roccobike

I volunteer time with my church's bike ministry. Today, somebody donated a very old, beat up road bike. One of the other volunteers said I might want to look at it because it says "Dura Ace" somewhere. OK, got my attention. So a I looked at what he called a "Raleigh", but that's not a Raleigh logo. Not only did it have a Dura Ace crank, but almost every component was high end or mid level. It has Campagnolo shifters, head set, seatpost bolt and dropouts. The brakes are Suntour Superbe as is the front derailleur. The bars and stem are Cinelli. So now it's got my attention. But I can't find any identifying marks other than the "R" on the headset label. I can't find a serial number anywhere. The bottom bracket looks high end as do the lugs, but no model ID anywhere. IMHO, it's been repainted. The decals on the seat tube imply this has Columbus tubing but the downtube has a 1207 steel decal indicating it might be lower end. But who puts campy dropouts on a low end bike? The top decal on the seat tube implies this bike was made in Italy with Columbus tubing, The "R" made me think of Ross, but the dropouts don't line up as something an early Ross would use.
Got to admit, I'm stumped.
Anyone have any ideas?
Here are some pics.

roccobike

Here are some additional shots

AeroGut

Romani

see https://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/Romani_main.htm

Lattz

I would shoot for Romani. Well known builder in the Parma area but most of their production was contract building for exports, still you can see some frames from them with their own brand.
I remember writing about them in the Vintage TT thread, they existed through 3 generations, all called Gaetano, and once I bumped into a blog on the web where Gaetano "the third" popped in to provide some details to the people trying to find out anything about them.

juvela

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do not assume the letter R indicates an actual marque

possible transfer may be one of the generic ones for a name such as "Record"

one R name you might wish to look at online is that of Rossignoli - not mentioned as a possible ID particularly, just one R marque you might not have thought of to explore

frame "almost" looks like it could be an early BMZ product - before they began having their name in the investment cast bottom bracket shell

paint finish appears as if it could have been applied without an intervening primer coat

the three threads showing on the bottom bracket adjustable cup tell you that the fittings employed represent a miscegenation

appears to date from about 1976, water bottle mount may be an addition, check to see if there are braze-ons there as opposed to having been accomplished with rivnuts


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Lattz

I based my assumption on the R...ANI Made in Italy since 1924. But of course, if go along the general rule of thumb on not to trust any decals, it really can be anything.

juvela

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you posted your Romani message whilst i was composing

so did not see it until after pressing "submit reply"


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Lattz

Now that's funny, because as I fininshed my first message saw AeroGut was faster

unworthy1

Romani is almost certain (saying that with a grain of salt but the stay caps are a strong clue)...but what in the world is "FEMCO 1207"?
This has Campy 1010B DO, lugs and chrome forkcrown, slotted BB shell...in other words it's not a "bottom feeder" frameset.
Yet that tubing sticker doesn't inspire confidence. Wonder if it's nothing to do with the real tubing used.
At a minimum I'd expect this to be Aelle and probably better.

roccobike

The Femco decal looks to be in excellent condition telling me somebody added it much later. They either didn't know what it meant or just thought it would be cool. I posted it for completeness, but I don't think it's meaningful. The Columbus decal looks to be the real deal. There's a slight bit of overpaint on it which tells me it predates the repaint. The FEMCO decal was definitely applied after the repaint.
I'm going to search Romani bikes to see if I can get a handle on this.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed, much appreciated.

unworthy1

Ah, I missed the pic with that remnant of the Columbus tubing decal, but now the weird thing (for me) is that it's an older style decal (and usually indicates an SL tubeset) than you'd find on a later 1970s frame with the short Campy DOs. But a builder might use "older" decals if they had a supply on hand, clearly the Femco and Dura Ace stickers are more recent and not to be given much credence.