dddd

Another old road bike "A. CAMERA" came into Goodwill today, early-70's with Gnutti HF hubs, alloy rims,
TTT stem, Valentino front derailer, VGT rear, integral derailer hanger, chromed long-point lugs, probably gas-pipe.

Anyone herd of this brand?

Some high-end, even trek OCLV and Fuji carbon road bikes have arrived lately, and while the rack in the store has a few over-priced big-box Schwinns, the guy at the back says that none of the newer bikes will be brought out from the back room until the existing bikes get sold! LOL.

cudak888 

Sounds like the distant cousin of A. Lenz.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

-Kurt

rustystrings61 

I can add this data point - these were sold by The Blue Wheel in Charlottesville, VA c.1974-76; Ballila centerpulls, Gnutti high-flange quick release hubs, Campagnolo Valentino or Velox derailleurs, cottered steel cranks, some even with tubulars. Look for a shop sticker, odds are it's from a shop in a college town - and probably somewhere in the Southeast. There have been other threads on similar Italian bikes of the era, Ghisallo in particular - here and here. My gut level feel is it is part of the grand sweep of Europe's bike factories c.1973 at the height of the boom, when the demand for 10 speeds was so great that Liberia, Ghisallo, A. Camera, all the odd Kalkhoff sub-brands, etc., were scooped up and brought over just in time for the boom to collapse.

dddd

Thanks, rustystrings61, your estimate jibes with the vintage of the slender early Maxy crankset having integral big ring that I would place around 1974 and within the timeline of Valentino derailers on late-boom bikes.
It still hasn't been placed out for sale, I will visit the store again today while out on my evening 8-mile ride. A lot of people's paychecks have dried up by Monday night so I may have a chance at it if they ever bring it out to the floor. The OCLV Trek is in mint condition and came to the store some days earlier but is also still not out on the sales floor.

juvela

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Have seen three or four "in the field", as Q would say, here in California.

Never been able to learn anything of the marque.

Name makes any online search molto difficile.

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lostarchitect 

Just as a point of data, "camera" is just the Italian word for "room". The early "camera obscuras" were whole rooms, and it's from there that the word moved into the way we use it in English.