Tony, this is a difficult question as there are numerous gaps in Bottecchia availability outside of Italy and catalogs are virtually non-existant. No doubt an Italian list member (are there any of those?) could answer this question with more precision but I'll take a stab:
pre-1950's: unknown
1950-ish through 1967-ish: "hotdog" shaped downtube decal with 'Bottecchia' in script, various seattube decals
1968-ish through late 70's: panel decals, usually white but sometimes with blue background depending on the color of the bike, with stripes for world and Italian championships and 'Bottecchia' in large block letters on the downtube and seattube.
late 70's through 1986: very similar design to the previous decals except that the "panel" part of the decal is missing - that is, there are the world championship strip decals at the top, Italian championship decals at the bottom and 'BOTTECCHIA' spelled out in individual block letter decals rather than everything being printed on one sheet of vinyl.
1987 through early 1990's: this is technically off-topic but really where it gets interesting. The decals with 'Bottecchia' in script appear at this time but they are not universal. During this period Carnielli/Bottecchia sponsored numerous Professional racing teams. As far as I can tell, the script decals appear on frames that were sold as just regular Bottecchia bikes. But...all of the various team bikes continued to use decals similar to the late 70's through '86 decals with 'Bottecchia' in individual block letters. Thus, while it's common to see the script style decals on bikes from this period it also just as likely that you will see block letter decals. Bikes with ADR or SPAGO team colors are always seen this way.
Mid-90's through 1997: just 'BOTTECCHIA' spelled out in big block letters with a tilted font
Your best bet for pinpointing a year is to look at the championship dates indicated on the decals themselves or for certain years an anniversary decal.
- 1961 bikes carry a Carnielli 50th anniversary decal on the seattube - Bottecchia won the Italian championship in 1964-65-66-67 and the world championship in 1966. Presumably this started appearing on the decals in 1968 as I've never seen any partial list that would indicate they could have come out earlier. - 1979 bikes carry a Carnielli 70th anniversay decal on the seattube (why the 2 year descrepancy I have no idea - and no, I've never seen a 60th anniversary decal) - Bottecchia won the Italian championship again in 1985 - Bottecchia won the world championship again in 1985-86-89 - 1989 bikes carry a Carnielli 80th anniversary decal
I hope that helps. I can provide pictures of the various decals if you want.
Regards, Derrick Bourgeois Colorado Springs, CO, USA ------------------------------
Message: 7 Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 06:42:35 -0700 From: Anthony Taylor <ajft1942@yahoo.com> Subject: [CR] Bottecchia timeline To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Message-ID: <369397.14078.qm@web84104.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hello all
Can anyone enlighten me on the timeline for Bottecchia decals? I have seen most in script, but also some on block caps.
Many thanks
Tony Taylor Manchester NH
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