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Chrome mystery bike??

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Chrome mystery bike??

Old 05-23-19, 12:06 AM
  #26  
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It could be a Sneetch bike. Some of them Sneetches has stars upon thars.

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Old 05-27-19, 11:38 AM
  #27  
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I got an email saying there was an update on this thread so I clicked on it thinking there actually might have been a Sneetch bike and then I saw the cartoon.........

I think I might get some red white and blue paint and touch up the stars and advertise on July 4th. Who knows what some patriotic soul will say??
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Old 06-06-19, 03:00 AM
  #28  
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Thanks for the tags (and the pms) guys.


Frames matching this one have been on my radar for probably a few years now. I've come across maybe 10 or a dozen so far. I’d say that probably one or two of these pop up every year on Italian classifieds.

OP’s would be the second one on BF (see this thread), there were a couple on German vintage forums, and the rest I found in Italy (forums and classifieds).


Of the ones mentioned outside Italy, all were Italian threaded so it's safe to assume we’re talking about frames made in Italy.


Three of the frames were fully painted (i.e. no chrome), but two of those looked like possible repaints.

The rest were all chromed, with all but two showing remnants of paint (cromovelato style paint as @unworthy1 mentioned) in various degrees of coverage.

I'm assuming that the paint flaked easily so sections must have been removed to make the bikes look more presentable.


Four of the frames had no decals left. The rest included decals of mostly small shops/outfits around Italy: Busana, (Ezio) Cardi, De March, Furlan, Giovannini, L'Ezzelina and Miotto. I'd say this pretty conclusively indicates we're dealing with contract frames built in Italy.

This is why I'm excluding as possibles two marques that were known to use lines of regular five-pointed stars: Simplon (Austrian) and Mairag (Swiss).


Here are some pics:













Well, you get the idea.
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Old 06-06-19, 03:05 AM
  #29  
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Using the regular five-pointed stars on bikes (decals or pantographs) was not extremely uncommon in Italy. Some marques that are well known in the US include Viner, Olmo and Guerciotti. There were others that used them during certain periods (like Chesini, Esposito or Stella Veneta (although you'll find those more often with a "V" inside a star of David), and others).


There were several marques, all clustered around Padova, though, that used stars regularly in all kinds of configurations: Berma, Vetta, De Franceschi, even Biemmezeta (occasionally). Of those, however, I'm only aware of Vetta using three stars in a line, both in decals and engraved on stay caps and fork crowns. This is why I've always suspected these mystery frames came out of their shop.


The only problem with this theory is that all the 3-star engravings on Vettas that I’ve seen so far only appear on frames from about mid to late 80s. Also, the 3 stars on the fork crown appear on frequently on Vetta branded frames, while the 3 stars on the stay caps seem to only appear on their contract builds.


I even contacted Vetta at one point but never heard back from them.


Here are some pics of stars on decals:





Pantographs on fork crowns:






Pantographs on seat stay caps:










So, my money is still on our mystery frames being contract builds by Vetta (and they’d done a lot of contract builds over the years).
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Old 06-06-19, 12:24 PM
  #30  
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-----

Thanks so much Maurice!

Great information.

Outstanding observations as always.


-----
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Old 06-06-19, 10:38 PM
  #31  
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Yep, truly educational! Thanks again to Maurice!
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Old 06-07-19, 08:03 AM
  #32  
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Thank you to @MauriceMoss and everyone who chipped in!


I'd like to apologize if it looked like I was ignoring my own thread and especially Mr. Moss after I had reached out to him.


Not the case, some of my posts aren't saving, don't know why.


Glad this mystery was solved, don't want to see something like this fade away, hanging on the rafters of a garage. From what I can tell Vetta was a respected name and this deserves to be ridden.


It's way way to small for me to keep and I have too many that don't fit so I expect I will offer it at the Brantford C&V show for $200 or so Canadian and I expect it will soon have a new home.....


I see more amazing bikes on here than I could ever remember and I appreciate the good work done by folks identifying them!


Thank you again


Wesley

Final photos - seat is an Agda




Last edited by WGB; 06-07-19 at 08:23 AM. Reason: photo
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