spacemanz

Hey folks, I'm gonna start this thread without pics, then edit them in later. Yesterday, I made a little trip down to Tacoma, & picked up an older Bottechia Professional (henceforth called BP, to save typing, LOL) frame & fork. There are definitely a few "imperfections" in the paint, and it's missing the top tube sticker, but overall, it's in very decent condition. The chromed head lugs have a bit of rust, but it's cleaning up pretty well, with Brasso, and I found a small jar of chrome paint today, as well as a blue that probably won't be a "perfect" match for the Bottecchia blue, but it'll at least get it airtight. This is either a late-60s or early-70s frame, as the large sticker on the seat tube has the block-style lettering, and the race wins from the 60s are advertised ('64-'67). The cool thing is, I'm sure it's a Professional, because it has a sticker that says Campagnolo Prodotti Speciali, and the Columbus tubing foil decal is a very early type, with the outline of a dove, but it's not colored white, like later ones. Plus the Campy dropouts & forkends reinforce the model. Anyways, besides my great luck yesterday, in acquiring the BP, today I went out for paint & things, & found a C-Record headset, plus a 3 TTT stem, Model 2 or 3 I think, that's pantographed in a few places, most notably with G. Olmo in large cursive script on each side, like a signature. Plus on top are 3 elongated oval-ish indentations, painted in with red, white & green (the Italian colors). I dunno what I did to deserve all this good luck, but I'm liking it a lot. I had to post something about all this, even without pics for now, but I'll fix that soon. I wanted to clean up the frame some first anyways, the rust was pretty scary looking. EDIT: I see this is working now. There's much room for improvement, but this is a decent start. I got those lugs cleaned up WAY better than they were, but some work left, on the pitting.

dddd

Looking foreward to some photo's. I've got an early-70's model in blue, still wearing the old tubulars.

Drillium Dude 

I'm looking forward to pics, too - bring 'em on

When you say you "went out and found" the Olmo-engraved 3ttt stem and C-Record headset, do you mean a shop? If so, was it Recycled Cycles down by the university?

I remember the good ol' days of that shop, when one could go in there and get not-overly-abused NR and SR components for a fraction of today's Ebay costs. I put most of my bikes together with stuff sourced from their bins. Finding stuff like that there these days would indeed be a score.

DD

eja_ bottecchia

Here are some photos...while we wait for the photos from the proud new owner.







(NOTE: This is before I upgraded to Athena 11V)

spacemanz

Yep, you called it, Recycled Cycles. I've mentioned them a few times here in the forums, thinking a little free advertising for them is well deserved. In case you don't know, they opened a 2nd location too, on 35th or 36th, near Fremont, almost right under the Aurora Bridge. They've really built that area (Fremont) up over the last 5 years or so, especially the University (is that Sea-Pac?). I started going into the original RC on Boat Street back in the mid 90s, when it was still downstairs, & you had to walk around back to get in. They've grown a lot since then. I go to that one pretty often, to pick through the bins, & that's where I got that headset, & the newer one less, (where I found the stem), but probably a couple times a month, weather permitting. BTW, it was in the high 70s F here today (Saturday), so the weather was definitely permitting.

Drillium Dude 

The Boat Street one is the location I've always visited - I didn't know about the location in Fremont. I know of Wright Brothers in Fremont - another neat place to visit and stop to chat with Charles. Good guy

The last score I got at RC was a set of second-gen Ergos in really, really great shape for - wait for it - $30. They assisted me in completing the refurbishment of a wrecked pair for one of our C&Vers. As you've proven, however, there's still some vintage stuff out there to be had a decent prices - just need to catch it before they put it into their showcase!

I sure hope you will continue to see good weather - that place is awesome when the sun shines and the temps are up.

DD

randyjawa 

This is my early seventies Bottecchia Professional or Giro d'Italia. The frame sets are virtually identical and only the components fitted differentiate the bicycles. We would need to see pictures of your bike to determine if it is a Pro or a Giro.

This is my 1971 Bottecchia Professional but fitted with some Giro d'Italia components. I never did finish building the bike up but, I did ride it for one season even though it did not have model and period correct components fitted...

spacemanz

randyjawa, I've been finding your site more & more, while doing searches on these old steel clunkers. This one has no braze-ons at all, not even a rear derailleur cable-stop, so I'm gonna need to try to find an old clamp-on. Going by your dating info, that "probably" puts this into the 60s, but I'm not 100% sure of that yet. Although, this link has pics of a '68, which is VERY close to mine. https://www.veloclassique.com/uncateg...cchia-project/ The biggest difference is, theirs has a Carnielli sticker on the seat tube, where my Columbus sticker is. BTW, mine is a 63cm too, like theirs, and I'm not 100% sure it'll fit me, LOL, but if it does, it'll be perfect. I've been working on it while listening to the Mariners game on the radio this morning. EDIT: I forgot to ask, but do these things have serial numbers hiding anywhere? I have a name & Social Security # on the BB shell, LOL, but no serial #, that I could find. I read somewhere that most of these were hand-built by small independent sub-contractors, FOR Carnielli, so that would make serial #s kinda tricky.

spacemanz

OK, we have pics now. I'll get better ones, as the work progresses, but even this is a big improvement. My headbadge was all brown & looked like rust, but a lot of it was just a weird chemical thing with the paint, like it all melted together. (?) But the badge itself is there, so maybe I can locate a sticker later, to put on it.

randyjawa 

My early seventies Bottecchia Professional or Giro d'Italia had no braze-ons, either. And, for what it is worth, send me a private email, if you wish, either through the bike forums or my website. I can supply everything for your bike, and it will all be period and model correct, if that is important to you.

georges1

very nice bike

spacemanz

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for later. I actually have a pretty good start, on the Nuovo Record gruppo, but some (brake levers & shifter levers) will be incorrect Super Record, LOL. If I can get it all Italian for starters, then work on period correctness, more or less, I'll be happy.

ftwelder

I have an opportunity to make an offer on a Bottecchia in the next few days. I don't know much about it yet... I am excited though.

Ed in Toronto

All you guys have some nice looking Bottecchias. I had one when I was in my mid-teens so I have a spot in my heart for them.

spacemanz

Good luck. I think these bikes (and many other Italian brands) are just "unique" enough, that you can get a little ego boost, kinda like I imagine you'd get if you had an oddball Ferrari or Maserati or something, in cars. They probably don't make you a racer, but you kinda FEEL more like one, anyways.

eja_ bottecchia

Grazie

eja_ bottecchia

True. I get more admiring looks, and questions, when I ride my Bottecchia than when I ride my C59. When I ride the C59 everyone wants to race me. When I ride the Bottecchia other riders chat me up.

qcpmsame 

Hope your Botty build turns out well, I had one I purchased in 1971, my first good "10-speed" after the Sears gas pipe A-D. I am hoping to find either a Professional or Giro to build up with NR and a good set of period wheels using the campy high flange hubs and Mavic rims (tubulars.) Randy's and Eja's Bottecchias always impress me, they are what I would like to accomplish. I'm looking forward to seeing more reports and pictures of your bike as it progresses.

Bill

K1196A

For me, the first part is true and the later is why I still don't own a carbon frame! LOL!

spacemanz

Hey guys, I just found a page of old catalogs & stuff, that shows early 70s & later versions of the Columbus logo. https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemid=27 The link goes in a weird circle, but if you click on catalogs (the 2nd one), & then the Columbus one, you'll find what I mean. But anyways, their first one is the early foil decal, that clearly says "Columbus" below the oval with a dove inside. Mine clearly says "Garantiti" there, and the dove's wings look much different, darker around the wings, where the newer ones are more like just an outline of the dove's wings. This leads me to think mine is "probably" actually a late '60s frame, though it'd be tough to prove. Or if the dates are correct there, it would have to go back to at least 1970 or '71, assuming this one pre-dates the others, like it seems, so calling it a late-60s frame wouldn't be much of a stretch, "if" at all. Opinions are welcome, even if I'm proven wrong.

Giacomo 1 

That really is one of the most beautiful bikes on BF my friend! Just gorgeous!

eja_ bottecchia

You have a collection of beautiful bikes yourself. The Colnago Super is a gorgeous bike!

Kommisar89

I wish it were that easy but it appears that Bottecchia must have had a stock of those decals (who knows, maybe the tubing too) and used them well into the 70s, at least '73-'74 (I think it was T-Mar maybe who has discussed the issues the manufacturers typically had with inventory management in those days). If you do a search for pictures of Bottecchia Professionals and Giro d'Italias you'll find that they all have that same decal with the heavy black printing. Not that it makes much of any difference as they are all damned near identical from '69 - '74. Here's my take on dating a Bottecchia from that period: if it's a Professional, go with the date codes on the hubs or other components. I'm not sure when Campagnolo started dating the hubs but I believe the cranks don't have date symbols until '73. The Nuovo Record derailleurs start earlier I believe. If it's a Giro d'Italia model, use the hubs as they won't have date codes on the crank or the derailleurs but you can add that up until somewhere around '71 they usually came with old style Record drivetrains and then switched to using Valentino gear. Not sure what happened there as the catalogs don't show that change but the bikes typically do. Maybe old style Record ran out of stock during the peak of the boom or something. Then there is the change of the Gran Turismo from hi-tensile to the Columbus frame in '73 so if you ever find one of those (fairly rare) you know it's '73 - '74 model.

Edit: Just another note on dating - a guy in the bike club I ride with has a vintage Bottecchia Professional, not much original left on it, that he states with certainty that he purchased himself in 1969 and the frame is identical to mine and the all the other '69 - '74 frames I've seen. I also have a Bottecchia Professional frame that is either a '67 or '68 because it came originally with Nuovo Record drivetrain (introduced in '67) and it is clearly a different frame from the '69. The only question I have there is whether it's actually a '68 or it's a '67 and then would a '68 would look like that or like the later frames. So far I know of no one who has definitively seen a '68 model so that is still an open question.

spacemanz

Yeah, the tricky part there is, I got this as a bare frame & fork, so no components to date. I think I'm going to proclaim this one to be a "rare" 1968 model, until someone proves me wrong. Either that, or I'll just call it a '70, & that way I can't be more than about 3 years off.

Kommisar89

LOL. Well there you go. I really doesn't matter as they are identical throughout that period. I do have a picture of one odd frame that is identical to the '69 - '74 frames in every way except that it has little heart shaped lug cutouts similar to the later frames and another with the later style decals they started using in '75 so there is no telling how long they continued to it in Europe, possibly as late as '77 but I don't really know as there is little information available for that period.