Jim,
I've had several Windsors, including a Pro that I still have. If there's one subject that might make for short study on these bikes, it would have to be "quality", which varies quite a bit but seems off the mark from what I've seen. I could go on about this, but mine sports cracks to the seat lug from improper machining of the seat binder bore which left stressed steel paper thin! I had to terminate the cracks with drill holes once they migrated fully into thicker metal...
You mentioned decals, and the Pro's were very nice, made of license-plate tag reflective tape, with "Profesional" inscribed on the seat tube decal. The lesser Windsors (Carrera and Carrera Sport) had thin, un-clearcoted waterslide decals that only go downhill from there. The Sport models are quite heavy, but at least have good forged dropouts and chromed ends, lugs and crown!
As a "poor-mans Cinelli", the Pro' can't be beat, if you can buy it cheap (I found mine in Goodwill's dumpster with paint sun-burnt off). Some are fully chromed (bb area maybe nickel only) and mine "polished" up nicely sans all paint. The tubes did not get polished prior to chroming, so it looks somewhat like a ti bike.
I believe this company was started by Italians, as was Benotto. I've worked on a couple of near-NOS Benottos and assembly quality was poor in my opinion.
David Snyder
Auburn, CA
> Hi: I really like the looks of Windsor bikes and wanted to learn a lot
> more about them than some links on the internet will allow me to. I notice
> that there was an Italian influenece on the Mexican production and heard
> about the Eddie Merkx controversy and everything but the one thing that I
> am most curious about right now is that there seems to be no consistency
> in their head badges whatsoever. Is the head badge on these bikes any sign
> of their quality? For instance the word "Windsor" printed vertically down
> the head tube versus just the initial "W" mean anything? Is that what they
> did to seperate the identification between the Pro and Competition from
> the lower end models? Also I am in dier need of a serial number log
> somewhere to help more in identification of these bikes. Thanks
>
>
> Jim Abt
> Wausau, Wi. USA