1970s Rossignol?
 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...6603&rd=1&rd=1
http://a763.g.akamai.net/7/763/1644/...img002/img.jpg

I just lost this auction. But I'm curious about the bike itself. A search of several bike forums only turned up the occasional mention of a rossignol, but no info. The company seems to be still operating out of Milan, making new bicycles.. but my italian isn't so great: I couldn't find any info about their old bikes on the current website (http://www.rossignoli.it/ciclo/). Can anyone tell me anything about this company? What did I miss out on?

I visited the shop in 1991, also checked out what I could of Cinelli, but they were WAY out in the outskirts of town, IIRC, like closer to Monza than to Milan proper. Back then Rossignoli had the Mtn. Bike Bug in a big way, there were a only few road bikes on display and most were "Club Specials". The proprietor was very nice and put up with my lousy pidgen Italian, he indicated that he could ship bikes directly to the US if I purchased one, but I ended up just buying some little accessories...like the bells with both Rossignoli and St. Christopher embossed thereon. His top-line road bike looked pretty nice, I don't know if they were contract-built and if so by whom.

One of these was my first good bike, purchased in Chicago, early 1969, at Turin Cycles. It was a Rossignoli, not a Rossignol. My equipment was all racer-grade stuff, but mostly pre-NR, very old, as if the whole bike was NOS at that time! Cicli Rossignoli seems to be a bike shop in Milan which now sells CF bikes that can not have been made in the shop!

It had a supple ride with good response and stability, that, for a 17 year old body, soaked up Chicago road irregularites well. Loved it! I now have "better" steel bikes, a Masi and a Woodrup, but I wish I still had the Rossignoli. It was stolen in the mid-70s.

I never knew what my frame was made of, but it was fairly light, 24 pounds or so. Considering it had steel crank (FB/Simplex) and steel (bronze?) early Record derailleurs, I thought that was pretty good, and the frame was probably fully db. Lugwork was smooth. My bike had more tire-seattube clearance than this one. I wish I'd known about it on the Bay!

Road Fan