[CR]Those Atalianos, their Gran Prix bikes and their Tullio tubing

(Example: Framebuilding:Restoration)

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 21:23:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Fred Rafael Rednor" <fred_rednor@yahoo.com>
To: Peter Jourdain <pjourdain@yahoo.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <20040816150419.68895.qmail@web40909.mail.yahoo.com>
Subject: [CR]Those Atalianos, their Gran Prix bikes and their Tullio tubing

Let's start with this: I have young legs but an aging mind so please forgive any gross errors...

Now I've wondered about that Tullio tubing for over 30 years, ever since my younger brother bought his Gran Prix which differed so greatly from mine - even though the bikes were separated in age by only 2 or 3 years. In any event, I'm certain that it has nothing to do with Campagnolo. I think this was merely Atala's attempt to deal with bike boom customers who (due to the ubiquitous Reynolds decals on English and French bikes) demanded an obvious, name brand for their bicycle's frame tubing.

Certainly, none of the Atala Gran Prix frames I saw in the '60s - which were supposed to be made from double butted tubing - had any tubing decals whatsoever. Of course, in those days, this was not an unusual practice for Italian bicycles. Anyway, I went to high school a couple of blocks from Stuyvesant Bicycle, who were one of the big importers of Atalas, and spent many afternoons chatting with the employees at the shop. This was when it was still located on 1st Avenue in Manhattan. At that time, the Gran Prix had forged Campagnolo drop-outs and a kind of fastback treatment where the seat stays met the seat tube. As for the tubing? Well it was either Falck or Columbus depending on whom you spoke with and I suspect what sort of answer he thought you were willing to accept. Perhaps it was even some other brand of tubing that was, as they same in Italy, "quasi lo stesso" (i.e. almost the same). All I can say for certain is that the seat post diameter was 26.8mm on the 4 or 5 examples that I actually measured.

Of course, it's possible that Atala told the importers whatever they thought the importers were willing to accept. Anyway, all the Atala Gran Prix frames had some mysterious features. For example, even on close examination, mine (made in January 1969) looked just like the Competizione except that it used really long reach brakes - I mean the rear was a Weinmann 750. The front was a Weimann 610 but you had to set the pads way down in their mounting slot. This on a bike with Nuovo Record derailleurs and hubs... (An aside: despite having Weinmann calipers, it had Universal brake levers.)

One thing that this eBay frame has in common with the older ones I remember is the font used for the Atala script on the down tube. It's lower case and resembles a sort of cursive version of the OCR-A font. The only Atalas I recall with that insignia were the _black_ Gran Prix frames. Why?

Oh, one other thing - did the older ones use a different model number - perhaps 105? Or was that the price in dollars? Anyway, that's enough recollection and ranting for one evening. Best regards, Fred Rednor - now in Arlington, Virginia
>http://ebay.com/<blah>
>
> Last night I had the winning bid of the whopping sum
> of $29.26 for the large, black 1970s Atala frame on
> ebay that Pete Rutledge tipped off to the CR list. (My
> miserly, bargain-basement eyes had been watching the
> auction well before my kindly namesake had mentioned
> it). Based on the information at CR.com, it is Atala’s
> mid-level model, #104, the GRAN PRIX (the only model
> available in black and in a 26” frame size), and came
> originally with a mix of Campy and other components.
>
> My questions are regarding the tubing--which (at least
> with reference to the literature I’ve seen) was used
> exclusively on the Gran Prix model. The tubing is
> TULLIO, described as “high tensile . . . seamless
> tubing.” The two models below the Gran Prix (#207
> Corsa and #208 Giro D’Italia) used unnamed “best
> quality seamless steel” tubing, and the two models
> above the Gran Prix (#109 Competizione and #101
> Record) used Columbus.
>
> Does anyone out there know anything about TULLIO
> tubing? Seems apparent, but in the bike world I know
> there are a lot of mirages and chimeras, so is this
> Campagnolo manufactured and named after the late,
> great Tullio Campagnolo? Or did some metal company
> simply cop his first name only, thereby artfully
> avoiding a trademark suit? There is an intact
> Campagnolo sticker on the seat tube, but I don’t know
> if it refers to the Campy components or to the tubing.
> There is also a separate Tullio tubing sticker, which
> is all but obliterated, and so if it has any reference
> to Campagnolo in the small print, I can’t see it. Was
> Campy in the tubing business? If so, for how long? How
> did they do and how was/is their product viewed? Was
> Tullio their signature--or only--tubing? What was the
> tubing’s physical composition and was it butted, etc.?
> Over what time period was it produced? Did the
> manufacturer of Tullio tubing have a special
> relationship with Atala or did other framemakers it as
> well? If the stuff is not of Campagnolo manufacture,
> who made it?
>
> To the pros on the list these questions may be
> no-brainers, but for a neophyte domestique like me
> riding drain pipe at the back of the peloton,
> inquiring minds want to know! Thanks for the great
> resource that is CR and its list members.
>
> Peter Jourdain
> Whitewater, Wisconsin
> Aiming to ride on all 91 of the state's official
> "Rustic Roads" (before they're turned into bypasses
> and subdivisions)
>
>
>
>
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