Since I brought it up earlier today, perhaps this would be a good time to revisit Cycle Sport magazine's All Time Top 12 Bicycles (as of March, 1999).
#1 Bianchi #2 Colnago #3 Pinarello #4 Gitane #5 Raleigh #6 Flandria #7 De Rosa #8 Cannondale #9 Peugeot #10 Vitus #11 Litespeed #12 Merckx
Honorable Mentions went to: Helyett, Gios, Olmo, Rossin, Benotto, Moser, Giant, Concorde, Splendor, Gazelle, Mercier, and Lotus (as in Chris Boardman's now-banned Hour Record bike).
Pinarello had just scored seven straight Tour de France victories - 5 with Indurain 1991 thru 1995, 1 in 1996 (I don't use his name, so don't ask), and 1 with Ulrich in 1997.
Cannondale was a controversial inclusion, but they were on a high with Mario Cipollini riding their bikes to bjillions of stage wins. I wonder if they'd change their vote now, perhaps to a more recent multiple TdF winner.
Vitus was a curious inclusion, but the great Sean Kelly did ride those shiny aluminum frames to multiple Classics wins.
Looking through that issue of CS, only Colnago of the "Top 12" had a full page advert, and that was actually an ad for "Bicycle World - #1 USA Dealer".
Bikes they missed - Alan (as in "the majority of teams in the late-1970s Giri d'Italia had their stickers on Alan framesets in the mountains", not to mention their 10 years dominance of cyclocross racing), Alcyon, Frejus, Legnano, Masi, Cinelli, Automoto, etc, etc...
Aldo Ross
Middletown, Ohio