Choke 

What a beauty.

Since you seem to still be confused about what you have....

VIRGINIA - FRAMETELLER (in Italian)

I tried to put a Google translate link in but it doesn't seem to work. If you go to Google translate and put the webpage into it, and then click on that link, it will translate the page for you.

soulmango 

nothing beyond satisfying my curiosity & my want to be able to know it’s history, it’s era, maybe a model name, maybe even who Ettore A. was/is.

just always nice to actually know a bike while getting to know it.

soulmango 

Thank you, Choke. I appreciate the effort & info. The Italian language page made me work to remember my 4 years of high school Italian.

It’s not that I’m confused per se, it’s more that I’d love to know more about the company & more about this specific model (what it even is) & so on.

It’s obviously not a mandate in order for me to enjoy the bike, I just think it’s unique enough to try to know more about it.

Thanks is again for the info!

soulmango 

Apologies, MauriceMoss. I had meant to give my thanks early on & got distracted with "only 5 posts, etc.). Anyway, thank you.

So, I looked into the Paletti thing as the engraved bottom bracket & the shared nameplate logo could be sort of a more modern/bastardized version of the Luciano Paletti nameplate, but then I was reading more about the Paletti & realized Luciano's son, Michele took over the business & maybe he incorporated an "MP" for a logo?

Luciano Paletti on left, the Virginia with the additional, unknown logo. Similar, but again, can it be a Michele Paletti logo?

It's hard to get a complete idea of the Virginia brand from the VIRGINIA - FRAMETELLER page as it really only has bikes into the early 80s represented. Looking at the Paletti page though, they have newer bikes & even reference BF member
jamesdak 's bike that has very similar types of welds & shapes of internal cable routes.

Lastly (for this entry at least), I was looking at how there are signatures on some of the toptubes, like on my Bianchi, & then noticed I hadn't even taken a photo of the one on the Virginia because I'd been concentrating on the drive-side shots. Unlike my Bianchi, this one is a sticker, but I assume it's there for the same effect.

This is the "signature" on the Virginia frame. I am not able to discern what the actual name is. Stylized P or T - o - l - A - t - t - u - r - i or c - o and maybe another letter or just a flourish.

Thoughts?

Cougrrcj

I had the '76 RD 400C, in green - from '79-82 when a left-turning cager took me out. RD400 was totalled. Not mine, but pic from the interwebs. Mine wore a square-tube rear rack with adjustable sissy bar (and it also had the correct mirrors). Of all of the motorcycles I've owned, I REALLY miss this one!!!

soulmango 

Sorry to hear that, Cougrrcj. Yeah, miss the sound & the free-revving, almost no compression braking coasting style of those 2-strokes.

I can bend my knee enough to pedal a bike, but I can't bend it enough to get onto those high footpegs any more.

Mr. 66

I had an orange RD350, it was like riding a chainsaw catching the powerband.

himespau 

The internal tube routing with both the entrance and the exit on top was really only used my most steel builders for a couple years in the late 80's/early 90's (say maybe 88-92?). Most builders quickly realized that both entrances on top made great access points for sweat/water and led to corrosion, so, after a year or two, they first switched to the front entrance being on the side of the tube, and then the back a year or two later. I have a Colnago Super (maybe, it might be a Super Piu?) that's been estimated to be from 1989 with both entrances on top. I also have a Concorde Aquila that was contract built in Italy by an unclear builder (some think Bilato Bros, some have made other suggestions) in ~1990 that had the front entrance on the side. Don't know what your builder used or when, but that might help narrow build year down, as might the use of 8 speed Ergos (if they're original - but they'd probably push the build date back a couple of years). The Mavic Equipped stickers on the rear might imply that the Campagnolo setup is not original, but it also might be referring to the original wheels because there's a Campagnolo sticker on the bike too. That, and the name, could imply it was the race bike of a local, sponsored racer, A. Ettore. Don't know about Oria KK Chrome Moly tubing. Doesn't look oversized, is it? Is that a unicrown fork?

BikingViking793 

Nice ride

cs1

Back in the day all my buddies had an RD 350. I had a Kawasaki S2 350 triple, also a 2 stroke. We made a lot of smoke and noise on those bikes.

ShannonM

Dude, I know nothing about your bike, other than that it's stupendously awesome and I want one.

--Shannon

soulmango 

So, himespau, that's a bunch of great knowledge &/or educated guesses. Thank you for that!

I totally see & understand what you mean about the top routing entry/exit & it being an additional path for water to route in as well. My '93 or '94 Bianchi has the internal routing, but it's via the lower left side (from seated position) & exits top back


As for grouppo & badging, yes, I believe the ergo Record is original & that the Mavic was for the wheels as you mentioned.

Regarding the tubing, I was educated to the fact that
"[the] bike is built with Mannesmann steel (very pure CroMo steel) and the frame building was done by Oria, Verona. Good quality tubing!! Nice detail is that your frame has the lugless TIG-welded triangle and the solid lugged bottom bracket pot for extra stiffness."
All tubes are round except the downtube which is ovalized at the headtube & becomes rounded at the BB, & the seat- & chainstays which are all ovalized.
Oh, & yes, unicrown fork...


It's certainly nowhere near as light as my Bianchi which is oversized tubing & I don't really care. I didn't buy it to compare against the Bianchi (closest I currently have that I could compare with), I just find it to be a cool bike, steel, well-equipped, & seems like it will be solidly comfortable, take whatever I throw at it (I'm not really hesitant to take my 23 or 25c-wearing road bikes into dirt & gravel if it's where I want to go) & last forever.

Anyway, your thoughts for era seem to hover toward the 88-92 era, but not exactly sure which way you're leaning when you say "use of 8 speed Ergos (if they're original - but they'd probably push the build date back a couple of years)". Which direction are you saying? Chance of earlier or later? I'm just to good with dating Campy ergo gear.

Thanks again to you (& all others) for the great help & props. I am excited to dismantle it & clean it thoroughly (probably do a frame-saver kind of thing) & build it back properly.

Regards,
Saul

himespau 

I was going to put it 88-90 (cut the difference and call it 89), but I think 8 speed campagnolo only came out in 91, and even then it was only with downtube shifters. 8 speed Campagnolo Record with Ergo shifter/brake levers came out in 1992 if memory serves, so that'd put this bike as a 92 or after (if it was fall 1992, it might have been a 1993 model year or later).

1990's sort of fits with the unicrown fork (unless it's an internal lug), but I'd thought most people were changing the location of the internal routing by 1992/3. Most doesn't mean all though.

soulmango 

You know, Shannon, I don’t know that much about it either, but I couldn’t agree with you more!