old italian frames: brands to look for?
 

hi all,
i was wondering, what are some decent italian frame-makers? i see a lot of italian-sounding frames on ebay and craigslist (olmo, debernardi, serrota, colnago, etc) but since i'm not very familiar with italian bikes, i never know which ones are good and which ones aren't. are there any (preferably not super expensive brands) that i should be on the lookout for? thanks!

I have a guerciotti and love it

What an awesome bike a Guerciotti is. Do you have one with pantographed parts? I dream of someday owning one with a full campy pantograph set... Someday!

Sheldon Brown has a handy guide to pricing for vintage lightweights if you are looking for an older bike. The prices are outdated but the info on the history and quality of frames is very useful.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/vrbn-a-f.html#alan

I actually found my guerciotti track frame in a bike junkyard of sorts...i stripped and rebuilt it, with the only original part being the campy bb....its an incredibly fun fixie to ride...lightweight and fast

The Serotta is US built.

Others to look for:
Basso
Viner
Rossin
Casati
Battaglin
Ciocc
tons more but they escape me right now.....guys....a hand.....

Dave

Masi
Mondonico
Cinelli
Gios
DeRosa

my friend got a pinarello roadie with all pantographed campy...and it was stolen the same night he bought it, along with his harry havnoonian track/work bike...i hwas having a party that night, and he was invited too. if he would've come to my party, he'd probably still have the pinarello.

he got the HH back, never saw the pinarello again...but then he got a merlin Ti frame for like, $800 and set it up with full '03 record and ksyriums...then he got another merlin for $500 and was gonna set it up with older dura ace 8 speed as a "winter work bike." last i heard he was gonna sell both of them because he hadn't built up the second, and he never rode the first....

...oh well.

I had a Tommasini road bike that I converted to fixie. Unfortunately, the headtube cracked right above the bottom lug - right in the heat affected zone.

Right now I have a very flashy Faggin (pronounced fajeen with a smoothed j) converted to fix. I dig it b/c it's very loud visually - pantographed seatpost, stem, crankarms, and chainring. But, I can see that the frame was put to together like crap. Beware of crappy italian quality from the 80's.

...yeah. some bianchis from the 70s and 80s are complete and utter ****. dropouts like paper, lugs that look like pipe fittings...just all over nasty.

Love my DeBernardi. I might only trade it for a Cinelli but that's because they seem cooler and I can be a sucker for that.

I have a Chesini that I'm building up right now. Italian steel with beautiful lugs (hearts cut out) and some cool decals.

Seriously, aren't ALL Itialian frames decent? Are there any crappy ones?

More Italian bikes (but not crappy):

Pegoretti
Pinarello
Benotto
Tomasso
Colnago

Pogliaghi! When they made by Sante Pogliaghi.

Eddy Merckx makes bikes.

yeah, but he's Belgian.

I Just bought a chesini track bike. I'd like to know more about it. Any suggestions?

my favorite Italian track frames would be Gios Torino, Cinelli, Leganno, Frejus, and Bottechia.

I've been thinking a lot about just spending the mullah and getting a new Cinelli steel track frame while the last of the real mccoy's are still available.

Mike

Someone gave me an old Columbus Zullo frame, but it was crashed. Nice frame though.

I have a Marinoni road frame. Kinda Italian kinda Canadian. Great lug work and all columbus slx. Currently my road bike frame but in a few years when I have one made she will be a fixie.

I'm still working on my moser. That is Italian.

medici

Romani

Gianni Motta.