And an old post that I dug up from Tbonne (http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in...p/t-35061.html) describes his vintage Giro

Tbonne

I have a 1970 (or 1971) Bottechia Giro d'Talia (?). I believe the model below it was the Grand Prix or that Special you referred to. The Giro has tubular rims with double butted spokes, a leather Dolemi ? saddle, Campy Valentino Extra deraillers and Campy Nuovo Tipo hubs. The crank is an aluminum Nervar. Brakes are Universal centerpulls. The tips of the lugs are chromed. There is no hooks under the crossbar for a pump. I have had this bike since the summer of 1972, but it hasn't been ridden much in the last twenty years. Some friends of the time had the model below this. It had steel clinchers but as I recall, pretty much the same other features.

Note the mention of the Valentino Extra derailleurs! That’s what was clamped to the seat tube on my new frame too so you have to wonder if they just ran out of Nuovo Record or something and changed spec temporarily midstream. Here are some pics of the bike: http://www.geocities.com/kommisar89/...ottecchia.html

Well, I have to agree with the inconsistent quality comment, especially on the entry level models. But, it wasn't just the Italian bicycles. Just about every European marque suffered these problems, in varying degrees, due to large demand. The Japanese were the pnly entry level bicycles with consistent quality during the boom and this did a lot to establish them in the marketplace.

No doubt, there were a lot of substitution for spec'd parts during the boom, as the component manufacturers had a hard time keeping up with demand too. The Simplex does seem a strange substitute for a Valentino though, as the Simplex was spec'd on the lower De Luxe model. The De luxe and Special were spec'd almost identically, with the derailleurs and amount of chrome being the major differences. I'm thinking that your Special may have been slightly post boom, say around 1976? The boom era Special had steel rims and the aluminum Fiamme suggest something a bit later.

It's been a long time but I'm almost positive I bought my Special in 1974. The only piece of it I have left is the rear Tipo hub. I pulled the lock-ring off to check and it's marked CAM 73 which I assume indicates a 1973 manufacture date. The only thing I can remember about the Fiammes is that they looked like the picture here that I found on eBay but had the yellow rectangular decals with FIAMME in block letters instead of the flying horse.
http://www.geocities.com/kommisar89/..._clinchers.JPG