pinch1967

I posted this bike a while back and still have not been able to ID the bike .i took some more pics . so if any can help id the bike that would be great . the ride is so smooth its a very high quality bike .
thanks agian
Pinch

randyjawa 

Your pictures are good but fail to show some important frame details that might help with identification. If you have pictures of the rear drive side drop (close up revealing any text), the underside of the bottom bracket, close ups of the other decals on the bike and perhaps other features you feel might assist.

Also, measure the width of the bottom bracket housing, and report that. Determine the seat post diameter (usually marked on the post itself) and report that.

Armed with that information, you might have a better shot at ID.

Hope this is a help.

pinch1967

Thanks Randy, I meassured the bottom bracket and its 7cm across. i could not find the seat post stamp . here are some more pics hope this helps . thanks agian for any info !!

Italuminium

tubing, rear bridge, dropouts and bottom bracket suggest it's an italian bike, but the absence of any characteristic marks or cutouts makes me think that this is a bike made by a big factory to be sent of to branded by a shop or other bike brand. The most prolific of these factories are torpado and Ciocc, but other well known brands (Colnago) have produces (unmarked) frames for other brands. At any rate it is a nice bike - not super high end but well made and the paint and chrome look good to boot!

Bianchigirll 

it is a Columbus frame with Sante whats not to like. that dropout makes me want to say Basso but I am sure many companies used basic Colum,bus drops. it is odd that a TreTubi frame is chromed

bikenut2011

Not really, schwinn circuits, circa 1987-1989 are like that and are tre tubi. The OP got a great deal i think whatever it turns out to be

andy

pinch1967

new info the bike is a Fiori Picante 88 SL made by Tomassini in italy for Norco.

unworthy1

I didn't know Tommasini (2 Ms, one S) did any contract building but who knows? It could be one of the other big contract-builders (Billato, BMZ) but in any case a nice tidy tretubi frame, bound to be a good ride. I think the stamping on the BB translates to "56cm, 3 tubes Columbus SL".

realestvin7

Hmm..Screamed "Scapin" and definitely "Italian" to me.

Timmi

(sorry to re-awaken an old thread, but I was searching for a Norco Picanté and this is the only thread that came up. I have seen a few Norcos and Fioris though).

Columbus TreTubi means that only the 3 main tubes are made of Columbus tubing.
Possibly Zeta if it takes a 26.4mm seatpost, Aelle if it takes a 26.6mm, SL 27.2mm (or it's SP version for frames over 60cm, taking a 27.0mm).
The rest, stays and fork, may very well be generic 4130 or anything else of their choosing.

The "remnants of a made in Italy" decal, may also be, as I have seen, just an "Italia" decal, or "designed in Italy", and made somewhere else.

Regarding some of the comments about Japanese imports, don't assume that Canada made no bike frames. There are some reputed builders here (Marinoni for example), and in quality bikes for the masses, Norco definitely is one (Monterey SL having been a great value priced at 100 less than similar competition). Sure, some were sub-contracted framesets. But when tariffs were introduced in the 80s, even Peugeot was having their framesets manufactured in Canada (at the Velo-Sport facility in Quebec). In fact, there are many Velo-Sport models that are identical to the Peugeot (Urbano, for example, which I own, but many others - and it was a great way to get a Peugeot with standard tubing sizes and standard threading). Of course there were other Canadian Manufacturers at the time, like CCM, but they never had any quality offerings - only low-end models and higher low-end models - not even in present in the mid-range - the CCM Targa was a very heavy clunky attempt at nipping at the heels of the lower mid-range, and it did have success with the masses that didn't know how to discern a good bike from another. There was Raleigh too, which also opened plants in North America (not sure where the Canadian one was), which made road and mountainbikes.

T-Mar

Assuming the tubing decal is correct, we know it's not Zeta or Aelle as these were plain gauge tubesets and the decal says "rinforzati " (i.e. butted). I don't think I've ever seen a Zeta tretubi frame but Aelle tretubi had it's own decal that said "Aelle Treubi". The subject decal definitely indicates tretubi SL or SP.

To the best of my knowledge, Norco never made frames. They were all contract manufactured, typically in Asia. However, Norco did preform design assembly. Depending on the era and Canadian content rules of the time, this would have permitted the Made in Canada label to be applied to some models.

Procycle/Velo Sport started manufacturing Peugeot in 1978 though they initally manufactured only the entry level models. All the higher end models with Reynolds tubing had frames manufactured in France. That continued through the early 1980s. Sometimes in the late 1980s, they started manufacturing mid-range models with Ishiwata and Tange tubesets but I've never seen any high end Peugeot frames manufactured by Procycle/Velo Sport.

CCM was bankrupt by 1983 and the assets and brand were acquired by a holding company associated with Procycle. Thereafter, Procycle manufactured the vast majority of CCM through to circa 2008-2009, when they sold the brand. Procycle never ventured into the high end with their CCM models, as they had other brands for that market segment. However, there were some lower mid-range road models with Reynolds tubesets but these were contract manufactured in France.

CCM did market a high end model concurrent with the Targa. From 1972 to 1976 they offered the Tour du Canada with the full Reynolds 531 butted tubeset, Campagnolo Nuovo Record group (save for the Weinmann or Universal brakes) and a tubular wheelset. During this era, there were also mid-range models with Reynolds 531 plain gauge tubes, like the Mistral (aluminum, wired-on rims) and Silver Ghost (Fiamme tubular rims). However, these were all poor sellers with consumers. I qualify this statement because the TdC found willing recipients in some large metropolitan dealers, who could not buy a Campagnolo Nuovo Record group for the dealer price of a TdC. They would buy TdC, then strip the components.

The Targa (and it's Turismo predecessor) were the only boom era, lightweight models to sell in any large quantities for CCM, whose well established corporate image found disfavour with the 13-29 year old age category that was the largest market for 10 speeds. Those with their own money bought newer (to them) and more exotic brands. The Turismo and Targa were purchased primarly by the parents, for their kids. These parents wanted to but Canadian from a company whose name they recognized and shell out as little as possible on the new fangled 10 speeds, which they considered to be a fad.

Basically, once the early 1970s bicycle boom arrived , CCM quickly expanded their product line back to a full range, something they had done since the 1950s. However, poor sales of the mid-range and high end models forced them to scale back the product in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When Procycle took over, they already had Peugeot and their own Velo Sport brand to cover the higher end market.

Raleigh's Canadian manufacturing facility opend in 1972, in the old Lines Bros. factory in Waterloo, Quebec. Like Procycle, frame manufacturing concentrated on entry level models, though they did assembly of higher end models. Manufacturing ceased in 2013, though parts of the facility were still used for sales/distribution.

Canada did have a remarkedy resilient bicycle industry in the 1980s and beyond. In addition to Procycle and Raleigh, there were good size operations like DeVinci, Guvin (Miele) and Vittoria Precision. Then there were dozens of smaller operations like Cyclops, Gardin, Limongi and Marinoni. New companies appeared in the 1990s, like Argon 18, Cervelo, and Guru. However, don't fool yourself into believing that these smaller, more exclusive operations did all their own frame building. Even Marinoni resorted to contract built frames for some models.

verktyg 

T-Mar

My 1981 Bianchi Campione Del Mondo is made with Columbus Tretubi.




I finally found some info on the Tretubi used on these series of Bianchis in the spec sheet of the catalog. The 3 main tubes are most likely Columbus SL on the smaller frames and SP on the 61cm & 63cm sizes. The forks and stays are Columbus Aelle. It takes a 27.2mm seatpost and has all the hallmarks of having come out of the Reparto Corse shop.



There's no guarantee as to what forks and stays other Italian manufactures used.

verktyg

jet sanchEz

T-mar, who makes the Marinoni titanium frames?