Strange

I have a friend who swears that when he was a kid in the early sixties he had a bike made by Campagnolo. Not just Campagnolo components but a Campagnolo frame as well. I’ve never heard anything to the effect that Campagnolo ever made frames or complete bicycles and I’m quite skeptical of his claim. I know that in the sixties and seventies a variety of frame makers (Masi, De Rosa, Cinelli) made frames that others put their names on so I suppose it’s possible that Campagnolo may have OEM’d a few frames from some of the top makers and branded them as Campagnolo, but I’ve never seen any evidence of this.

Do any of you know anything about this?

noimagination

Lessee if this works ....

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...o-frame-2.html

Sy Reene

They used a partner (Sarto) to make a frame back in 2017 that was Campagnolo branded.. old listing here:

https://www.devercycles.co.uk/5669/p...ze-medium.aspx

Strange

Thanks, my search fu was weak at 4 squintillion o’clock or whenever I posted that. So it sounds as if my buddy’s memory isn’t so good after 50-some years or whatever it’s been. It didn’t make sense to me that a component manufacturer would branch out into frame building when there were already tons of world renowned frame makers a stone’s throw away in Milano. My friend probably just recalled seeing a Campagnolo sticker on the bike and misremembered it as the brand of the bike.

veganbikes

I have a Phil Wood Frame that was from 1994 and well before their partnership with Indy Fab. I am doubtful it was done at Phil Wood and probably an area builder but I haven't had confirmation because unfortunately the guy who would know retired and was not able to provide much info and I didn't want to push.

It is possible Campy did something similar, I remember Shimano did have a branded bike at one point that was probably made by a Japanese builder to show off their stuff. I haven't seen the Campy bike but would love to look at it. I know we had a customer at our shop who had a 24 kids bike with Campy NR (I think) and Sew Ups but not a campy branded bike just a cool vintage actual road bike for kids.

gfk_velo

I've worked with Campagnolo for 37 years and never seen or heard anything to suggest that Campagnolo themselves ever made frames, or even marketed a third party's product as a Campagnolo frame. Frame fittings, dropouts, for example, yes - but not the frames themselves.

As others have noted, they have commissioned or rebranded third party frames for show, demo and test purposes - in the first year of EPS we had Campagnolo-branded Pinarello Dogmas as demo bikes, in 2015, 2017 Sarto did indeed make a series of frames for Campagnolo, used as test platforms for marketing purposes, some plain, some carrying a Campagnolo logo but although these were eventually sold out through the distribution and other networks, they were never marketed as a Campagnolo frame.

rosefarts

I'm younger than your friend and sometimes my memory is fuzzy.

If it were a Colnago with Columbus with Campy stamped drop outs, well I could see where he's coming from.

Or something along those lines.