One of the rumors I heard surrounding the release of Ugo's 35th anniversary frames was that they were an attempt to bring back prestige to the line. As I heard it, Ugo and company were so busy growing the brand during the 80s that they didn't have a real grip on quality sacrifices that were made to get bikes out the door. The best DeRosas I've seen were mid-70s and before and the more recent Neo Primatos. I've ridden DeRosas from different eras and they all rode well, so I don't think design was ever compromised. As they say 'the devil's in the details' though. best, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives Vancouver, B.C.
On Jan 11, 2007, at 6:38 PM, Chuck Schmidt wrote:
> This supports my theory that they went through a bad period: My
> late '80s De Rosa Professional has really nice transitions of the
> stays to the dropout; my early '80s had the identical treatment.
> So what year would this pink eBay De Rosa be (Item number:
> 260071987456)?
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, CA
>
> Brian Blum wrote:
>
>> That is a standard columbus stay end, rather than a domed end it
>> is a clumsy imitation of a hand finished stay end that appeared
>> beginning about 1982. Much nicer than the crushed over the dropout
>> tab chainstays on many 70's Bottechias but not a KOF frame. Brian
>> Blum in Berkeley
>>
>>> From: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
>>> To: CR RENDEZVOUS <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [CR]Pink De Rosa
>>> Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:54:40 -0800
>>>
>>> I'm struck by how clumsy the seat and chain stay to dropout
>>> transition is on the eBay bike. Looks like the Merckx style (Ugo
>>> De Rosa helped in setting up Eddy's factory), not the De Rosa
>>> style. I've got five Merckx bikes and love them dearly but
>>> never cared for the stay to dropout transition that Eddy uses.
>>>
>>> Pink eBay De Rosa drop out:
>>> http://i10.ebayimg.com/
>>>
>>> My late '80s De Rosa has the same style as Ray's bike shown in
>>> the links below (his dropouts are stamped "CAMPAGNOLO" and mine
>>> are stamped "DE ROSA").
>>>
>>> Ray Dobbins' De Rosa drop out:
>>> http://www.raydobbins.com/
>>> http://www.raydobbins.com/
>>>
>>>
>>> Was the pink bike made during a bad period for Ugo? Comments?
>>>
>>> Chuck Schmidt
>>> South Pasadena, CA USA
>>> http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)