Steel Charlie

Right off the top I want to tell about Mr. Rick Sefani who did the paint/resto on this frameset. AFAIC all the good things I read about him here are true. He is a way pleasant person to deal with, he definitely takes care of biz, and his work is just wonderful. My meager camera skills do not do justice to the work I can tell you straight and true. There are many sun spots in the pix (the thing is just TOO shiny) but I can attest that the paint is flawless. I found his email on this forum so I’ll pass it along and let you know that he responds!

stefanirick@yahoo.com

The graphics are from World Cycle Decals whom I’ve mentioned in other threads in the past and they are just first rate.

https://www.bicycledecals.net/ worldcycledecalsltd@gmail.com



A Sannino made in maybe ‘87 or ’88 from Columbus Gilco MS tube. I’ve seen a couple others around on the ‘net and no two appear the same. I’ve not decided yet just what to hang on it but the paint needs curing and the weather is crap so there is no hurry on that.

So here are the pix. The funny tube shapes are difficult to photo but there is some notion of how thin the seat stays and fork tubes are - and of course nothing is round.

Steel Charlie

more pix

John E

Beautiful, and just in time for Christmas! Everyone knows red bikes are fastest and Italian bikes are fastest.

Camilo

Gorgeous job. I have a blue mid-80s Sannino frame with pretty good original paint and nearly flawless chrome fork. I had some locally made repro decals made since I didn't know about bicycledecals.net which obviously produces excellent decals. At the time I was replacing the battered original decals, the most well-known online decal producers either didn't have any or the ones they had were comically inaccurate (sent them back). The locally made ones are very accurate, accurate enough for all but a real expert. But I scored a set of OEM decals from Italy on eBay a while ago and am just building up the courage to put them on! I was thinking of having the local shop making an exact replica of the OEM for spares - the ones they made involved screenshots from the web and some good old fashioned give and take on drafts. But now that I know about bicycledecals.net, I think I'll order a set from them as backup in case I mess up installing the OEM.

The description of "nervous, aggressive geometry" is spot on. Fun to ride, but not as relaxing and steady as my Felt Z. But a beautifully built frame. After a few iterations, the final build I did on it with mostly 90s era 8 speed Campy Record (Syncro "3"... 2+?) and 3T cockpit from somewhere in that time frame. I found some Record hubs (had to do some restoration) and NOS Campy Omega rims which I think are from about the same era (the rear is 8 speed) and did my first and only wheel build.

Anyway, what a beautiful job. What are you going to build it up with?

billytwosheds 

Great looking project, Steel Charlie .

Makes me want to do my Sannino Pista properly.

Were the non-round tubes really a Sannino thing? Can't recall reading that about the brand when looking into the provenance of my frame.

Bianchigirll 

Beautiful! I would love to try a MS frame some day

Steel Charlie

As I recall the late '80s was a fun time for funny tube sets. What the particular motivation was for the Gilco MS I can't say but a number of builders used it. The Sannino came to me shortly after I sat idly by and watched a Basso Ascot drift into the mist. Saved my anguished MS lust hahaha even tho it was in incredibly shabby condition cosmetically.
This one is sorta early Campy C era but I don't really care for that look so it will likely be Shimano 7 or 8 speed. I have a Campy SR group waiting for something so that is a possibility as well. It has a 126mm triangle so the 7 seems easier tho 8 will go. NBD right now with other things to do and the weather.
y'll take care
Charlie

tkm

I realize that this is an old thread but I wanted to bump and ask a few questions as I just acquired a Sannino frameset similar to this and was looking to possibly restore it (although it may have actually been a racing bike on a race team due to some features but I've got no way to prove that, so I'll likely restore vs. keeping the "patina").

- Do you know the exact color that was used? Was it identical to the original red paint?

- Have you been happy with the restoration? I'm debating about using a guy who does only bicycles or having a good body shop paint it to my specifications. Is the restorer you used still in business (that you know of)?

On a side note, I assume you've built it up by now. How do you like the ride of the bike and the geometry? Heard they can be a bit twitchy. Mine is a Columbus SL frameset though, so it may not be exactly as yours.

Chombi1 

Love that really good looking aero style fork crown. So much better looking than the "Unicrowns", which was becoming really common on bikes in the late 80's.

Steel Charlie

Mr. Stefani is still doing paint AFAIK. The decal are still in biz. The original color was pearl grey. The red is "Ferrari" red.
I built it with DA 7spd. The handling was very Italian quick. A young gentleman convinced me that he needed the bike more than I did so it went to a new home. If it had been a couple cm smaller that would never have happened.
Cheers
Charlie

tkm

Thanks for the reply. "Ferrari" red sounds like a good color to me. I doubt I'd ever have it parked next to another Sannino so the chances someone would notice the slight variation is slim. I'll email the person you sent yours to since you were highly satisfied with the work.

What size was your frame? I can't tell as the paint obscures the stamping on the bottom. My TT measures several cm shorter than my seat tube. I think mine is stamped 60 on the bottom but it measures out more like a 59cm on the seat tube and a 56 on the TT.

I have some 7 speed DA as well that I was going to mount on it. It originally had Super Record, but sadly it was gone before I got the frameset. I assume you ran 700c wheels? I think that's how it was originally spec'd.

Camilo

Nothing to comment on the color - mine (above) is original blue. I have "heard" that red is the classic Sannino color, so I guess my blue one is ultra-rare and therefore valuable! OK I will make a comment: my blue frame has a beautiful metal flake, so I would guess that any other original color would be the same.

As to size, mine is marked 56 on the BB, but for both standover and top tube length, it definitely measures like what one would expect a 54 to be (which is the size I need). I was fortunate that when I bought the frameset on EBay the seller understood these dimensions and actually advertised it with those details, as well as the head tube length. I would have to go out and measure it, maybe the 56 relates to the seat tube C-T. And since seat tube on a classic frame can be one of three things, varying by a CM or more, worse yet, a slanting tube frame, is why I look at (horizontal) top tube length, and if possible, standover, as being relevant to me.

There was no tubing sticker on it, and I assumed it was SL, as most of the old info I found indicated that. But I felt the spirals inside the tubes through the BB and therefore decided it's SLX and badged it accordingly.

Steel Charlie

I don't recall the MS having a size stamp. It measured 55cm c-t and the top tube was 54cm c-c.

tkm

Should have been a number on the bottom of the bottom bracket. I can barely make it out in one of your pics as the new paint filled in most of it. (maybe 56?)

I emailed the contact you posted in your first post. We'll see if he's still doing frames. Hopefully so.

Steel Charlie

I've learned the hard way that stamped numbers and a tape often disagree.

tkm

Yeah, my stamp and the measurements I took don't exactly match up. Seems they were measuring differently on some of those vintage Italian frames than how we do today. Larger then = smaller now.

martl

Afaik the lug is sometimes stamped for the *intended* tubelengths/resulting frame size based on the angles it provides. There still is some wiggle room for the frame builder though, which means the *actual* frame size may differ.
But maybe some of the resident frame builders here can give us more insight?

tkm

I have not heard back from the guy who restored your frame (stefanirick@yahoo.com). I googled him and found this:

https://www.rivbike.com/pages/repain...rs-re-brazeons

Not sure how current that info is or if he's even doing this anymore. His youtube video was made 12 years ago. Hate to bug the guy if he is retired or moved on in life.

BMC_Kid 

If going for a "Ferarri" red, you might want to do some research into the exact shade you are looking for. At last count, I believe there are over 40 different "Ferarri" reds out there. Maybe narrow it down to Rosso Corsa reds. Even then you still have different shades of Rosso Corsa ranging from red to orangy reds.

My Picchio is being painted red as I write. I had originally been looking at different "Ferarri" reds before settling on Mazda's Soul Red Crystal Metallic, which is basically a proprietary candy red. Should be a stunner out in the sun!

joesch

Columbus Gilco MS tubes were sorta a thing used by some great Italian frame builders including the steel Colnago master models. I personally love the ride quality.

Steel Charlie

(510) 368-1689 is the number that he gave me to contact him
He always returned my calls