After hiding in the original owner's garage for most of 26 years, this Zullo Special showed up on CL here a few weeks ago. No picture, too high a price and too little information had it sitting there for a couple of weeks before I made contact. Now it's mine.

Austin is a "hotbed" of Zullo ownership since the 80's importer was Bill Lewis (Austin) and was sold in probably a couple of shops around town. I know of three!

Remains of a model decal tells me it is a "Special" which was their work-a-day Columbus SL model. Great bikini lugs. I believe it was assembled in the shop using mostly 600 components.


Zullo is still building bikes, and was at the '09 Handbuilt Bicycle Show, and is scheduled to show at the '10 as well.

Zullo history and website here

Unknown year frame catalog on Bulgier here

It came with a "new" '96 Specialized water bottle, so that must have been when it was last on the road.

Congrats on your wonderful Zullo!

Thank you for posting this pic set, it is nicely done. There really isn't that much out there about these fine racing bikes.

I have two at the moment, a Criterium and a Sprint.

A very close friend rides a Special. I am first in line to buy his as well, as this brand has become a bit of an obsession for me.

I really love the way these ride, especially my Sprint.

Here's a pic before we started the renovation last summer.



I took off the 600 rear derailleur, even though it performed beautifully, and put on a Gran Sport. I rode it this way until yesterday, when we started to rip her down.

This winter, I am installing a very nice Super Record gruppo that a Serotta forum member offered me. With great fortune, I picked up a Mavic SSC/Record wheelset from a friend's attic for future considerations.

I also picked up some help from Tiziano Zullo in the form of a decal set, as the original blew off in the wind! Haven't received these yet, but I remain hopeful they will appear in the mail soon.

In addition, Cyclomondo has a very nice repro set that I ordered for my Criterium.

Here's another pic or three of the Sprint. Sorry for the grime.

I'll post pics when the Sprint and Criterium are finished.







As to Austin being a Zullo hotbed, so were the Twin Cities.

One of the finest racing shops in the Midwest, Grand Performance, stocked these as well.

I have seen a half dozen of these Zullos in this area, and they all came from this fabulous shop.

I have additional pics of the Sprint on my Flickr, but I haven't changed the settings on the Criterium pics.

If any should care!

edit: Here is a link to a "very helpful" foto essay of a 1978 Zullo Special.

https://www.ciclorestauri.it/la-mia-c...erleggera-1978

Some Zullo factoids:
I sent some questions in email to the info link at Zullo and got mail back from Tiziano himself.
The biggest production for Lewis Imports was late '83 - Spring '84.
There were 10 people working in the factory at that time, and were producing ~4000 units per year.
Some bikes built for Lewis may have been shipped without decals (and possibly without serial numbers).
Only frames were shipped to Lewis - no complete bikes.

Most of Zullo's work is TIG now, but he really enjoys brazing.
Workshop videos online:
Tiziano confirmed that it's him doing the brazing in the videos.

nick one, chuck.

Went along to the site and there are some amazing stuff. Also found a great collection of photo's of his bikes :https://picasaweb.google.com/zullo.maso
Eye candy for all those who like well built bikes

Zullo attended the NAHBS in Indy last year and brought along some beautiful, traditional steel frames. I believe at least one had a full set of NOS Campagnolo parts.

Was it this one, per chance?



What a beauty!

I am hopeful that he will attend the next one as well.

My youngest bike nut son and I will attend, and visit my parents on the same trip.

That does look familiar.

I like how he brazes everything "in space", no fancy jig tables for him...no goggles either! Seems to have a giant box of flux (or is it sand?) to quench the hot joints, but no gloves when he grabs the frame. He must know exactly where to handle it, if I tried that I'd be howling and caught 'red handed' for sure.

I've always liked Zullo bikes (had one myself back in the late 80s). If I ever find a deal on a 53 cm I'll probably snap it up. While mine wasn't sold directly on craigslist, it was sold to some guy who came for a different bike. In the back of my mind I always wondered whatever happened to that bike that had the bent headtube/downtube (previously race crashed frame)...

I probably bought it.

Just kidding.

I do seem to have a giant magnet attached to my wallet for this brand though.

I have a Sprint, a Special, and a Criterium.

There isn't much to dislike about the brand, with plenty of performance and interesting frame details.

Do you happen to have any pics of yours before it met such an untimely demise?

Sorry to hear about that by the way.

There aren't very many around, and the ones I see are usually beat to death.

Unfortunately I don't, but what remains in memory are almost as clear as seeing your Sprint pics - same color, same engravings, no stickers. I did strip the paint off the fork because I liked the look of a fully chromed fork. Plus the unmistakeable crash damage to the TT/DT and the subsequent repair to get the head angle back to somewhat normal. It had low-end components that I threw on (used it for on-campus commuting) and cinelli bullhorns. I sold it sometime between fall'03 - summer'05, when I was living in North Brunswick NJ.

Nice bike OP.

And some nice bike porn in that picasaweb collection.

Anyone know the process used to put on the decals on this one. Seems like a series of masks but I can't quite follow it.
https://picasaweb.google.com/zullo.ma...LLOSPECIAL1978#

Nice Zullos you have there!

Sorry for rehashing an old thread. I have a Zullo Special almost identical to Gomango's photos except it is blue in colour. I have often wondered if the paint job is original and I guess that answers it. I found it at a yard sale for almost nothing and was surprised considering the components and the beautiful lugging. It has all the original parts and components on it. The components are still in good working condition-must have lived in someone's garage for a long time. The only thing is the original front wheel was slightly bent when I got it and I am still trying to see if it can be bent back. I have enjoyed riding it immensely but now I am moving out of the country and I need to sell it. I don't know much about vintage bikes, so am trying to get an idea of how much it is worth. It is a 49cm frame, located in Los Angeles in case anyone is interested.

Another Zullo from the Zullo capital of the U.S. (Thanks to Bill Lewis).
This one is from the second owner, and is slightly different from my other two: has a pump peg, simple Z seat stay pantographs, and a diamond Z fork bridge. Metallic paint as well. I'm guessing '85.
This one is also stamped 61, but definitely a 60cm.

In my area they were sold by Van Herwerden as "Zullini". Nice bikes!

Re-hashing an old thread once again. One popped up on CL, in pretty good condition and selling as a special. however on the BB shell non drive side it jus says Zullo Italy. It looks very similar to this frame as the Panto are exact. Not sure what model it could be. Thanks for any info!

My black one has a disappearing "Special" decal on the wheelstay, all have Zullo Italy panto on the BB.
There's a catalog on bulgiers bulgier.net - /pics/bike/catalogs/zullo/
Seems to me that the Specials usually have just the drive wheelstay chromed.

Here's my brown frame ready to roll

This it? Looks like a brother to mine