I've noticed that photos of Fausto Coppi racing his Bianchi show pretty abused paint with lots of chips and scratches in evidence and I always wondered why.
Then I found this photo of Tullio Campagnolo with the Bianchi team bikes from around the late 1940s (equipped with his Cambio Corsa rear derailleur). Notice the bikes stacked like cord wood in the back of the team support car!
Also notice the use of friction tape (sticky black cloth tape; the equivalent of duct tape back in the day) to hold the brake cable housing to the top tube. Lots of the bikes have rear brake/right lever brake setup too.
http://www.velo-retro.com/
Chuck Schmidt SoPas, SoCal
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