My first real racing bike was a Doneselli. I bought it at C. Hardings in Westwood. The front brake lever was on the right (and I've never changed except on mountain bikes). The chrome peeled off of the rear stays in about a month and then one day I was swinging into a parking lot in Santa Monica for the death ride. I had just made a roof rack and when I turned, the front fork drop outs bent over and bike almost fell over. We straightened them out and I rode it like that for a year or so. Then I was riding up Mulholland and I thought the bike felt a little strange. The downtube cracked. We tried to weld it up with an arc welder but burned a hole in it so we borrowed some sheet metal from an abandoned VW and wrapped that around the downtube and welded it up. Finally, I gave the bike to one of my kids and it was stolen. So if you see a Doneslli on eBay with a damaged downtube, it's mine. That's my Doneselli story -- oh the beauty of steel bikes.
Jim Cushing-murray
Del Mar CA