One more difference between a Legnano Roma frame and a Gran Premio frame: most (though perhaps not all) Gran Premio framesets have a one-piece pressed and welded headtube assembly, in that the head lugs and the headtube are made from one piece, with "lug" outlines stamped into the metal. It's easy to identify by the shallow step from the headtube to the head lugs (when compared to the step where the headlugs meet the downtube or toptube. With the fork and headset removed, you can see depressions where the "lugs" were pressed from the same steel as the headtube.
Also - many (though not all) Gran Premio frames have no slot at the binder bolt location - the bolt itself clamps against the seat post to hold it in place, while most (though not all) Roma frames have the slot, and the bolt pulls the two sides of the seat lug together to clamp the seat post.
As for your question about steel Legnano-stamped hubs, these go back to at least the 1930s, and continued into the 1960s, at least on low-end bikes, while aluminum (Campagnolo) hubs with Legnano markings probably appeared on the Roma by 1960 or so. The steel hubs and aluminum hubs probably did overlap... Gran Sports didn't get the Campagnolo aluminum hubs until a bit later.
Aldo Ross
Middletown, Ohio
> Hi All
>
> What's the difference between a Legnano Roma and a Gran Premio?
>
> Also any idea when steel Legnano panto'd hubs started and aluminium ones
> took over, or did they run
>
> concurrently?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> PS. Any CR folk going to the Ripley Bike Jumble on Saturday?
>
> Alfredo Marcantonio
> Twickenham Middlesex