Picked up a delapidated Rossi.
 

It's Italian built, Columbus frame with Campy dropouts, not much of the tubing decal left. Fork has the "custom reverse rake" LOL but the frame was unharmed, believe me I looked it over VERY closely. Campy derailleurs but nothing special, Cambio RINO (???) crankset and brake calipers and an odd assortment of other Italian pieces. Rims are Campy but have definitely seen better days. Rear hub is Campy, as yet unidentified, and the front is a very nice looking Shimano Dura Ace.... :foo: No obvious rust or pits in the chrome frame, lots of paint loss though which is too bad because the decals are in pretty fair shape and a few quick searches revealed replacements like these don't seem to exist. If I do anything with it I may get brave and try masking them off and painting around them, my luck though the masking tape would stick to them better than the paint underneath them is stuck to the chrome and they'd pull off with the tape. I've aslo considered stripping it and givng a custom paint job sans brand decals. I don't hink I could handle all chrome, gots to have some color.

I'm not too hopeful of finding a lot of detail about it but I'd love to find a picture of one like mine when it was new or in verified original condition. I'm not going to restore it, I don't think it's "that" good but it would be fun to know what it started out as.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...950cb50482.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5de2b91d24.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...87641fcf1b.jpg

The second photo shows a suspiciously steep (or shallow, depending on how you describe it) angle between the down tube and head tube at the lower head tube lug. I hope it's photo distortion or something about where the camera was held for the photo.

The weird pattern of flaking in the paint on the head tube (never saw that before) might have resulted from a very sudden shock transmitted through the fork from a frontal impact. (Or maybe a previous owner carried a coiled lock on the handlebar that continually scraped that spot.)

One quick test: measure the diameter of the down tube near the head tube both vertically and horizontally. If there's a tube section where the horizontal diameter of the tube is greater than the vertical diameter, that would indicate a bend in the tube resulting from the frontal impact.

Maybe start another thread in Framebuilders and provide separate closeup photos of the junctions of the top and bottom head lugs with the top and down tubes, holding the camera level with each lug.

Edit: could also be that the bent-back fork crown angle is throwing me off on judging the down tube/head tube junction. I hope so.

I had a Rossi, great rider. Came with the same cranks
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b24501ec5.jpeg

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masking note -

there are products with name such as liquid mask which are in the form of a rubbery liquid applied with a brush

when painting done the material can be rubbed off with the thumb

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seem to recall a post from you a few weeks back in reference to a "thinning of the herd"

all the posts since seem to be about N + rather than N -

but then you are likely to be enjoying some good fun ;)


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I appreciate the input, I've been in QC for 45 years. 25 as an inspector, mostly metal fab, welding, machining, etc. and 20 as a Quality Engineer. One of my strong points is failure analysis. Trust me, there is no frame damage. ;)

I noticed that as well, to be fair the first one was for parts. The 2nd I bought for the barcons, it just happens to be my size. :rolleyes: As for this thinning thing what I meant to say was "lightening" the herd...... And this bike is lighter than most of the others. Yeah! "Lighter"..... that's it.........:innocent:

Seriously, I held off on this one for 3 weeks before my resolve crumbled. This means I have to pick another for the cut list, maybe two but I think I know just the two.

I dug out a chrome 1" threadless Cro-Mo fork I bought several years ago and from the crown race down it's nearly an exact match! Maybe my LBS can graft the steerer tube from the Rossi fork onto the other.

You've got to have some stories from your career. Here's one from a guy I met back in the mid-'70's, when we briefly played in a band together.

His day job was working as a machinist for Sikorsky Aircraft. The company had a NASA contract to manufacture, among other items, the metal components for astronauts' space suits. He was assigned to machine an aluminum gasket for the helmet/space suit interface.

It took him two weeks to machine the gasket within NASA's specs. When he'd finished, he alerted his boss, who scheduled a visit from a NASA QC inspector. The inspector mic'd the gasket and then said, "Not good enough. Do it again."

So he sat around reading naughty magazines and otherwise passing the time for two weeks and then told his boss to bring the QC guy around again. The NASA QC guy showed up and did the same inspection on (unbeknownst to him) the same gasket. This time he approved it and took it away with him.

Did that really happen? All I know is that I didn't see any reason to doubt the story at the time, but I was a dumb 25-year-old then, ready to believe any plausible story as long as it was a good one. Your standards must be far higher.

I can guarantee stuff like that happens ALL the time! My money says he wasn't BSing you one bit. Can't say I've seen it "all" but I've seen a helluva a lot over the years, some of it hilarious but some of it downright scary.

If you decide to build this up and ride it with anew fork , keep an eye on the head tube. . A friend got in a front end collision and turned the front wheel of his bike into a taco. The fork was fine, the top tube and down tube checked good . He replaced the wheels (both so they would match) and rode the bike . A year later the head tube cracked diagonally from lug to lug while he was riding. He said it felt like a flat tire. I never saw anything wrong when I critically examined the bike for him, no out of round or paint blemishes on the tubes .

The Rossi shop still exists. They might be able to help you with decals and other stuff:

Cicli Rossi

Good to know, having been in QC for so long I had it in the back of my mind to possibly having it magnafluxed for peace of mind. My last job I could have just had the NDT guys do it for me.

Yes , we had Magnaflux and Zyglo ( as well as other ND testing) at the Aerospace Company I worked for and it was real nice. I am a Tool Grinder and we used to have a red dye that we sprayed on brazed carbide tooling to inspect for cracking after braze. I would ride this bike , with a new fork , anyway, as it is a nice bike and the head tube ( if it does crack ) will do what it does. I don't think it would cause a crash , you will feel it right away. My friend was going down State Street in Santa Barbara when he noticed it and pulled over. I have seen a lot of frames that have had front end damage and the Schwinn Circuit made of Columbus tubing and Tange fork was a first. I just thought I would mention it. Joe

I don't see how you can determine anything about the DT/HT angle in that pic.

It's a very rare Rossi with a Hetchins "curly fork"!
You sure don't find many of these...congrats!
:thumb:

:lol: Yeah, lucky me..... I'd gladly trade down for the "standard" model. :rolleyes:

Sent them a message through their website a couple days ago, no response so far. I did get in touch with Gus Salmon though and he can make water slide decals for it, which I prefer, but I have to VERY carefully remove the existing vinyl graphics and scan them for him. No pressure...... :twitchy:

I'm pulling the fork tonight and dropping it and the new one I had off at Wright Cycles to see what Dean can do for me. The guy I bought the bike from knows him too and seemed pretty confident he can straighten it.

Edit..........
Fork is out and it is a goner, besides being bent back the blades are bent off to one side as well and are rippled plus the steerer tube is bent about an inch and a half above the crown. How the frame didn't bend is beyond me bu=t I gave it the once over again and it looks straight as can be with no signs of cracked paint or chrome. I'm still confident it was unharmed but when I knock the headset out I will and check the head tube for out of round at the ends.

I have nothing to add about the Rossin, but I have always liked the word "dilapidated," which literally means something that has been damaged as a result of stones having been thrown at it. But in this case there are no dents in the tubing, so that's good.

It's a "Rossi" not Rossin, not sure how the 2 compare but my money says the Rossin probably sits a bit higher up the ladder. However, from general appearances of the frameset I'd say this particular model of Rossi was nothing to throw stones at. ;)

Wheels aren't as bad as I first thought but hubs also aren't what I thought. Front is a 600 Tri Color and rear is 1055 series 105. The Campy rims will clean up OK. I will probably swap the front hub for 105 I have that matches the rear.

Headset is also a Cambio RINO.

See, that proves my point--I know nothing about Italian bikes.

:lol: I'm right there with ya but I'm learning.

I noticed while going over the bike the rear brake bridge is stamped "GIPIEMME", is that of any significance or would it just be a common piece used by various builders?

I'd say common. Tipi Emmie (leaving that autocorrect creation for the heck of it) also made fork ends and dropouts, for example.

+ one: GPM or Gipiemme brake bridge is a common frame bit available to MANY builders (tho most will have been based in Italy)