Blade163

I have purchased this frame from an online auction. It said Dancelli frame on Sanino stickers, I think it isn't either of them! For Sanino, the size of this frame is 59cm, according to catalog, Sanino wasn't making this size. Plus it has a Shimano wire clamps on the frame, as far as I know Sanino wasn't using Shimano. The logos/seals on fork and frame don't match the ones I found online for Danceli. I would really need help with identifying this, I don't think it is a replica....the whole frame+fork weight about 2.6kg, that is about right for a Columbus steel. Some pictures below....

unworthy1

I don't recognize the logo in the forkcrown (it's also stamped, very small, on the BB shell) but that would be the best clue, if somebody here recognizes it. You rarely see the BB shell drilled out so radically: it takes "shell venting" to the extreme. If I was to guess, I'd say you were in Benelux (or that's where this frame came from) and it MAY have been contract-built in Italy for a Benelux shop, but more likely built in NL or Belgium...how's my guessing skill?

cyclotoine

Cool frame for sure, any photos of the seat-stay caps and seatlug? It is possible the markings are of the lug/shell manufacturer. You say this in the 1980s with cinelli and columbus where you could buy fork crowns with the logo on them. However, I don't recognize it, but if it does identify a manufacturer of the lugs then you won't have to chase the logo as frame maker marking.

To me the logo looks like half a cog with an E on the other side. The middle....umm digit?.. should be shorter than the top and bottom if it were a capital E so it could be strictly a symbol with no letter whatsoever.

Blade163

I just found this...the fork on mine looks exactly like this Steel Vintage Bikes - Classic Dancelli Bicycle Fork

unworthy1

Nope, that's a common enough forkcrown that HUNDREDS of different builders may have used (well, dozens, anyway) and the thing it does NOT have is the same panto as yours has...if yours was a Dancelli it would have a capital "D" and Italian flag like the one pictured. There's always a chance that the same builder who made Dancelli also build yours, but you'd have to find a lot of other details that matched: the stay-end treatments (yours have points), the bridges, stay caps, similar dropouts and forkends, the same wildly over-drilled BB shell, similar stampings, etc....

Blade163

Basically...there is a chance I might never find out what it really is?

unworthy1

Yes, always a chance, but...that panto in the forkcrown and BB shell is very distinctive, someday somebody will make a match. I half-believe that I have seen it before, but zero recollection of any name to associate with it.

MauriceMoss

Was looking for something Dancelli related and ran across this thread.
So, for reference and on an off-chance the OP is still looking for the ID I'm resurrecting this thread.

The frame here is a Mairag (a Swiss company). I'm not sure which model it is, so I'll guess a 4-star (4 sterne). 5-stars seemed to require even more drillium and had drilled out head lugs, too. Here are some examples:

Hudson308 

DING DING DING DING! We have a winner!

rustystrings61 

That is a very Allegro-esque serial number treatment, though I think I like the location of this one on the back of the seat tube better.

obrentharris 

@Blade163 are you still out there? If so, see above few posts.
Brent

Blade163

Thanks a lot! Appreciate it.

The frame was sold to different owner. Even after that, I was still curious who was the manufacturer of it. I have asked few restoration shops and collectors and none knew.