non-fixie 

It's BIG! It's RED! It's ITALIAN!

That much I knew from the excellent pictures the seller had supplied with the ad. But what is it exactly?

The frame is branded "Levero", which was the house brand of Willi Mittelstädt of Leverkusen, Germany. Apparently Willi bought good quality frames elsewhere and put his decals on them. The shop still exists, but the Levero brand seems to have gone.



The Levero brand was registered at the end of 1981, and "W-Germany" ceased to exist at the end of 1989, which puts this decal somewhere in between:



Turn the frame over, and you can see where it was made: at the Paduan shop of Biemmezeta. You can see the "BMZ" stamp on the BB shell on the right.



This much I knew when I bought the frame. What is not yet clear to me is whether this frame was made by BMZ for Willi Mittelstädt, or perhaps for someone else (and rebranded to Levero later on). This detail suggests that this frame may have been repainted. To me it looks like a stepped ferrule that the painter didn't want to - or couldn't - remove:



Another detail that suggest the original brand may have been different is this quadrifoglio which appears on the fork crown ...



... and on the seat stays:



Many brands have used the four-leaved clover, but this particular shape is often found on bikes branded Milanetti, also from Padua and also a BMZ client.

However, @MauriceMoss has muddied the waters by pointing out in this thread that it might just as well be a Girini. Or a Mondial.

So, the question is: is it a Levero, a Milanetti, a Girini, a Mondial, or maybe a standard white-labeled Biemmezeta product?
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3speedslow

Bianchigirll 

I think I found it's twin

Mr. 66

non-fixie 

That does look like it's close to my size.

non-fixie 

As a matter of fact, that very thought occurred to me last night. Rebranding frames built by others was quite common practice in these parts.

exmechanic89

With a great name like that I can't believe they didn't just brand it as a Willi Mittelstadt.

juvela

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The "diver's helmet" chainstay stop may be a clue for @MauriceMoss.

They do not show up all that often and I have never known who produced them.

No doubt, Maurice shall be able to enlighten...

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MiloFrance

In my limited experience I've never seen a 4 leaf clover panto, but that must be pretty specific!

Edit: Some googlage brings up the name Biemmezeta, apparently a contract builder. Looks like a fine frame, whoever built it.

non-fixie 

That it was built by Biemmezeta is the one thing I'm quite sure of. What I'm really trying to find out is how they, and other contract builders all over Europe, worked. Did they build unbranded frames to stock and did these frames end up with any LBS who ordered a couple? Or did they build to order and does the clover leaf mean it was originally built for Milanetti? Or Girini for that matter?

And who were Milanetti? The Milanetti bikes I've seen all seemed to be in Germany. Were they a real Italian firm that happened to have a successful distributor in Germany, or was it just a PO box in Padua for a German wholesaler?

USAZorro

If you call it a Colnago-built frame, you'd generate 10+ pages of discussion.

Going to invoke the name Citoyen du Monde, with a suspicion that he may have some helpful info - at least about the "made in Italy" possibility.

MauriceMoss

I’ve seen perhaps a dozen (maybe a few more) Levero bikes online. None of them sported the cloverleaf pantograph or BMZ markings. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any, just that I haven’t seen any. Quite a few of those Levero frames, however, looked like they were made by Viner (including sporting the “Tubi speciali in acciaio” non-committal tubing stickers, which I’ve only seen on Viners).

As your frame is clearly a repaint, the question then becomes “why would someone take a Milanetti/Girini/Mondial (I'm sure there were others that we just haven't heard of), repaint it and put Levero decals on it?”
Dunno. I suppose anything is possible, although seeing how BMZ sold the same frames to more than one buyer, I wouldn’t be surprised if Willi Mittelstädt also got his hands on some of those frames and sold them under the Levero name. I guess it's entirely possible that BMZ produced a certain number of stock frames that could be shipped whenever ordered and buyers didn't mind having a shamrock here and there that wouldn't be exclusively theirs?

Now that we've cleared this up , I'm reminded of another thread I’ve been meaning to update. I’ll get around to it one of these days...

MauriceMoss

The Milanetti brand name was resurrected in 2014 by a couple of German marque enthusiasts.

According to the historical rundown of the brand you can check out on their website, Milanetti was a label owned by a distributor called Augusta Radsport Vertriebs GmbH until the company went bankrupt. I think they were based in Augsburg and were also a Bianchi distributor in Germany (but don't quote me on that).

I’ve also seen the Augusta/Milanetti story confirmed in a thread on rennrad-news.de, where someone got a confirmation from a former managing director at Augusta that Milanetti was their brand and their supplier was Biemmezeta.

non-fixie 

I am tempted.

But maybe I should get in tune with the other Biemmezeta cliënts and call it a "Nonfissini".

non-fixie 

Thanks, Maurice. Much appreciated!

WRT the other thread: I see that my pics there have gone AWOL. I'll see if I can get those back up.

headtubes

Great information here. Thanks!