This found its way into my basement:









As you may be able to discern, the former owner was a bit, ahh, eccentric, both in his taste in bikes, and in his idea of "maintenance".

I don't think any of the parts are original, including the fork. Though unmarked, the fork has forged Bianchi dropouts. The rear dropouts are unmarked, and I'm pretty sure they're stamped, so no match.

The paint has mostly been stripped, save for on the headtube and the portion of the downtube unopn which pink "FIORELLI" vinyl decals have been applied. Like I said, eccentric.

If I had to guess, I'd say the frame was built in the 50s or early 60s. No braze-ons of any kind, mounts for nutted brakes, and those weird lugs. This bike is an anomaly, in that the lugwork doesn't resemble anything I've been able to dig up on the Innernets. The Vintage Price Guide on the Harris Cyclery site mentions that in the 80s, Fiorellis had "nifty" cut-outs, but this bike ain't from the 80s. Cereal number is 40398, which probably means nothing to nobody.

Any guesses to the date or value? Any way to discern the type of tubing (seat tube, I know, but I forget what's what). Anyone have a Fiorelli they want to post?

I've seen those lugs somewhere, but I can't remember where it was...

Looks nice, though!

Lugs like this aren't really that unusual if you look back at older Italian bikes from the late forties thru early sixties...you find similar lugs (but with variations) among Olmos, Atalas, and Bianchis (for a few examples) and even the "bullet" seatstay cap is pretty typical. You're right, the fork is a much later replacement...and that stem has got to go.