In a message dated 9/12/02 7:20:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, j.mccoin@attbi.com writes:
<< Oscar at American Cyclery, always said the "Team Issue" and the Specialissimas were the same frame, with different paint, any comments? >>
I guess this depends on what you call "the same". All the Specialissimas I
have ever seen were SL and used 27.2 seat posts. They have head badges and
are drilled for the screws. They also tend to have a pin holding the steerer
to the crown, you can feel this if you remove the front brake. The pin will
prevent you from putting in the piece of wood that is typically in all Team
Issue forks from the period. It seems it would be a royal pain to cut the pin
out after building the fork, so I would think they would have used a shorter
pin (to end up flush) on forks for Team frames.
I have owned an SL Team bike (years ago) and just got a Team Issue bike in my
size that is made of SP with a 26.8 post. The bike was painted black by JB in
1992 and I'm having it painted the correct color of Celeste. In removing the
paint, the tube is marked outside the bird-in-a-circle, 7 - 1, the SP gauge.
There is another bike in Ed's shop with a serial number very close to mine to
match the color from. The "other bike" has a threaded bottle mount on the CS
bridge that looks original. Mine has two holes drilled in it, exactly like
the two Competiziones I have (both SP). I'll have to check the "other bike"
to see if it's SP or SL.
All that said, Team Issues are substantially similar to Specialissimas and
Competiziones, with the exception of some very minor details. They can
casually be called the same in terms of geometry, but technically, I don't
think an SP Team bike is the same as an SL Specialissima.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA