ciclimeacci

Hey Friends! I picked up a frankenbike this weekend at the Restore and I need some help identifying it. It caught my eye because of the campagnolo aero mount downtime shifters (with internally routed cables) and cutout lugs. It was outfitted with a mix of random parts: Modolo Equipe brakes, campagnolo headset, bb, seatpost bolt, suntour front and rear derailleur and a shimano 600 crankset. I know parts aren't good indicators of the origin, so here are some pics and other details. Campagnolo front and rear dropouts, 126mm rear spacing, 70mm italian threaded bottom bracket shell, 60cm frame stamped in the bottom bracket along with a S/N of 9835. The top tube is 56cm ctc, seat tube is 60cm ctc. Lugged fork crown with three circular cutouts on the inside and a heart-like shaped cutout on the outside (along with the head tube lugs). Its way too big for me so I'll likely unload it if someone is interested and after I determine the maker. Appears to be the original dark blue metallic paint, no decals evident.



Campagnolo rear drop



campagnolo front fork drop


rear brake stay, no maker mark


internal top tube front brake routing


aero shifter


internal rear brake cable routing



bb


26.4 seat tube

juvela

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Must be near to 1983 with those topmount shifters.

Is brake mount incasso?

We need to hear from Detective Chief Inspector MISTER @MauriceMoss


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ciclimeacci

Thanks, I know those types of top mounts weren't produced for very long. Ive not seen one in person until this bike frame, only in pics. Yes the rear brake is recessed.

MauriceMoss

Thanks for the tag @juvela - I think you're spot on with the year of this frame.

When I first saw the seat stay caps I thought Romani or possibly Atala (Romani also extensively used this type of bottom bracket too, while both stamped serials along the edge of the bb shell). The lugs and the number format, though, didn't fit either of those.

One Italian company that did stamp the frame size with a 4 digit number along the drive side edge of the bb shell, and used this style of bb shell, and this style of lugs was Olmo. The OP's frame kind of looks like a cross between a Super Gentleman and a Competition Leader, although I don't think it was originally badged "Olmo" (I would expect at least some pantographing given relatively high level of quality of the frame). Here are some Olmo frame details:



Frame number location/format:







Bottom bracket shell style:









Which then brought me to contract builds - I would not be surprised at all if the frame here sported Nishiki decals in a previous life. The Cervino model was built by Olmo (Maxima, according to Nishiki catalogs, was by Colnago) and is a dead ringer for the mystery frame. Here are some pics:


Head lug - fork crown - shifter




Brake bridge






Seat cluster - internal cable routing







Fork tang





Dropouts - stay end treatment - internal cable routing





Front of head lug - shifter - fork crown





Full bike

ciclimeacci

Great detective work @MauriceMoss! I had started with Olmo due to the lugs but the seat stay caps confused me since they didn't look like match an Olmo branded bike. The Nishiki pics win! I believe you are right, even down tot the color of the bike too. I didn't realize that Olmo did contract builds for other manufacturers. Nishiki Cervino it is. Many thanks!