1981 Team Hoonved Bottecchia

Here is a very nice 1981 Team Hoonved Bottecchia.

It was sold to me as a original '81 Team bike, I have sent

the details of the bike to Bottecchia cicli S.r.l

so we will see if it proves to be the real thing or not?

I had always liked Bottecchia as a cycle brand, in fact

there a few things I like about Bottecchia.
So when I had the opportunity to buy what was possibly an 
ex team frame set several years ago, well I couldn't say no.

Firstly there is the heroic/tragic story of Ottavio Bottecchia, the

first Italian to win the Tour de France, and also the first rider to wear 

the maillot jaune from the first to last day of the tour (1924 TdF).

He also won the tour again in 1925.

Ottavio had, from the beginning of his cycling career, 

been helped in no small way by bike shop owner

Teodoro Carnielli, whom it is said, gave Ottavio his first

good quality race bike, a Ganna.

Sometime between 1924-26 Carnielli arranged to sell bikes

branded as Bottecchia.

Then in 1927 tragedy struck, while out on a training ride Ottavio

meet a mysterious fate, he was found unconscious on the road side near 

an orchard with  a skull fracture and several broken bones, 

but apparently no sign of a hit and run.

He died 12 days later.

More on that story here 

Teodoro Carnielli kept producing and expanding the Bottecchia range 

of bicycles,I have read somewhere as much a tribute to his friend

 Ottavio as a business venture. 

 Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find very much information

on Teodoro on the net at all, not even a photo of him.

Secondly, I really like the way there is practically no

pantographed components for Bottecchia. It is hard to

believe that a serious Italian race bike company, with a serious 

presence in the peloton, made a conscious decision to not go

down that path during the pantograph boom of the 80's.

Someone high up in Bottecchia must have called bullshit 

on the cult of panto when it came to their race bikes.

You have to admire the purity of vision.

Team rider Gisiger Daniel doing a time trial,,no panto here pal.

This lovely fork crown is probably the only bit of Bottecchia

 pantograph most of us will ever see.

 Nicely lined brake bridge. 

Thirdly I have always admired their decision to offer proper team

replica's for sale to the public, appropriately decaled with sponsors names.

This wasn't all that common during this period,

which makes verifying this frame's team authenticity that 

much more challenging.

Lastly, the Bottecchia jerseys have always been

outstanding, and their early eighties ones were some

of the prettiest jerseys of that period.

 Giuseppe Saronni in the SCIC/Bottecchia colours 1977-79

Their early jerseys were pretty nice too, but then nearly all the team

jerseys from the first team jerseys to early 1960's are pretty stylish IMO.

I will show you why I am reasonably sure that this might be

an authentic team issue frame set.

 Look closely at these lugs, they have been filed almost flush

with the tubes (top and bottom), there is a hell of a lot of work that 
has gone into this finishing. It is hard to imagine that this amount of 
work being put into your normal team replica.

 Even the seat cluster lugs get the same treatment.
Top/bottom and seat tube have all been filed flush.

The whole frame set has been masterfully finished from

one end to the other.

 It also rides beautifully as well, I just did a nice morning

ride today, and am still smiling.

Bottecchia/Carnielli B/B shell.

What more can you ask of a bike?

It's Italian and it's

CARNIELLI