I bought one of the champagne ones from Jay a few months ago. Very nice frame, looks extremely similar to Francesco Moser's bike (or one of his Sanson teammates) which a mechanic is cleaning and adjusting in the opening scene of A Sunday In Hell. I plan to build it up like those Sanson machines, and I happen to have a classic wool Sanson jersey to complete the effect.
My frame, at least, is marked as made in Mexico. Some people have issues with Mexican-made Benottos, claiming a very high failure rate. I'm always skeptical of claims like this, as I am of warnings about used ALAN frames, for example. It's always possible for any operation with a fairly high production volume to have quality control problems and have a bad run. So a shop owner could get, lets say, 6 frames made within a few days and have most or all of them fail his customer's hands. That would certainly constitute a huge problem for that shop owner and he would probably never buy frame made at that site again, but usually these sorts of problems are minor, statistically speaking. That is, the actual number of documented failures is usually a tiny percentage of the frames made. It's just that if yours happens to be the one that fails, that's 100% failure for you.
So unless you tend toward paranoia, I think these frames are a real bargain at this price. I certainly plan to build and ride mine.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, Texas, USA
Armadillo Farm <armadillofarm@satx.rr.com> wrote:
I have a new old stock benotto 57cm, it is still wrapped in the original
packing from 1984. silver/green color, chrome benotto fork. I bought
some frames in 1984 from a closing pro shop wholesale co. This is the
last 57 benotto, i do have a champagne 55cm. Nice traditional frames.
$375 + shipping/insurance. Email if you would like pictures. thanks jay
gruen, armadillofarm@satx.rr.com