This is an Asso. Not a Basso. Nor an Ideor. Nor an Assos. At the NY Cycle Show in 1973 our Witcomb USA booth was flanked by the Asso booth-bicycles from Italy. It was yet another firm riding in on the Bike-Boom craze. Somewhere here I have a catalog. On its front, under the name, it read, "Say: Ah-So". And yes, it's true, I'm not making this up. e-RICHIE "Say: eereechee"
On Thu, 29 Nov 2001 10:53:53 -0500 Lawrence Kurtz
<kurtzla@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca> writes:
> Not an Ideor...........no way. Lugs are totally different. Frame
> difference
>
> Lawrence
>
> Ron Cooley wrote:
>
> > OK gang, time to play is this a fraud, and if so, what might it
> really be?
> >
> > I recently acquired a 70s vintage frame that has been
> repainted, and had "Asso" decals applied.
> > The logo has a yellow spade and the word Asso is flanked by little
> multi-coloured wings on the down
> > tube. You can see the same decals on a very different frame
> recently sold by the same seller at
> > http://ebay.com/
> I don't think these are "edited"
> > BASSO decals, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I know that
> Ideor made a model called the Asso, and
> > I see that Chuck has a 50s catalogue available through Velo Retro.
> My first question is whether
> > anybody has actually seen one of the bikes? I'm told (in reply to
> an earlier query) they were
> > imported into Canada for a couple years in the 60s or 70s. Maybe
> they never had a U.S. importer, but
> > since the catalogue is there, I'm betting they were. Anyway it's
> possible that either the seller or a
> > previous owner slapped the Asso decals on a frame of another
> manufacturer when he repainted. Since the
> > frame also has nice chromed long-point prugnat lugs, which were
> painted over when I got the
> > frame(ouch!), I don't like to think about why this might have been
> done. It also seems just barely
> > possible to me that this ASSO is genuine, but nothing to do with
> the IDEOR ASSO. Maybe a small factory
> > private label frame (like Tomaso)? Supporting this theory is the
> absence of any IDEOR name anywhere on
> > the bike.
> >
> > Eventually I'd like to begin to work out what it really is
> (if it's not an IDEOR ASSO). I realize
> > pictures are crucial, and I'll try to arrange some soon. But for
> now, in addition to the
> > above-described lugs (with angular heart-shaped window cutouts on
> top, and a side profile very similar
> > to the prugnat lugs on the CR website), the clues include 27.0
> seatpost size, long concave seatstay
> > caps, rear brake-bridge reinforcements with cutouts matching the
> lugs, long chainstays (over 43 cm),
> > campy long dropouts, a slotted italian bottom bracket shell with
> cable guides on top, brazed-on shifter
> > posts but no top tube cable guides. Of course things like the
> cable guides could have been altered and
> > covered up by the repaint. Also (cringe) no serial number, though
> no obvious signs that one has been
> > removed either.
> >
> > Opinions and speculations welcome. More info forthcoming.
> >
> > Ron Cooley
> > Saskatoon, Canada.