I just purchased a repainted road bike that the owner claims is a late-'80s Italian Bertoni. He produced a black-anodized pantograped TTT stem from his garage, but nowhere else does the bike say "Bertoni." Thing is, looking at the various photos online and the 1987 Bertoni catalog at Velobase.com, there are a few "inconsistencies," i.e. my bike’s dropouts don’t say “Columbus; it has rack mounts at the dropouts; its brake bridge is different; its chainstays attach to the seat tube differently; and it has bolt-on (rather than brazed) cable guides. There's a seven-digit serial number engraved in the bottom bracket (“5786195”), but that's the only i.d.

The drivetrain was upgraded to a Shimano 8-speed, but the rest is a hodge-podge with a Bontrager saddle and stem, Cannondale fat bar, Dia-Compe brakes, Sakae crank and Tektro levers. It's a sweet-riding bike that I would like to restore, but I'd like to know what it is before I sink a bunch more money into it.

good looking frame either way.

I doubt it's a late 80's with the DT top-mount shifters, and all Bertonis I've seen, including the early [80's] ones have some frame pantographing somewhere.

The lack of top tube brake cable guides would have me think it is probably from the late '70s though the behind-the-downtube shifter braze-on says early 80's to me. Perhaps the shifter braze-on was added later? Fender eyelets indicate it is less of a dedicated racing bike, more of a sport-tour bike. I really doubt it is al late 80's bike.

The shifters appear to have been mounted under the downtube originally. There's a rectanglular boss underneath.

Looks like a cheap mid-80's Japanese/Taiwanese-built frame to me.
Hope you didn't pay a lot for it.

the white one is no Bertoni, and I agree with McFlux...not the best Asian craftsmanship judging by the seat stay misaligned with the dropout.

After looking at way too many photos online and reading countless forum posts, I'm fairly certain this bike is either an Italvega or Univega. Does anyone know if either of these uses a seven-digit serial number under the bottom bracket?

Italvega would have an Italian BB shell and either Campy DOs or stamped plate DOs but those Torpado-built frames look nothing like your white frame. If it's a Univega those were generally built by Miyata (until Lawee shifted to Taiwan) and there's a long thread with Miyata serial numbers deciphered (courtesy of T-Mar) that you can check out. If this is a Miyata/Univega it's probably at the low end of the range...frankly I expect much better attention to detail from Miyata, I'd say it's probably from Taiwan.