Noooo ... Poggiali is not the builder of Montelatici frames ... but whoever that might have been, was surely responsible for building this Poggiali model Tour de Suisse. Roberto Poggiali is a retired professional racer from Firenze, whose greatest racing achievement was his 1970 win of the Tour de Suisse ... hence the frame's model name. He retired from racing and opened his shop in Firenze. It is unknown if this was simply a set sold through Sr. Poggiali's shop, or if it was a personal frame of his ... but the size is about right. I have two of his old wool jerseys (one FILOTEX, and one heavy IGNIS trainer) from our beloved and oft misunderstood Matteo B., and like the frameset, they fit me perfectly ... but I digress.
Spotted this set on Italian Ebay, and thought ... THAT'S a MONTE!!!. After winning it, I asked Dale B. and Brian B. to view the pics, who each agreed that this was built by the same hands that made the Montelatici bikes. There are all the tell-tale signs of a Montelatici, however this particular frame has a few trick features that are not found on any Montelaticis.
Note: - Small diamond shaped cut-outs in the lug extensions AND lug sides. - Later use of long Campy dropouts.
- Milled rear dropout faces, but not all the way forward. (Montelaticis do not have this adornment.) - Openings into the stay ends at the dropouts and fork blades at the tips.
- Short run of internal routing of rear der. cable that just brings it above the stay, from below. (Also not on any Montelatici.) - Under b.b. cable routing, with cut tubing slices as cable guides ... where I purposely missed one guide underneath the front of the chain stay, because to use it put additional friction on the cable. When by-passing that guide, the cable makes no contact with it at all ... cool feature, but possibly superfluous unless cable casings were intended to be used in some way. - G.F. sand cast (I think) b.b. shell, with six oval and three circular relief openings underneath. - Under b.b. derailleur cable routing.
I've thoroughly cleaned and detailed the frame and fork, built them up with misc. cool components I had here, and rode it several times this summer. The ride feels exactly like the Montelatici that I had several years ago, which also felt exactly like my mid 60s Cinelli SC, that I had even longer back. This is why I'm now selling the frameset. Although it is very smooth and comfortable ... it just doesn't quite have the racing feel that I like. So if you like or want to experience the feel of a Cinelli, this might be for you. There is a slight pull to one side when riding no-handed, which can be ignored (like I did), or aligned for straighter tracking.
I took a whole BUNCH of complete bike pics to document it, but in my too dark basement, so I also took many using the flash. For the ones where regular is too dark to really see important FRAME features (and there are a lot of them), I've included a second shot of same, with flash. Therefore, some may be too dark, while others will show the frame better but will be too bright and washed out elsewhere. You get the idea. I may have missed a few shots, so if you want to see anything else in particular, I'll get them for you. Five pages of pics here ... and remember to click any thumb for med. pic, then click pic for huge version.
http://www.wooljersey.com/
The seat tube is 53cm c-c, and top tube is about 54cm. Rear is spaced at 126, uses recessed brakes, 27.2mm seat post, Ital threading, and as seen in pics, the steer tube required a slightly larger headset spacer, so an aluminum Super Record piece was used here, with a Record steel headset.
Being offered is the frame & fork only, including the wheel stop screws in the rear dropouts. I'm asking $400 plus actual delivery. If the buyer is interested in the Record headset which is very good, but not quite perfect, he or she may have it for an additional $60. The seat binder bolt is TI, and is NOT included. No other parts are available at this time. I prefer Paypal for payment ... it's quick, and I need funds for an upcoming and off topic MTB race in a couple of weeks. Thanks...
Ciao,
Mark Agree
Southfield MI USA