Re: [CR]Italian lightweight tubing use

(Example: Framebuilders:Dario Pegoretti)

Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 12:11:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Fred Rafael Rednor" <fred_rednor@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Italian lightweight tubing use
To: kohl57@starpower.net, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <114780-22004524142325876@M2W099.mail2web.com>


Peter, I didn't ignore you - in fact, I've saved your last message. But I was hoping that someone was going to supply a definitive answer. Steve Maasland seems to have done so, so I won't belabor the points he made (too much). Lghtweight tubing was certainly used for Italian bikes by the late 1940s. I could only speculate about the 1930s but _somebody_ (at the very least Columbus) was making tubing for Aero-Macchi fighter planes and I would expect some of that tubing to be used for bicycle construction, as well. I think the major problem is that for the most part the Italians did not suffer from "decal envy". The whole business of applying the tubing manufacturer's decal to the frame was, I believe, a marketing effort on the part of Reynolds. In Italy you were expected to simply trust your framebuilder. Even my 1969 Atala, whose brochure claims that the tbing is Columbus, has no tubing manufacturer's decals. You can tell from the frame's weight, the spiraled steering tube and the "ping" sound made by flicking the main tubes and stays that it's quality material. But there's no way to know, short of stripping the paint, whether it's really Columbus or if it might be something like Falck instead. Take care, Fred

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