Did i made a deal? It’s an italian bottom bracket, tomorrow is gonna get painted as i’m gonna use it daily but those heart shaped things really got me wondering if it’s some sort of brand or handmade (not that i really mind) just curious (i’m from Chile btw)
by Overall-Percentage54
15 Comments
Pretty much impossible to tell. There is nothing really unique about the construction, and the serial number (31?) raises the possibility that it could be home built or from a small shop that also built some frames.
The heart shape is a somewhat common way of adding a stop that would hold band-on shifters or cable guides in place.
Double check that the head and downtubes are straight before you bother painting it. In the photo they look like they might be bent. Feel for a little ripple on the bottom of the tube just behind the head lugs.
I can only guess that it’s no newer than mid-late 1970’s, because of the stops (heart shaped braze-ons) for downtube shifters (top one) and BB cable guide (bottom one).
Hard to say. However, the heart shape was always a DeRosa thing. Could possibly be one of those, though the lugs on this bike look like standard Japanese bike boom bike style.
The design on the front looks just like my mid 70’s 80’s nishiki
The Italian BB measured 70mm. Take a ruler with mm scale and measure across the BB. If it measures 70 mm, at least you know it is Italian.
Red
What type? It’s a bicycle frame
Lugged steel bicycle frame…after that, some forensics and you can learn more about it. If its straight, will make for a good build
The heart is the logo for De Rossa.
They sort of look like the old Prugnat 62B lugs but with more rounded points instead of a sharper defined points, which leads me to believe that your lugs are a Japanese Tange copy of the Prugnat 62B lugs.
Since those lugs are pretty generic, meaning used in a lot of different bikes, but bike manufacturers back then, especially the Japanese, changed lugs like we change underwear, and could be different from one model to the next within the same manufacturer, and from one year to the next.
In your case, since the serial number is very low, it suggests that it was made in a private shop, probably a bike shop that made a few custom bikes. The 31, if it is stamped into the frame vs engraved by hand, could mean it was the first in a particular model of a low-production bike. It could also be a low-end bike that was made for some sort of sponsor, like Goodyear, etc; a person use to be able to go into a tire store, or farm equipment sales place and find a bicycle, they didn’t sell very many of them because they weren’t into selling bikes, but they were cheap. If the frame is heavy, like over 25 pounds, the chances are good that it is a low-end bike obviously, and it was probably some sort of promotional bike or retail outlet bike.
In other words, the only thing we can go by is the look of the lugs, and that isn’t much to go on.
If it were really top of the line then the dropouts would be stamped. Looks like a midlevel Italian street racer from the late 1970s. Probably rides nicely, if all the lines are straight. But not gonna be a money spinner.
Nishiki.
Oops. Hit send. Looks identical to my Nishiki tourister (or something like that) had a front free wheel before I replaced to normal BB, and made it a single speed.
Heavy lugged steel frame.
A bike frame
My Nishiki has the hearts and head tube lugs, it’s a 1980.