Richard, You didn't mention what size your frame is - the 21" & 23" Profe ssional/Giro d'Italia use a 27.2mm seatpost. The 25" frame usually takes a 27.0mm seatpost. Presumably it uses SP tubing for at least the seat tube.
You mentioned it's a mid-60's bike. Does it have the older style "hotdo
g" shaped down tube decals with "Bottecchia" in script? I'm looking for pic
tures of the decals on those older bikes, especially the seat tube decal,
from before the late 60's switch to the white panel decals with "Bottecc
hia" in block letters.
Derrick Bourgeois
Colorado Springs, CO
USA
A
rchive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/
I have something to ask the framebuilders on this list, and anyone who know s Bottecchias, so I can get my ducks in a row before bothering local folks on a minor repair issue.
My main ride is a mid-sixties Bottecchi a Professional frame built up as a fixed-gear. I love this frame, and I ride many many miles a month on it, but it's time to replace th e crappy seatpost I have on it, and I have never been able to determi ne what seatpost it actually takes.
Sheldon's seatpost database indicates 27.2mm; however, on mine even a 27.0 is a really tight fit. And now, looking around the net, I see collectors mentioning that they've got a 27.0 seatpost in theirs. But, the "ears" of the seat l ug are very close together, to the point that I can't use a normal se atpost pinch bolt without adding a soft aluminum spacer, since the ou ter faces of the "ears" are too close together and no longer parallel . This implies to me that perhaps the seat tube has been deformed sometime in this bike's long life.
My temptation is to measure the sea tpost hole for roundness and perhaps have the "ears" spread till the hole is 27.2mm--is this wise, possible, or even necessary? Does anyon e out there actually know what seatpost size was spec'd for mid-sixti es Bottecchia Giro d'Italia and Professional frames? (They were th e same frames with different components.)
Thanks,
Rick "per spiring minds need to know" Risemberg
--
Richard Risemberg
http://
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.newcolonist.com
http://www.rickrise.
com