Another bike ID thread (Pseudo-Battaglin?)

[I_Nonchev]

Hello from a new Bulgarian forum member After many years of tinkering with MTBs, I decided to take on another project and build myself a (kind of) vintage road bike. So today I got this frame, shown in the pictures below, with some weird "Giovanni Battaglin" decals on it and some unknown (to me) logo on the head and seat tubes. Also, it has a "B" embellished on the main tube lug and on the seatstay caps, which looks suspiciously like the Bianchi's "B". The frame has an Italian BB thread and, as you can see, some wild paintwork.

I have never seen a Battaglin frame with such features - it lacks the well known logo with the hunched down racer guy and also the braze-on flag on the top tube. And the decals are nowhere near those I've seen on the most popular Battaglin models. So, most likely, it has nothing to do with The Man of Steel himself or his company, apart from the fact, that some enthusiast has decided put his name on it.

Also, it's pretty much on the heavy side - 3.54 kg (7.8 lbs), including frame, fork, BB and headset.

The dropout spacing is 125 mm, so I guess it's mid 80's or something. On the BB there is the size measurement (57) and also some serial number - B663 (if it makes any sense).

So, yeah, the frame was kinda cheap (70 euro), so it's mine anyway, whatever it is. But just out of curiosity it will be interesting to know if anyone has come across something like that.

Thanks in advance

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

7.8 lbs puts it in the territory of a Touring frame made from a heavy duty version of one of the butted steel tubesets. If it was made of Reynolds steel, which it probably won't be in this case as Italians tended to favour Columbus, it would likely be a 531ST tubeset.

 

[Spiderweb]

Battaglin is spelt wrongly on the seat tube!
Looks a nice frame👍

 

[biggs682]

Forks have mudguard eyes rear's don't are they the original forks ?

Looks nice enough though enjoy

 

[I_Nonchev]

Battaglin is spelt wrongly on the seat tube!
Looks a nice frame👍

Something I didn't notice at first

 

[I_Nonchev]

Forks have mudguard eyes rear's don't are they the original forks ?

I really don't know. I noticed the mudguard eyes too and that confirms the hypothesis of a touring setup.

 

[Cycleops]

Battaglin is spelt wrongly on the seat tube!
Looks a nice frame👍

Maybe the faker/builder was a tattooist

 

[si_c]

Looks to me like a very good quality frame judging from the lugwork and the brazed cable guides on the bottom bracket. Judging from the paint work and logos on the lugs it may well be a Battaglin - probably 1980s as mentioned above - but it's definitely been repainted at some point, and not particularly well I don't think. Someone definitely made an effort, but the detailing around the lugs and on the logos is a bit poor.

Either way I wouldn't worry about it particularly, that will be a very nice bike to ride once you've got it built up. I did exactly the same as you when I first wanted a road bike - I bought a €100 frame on ebay and then built it into a great bike. I did spend a bit getting the frame repainted though in my case as the original paint was pretty poor.

Good luck building your bike up and welcome to the forum!

 

[I_Nonchev]

Looks to me like a very good quality frame judging from the lugwork and the brazed cable guides on the bottom bracket. Judging from the paint work and logos on the lugs it may well be a Battaglin - probably 1980s as mentioned above - but it's definitely been repainted at some point, and not particularly well I don't think. Someone definitely made an effort, but the detailing around the lugs and on the logos is a bit poor.

Either way I wouldn't worry about it particularly, that will be a very nice bike to ride once you've got it built up. I did exactly the same as you when I first wanted a road bike - I bought a €100 frame on ebay and then built it into a great bike. I did spend a bit getting the frame repainted though in my case as the original paint was pretty poor.

Good luck building your bike up and welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the info and for the welcome!

I will surely keep you updated as the project goes on. I will not throw crazy amounts of money on it, though. I just want a somewhat decent randonneur. Even the paint is not that bad, when you look at it long enough But I will ditch the stickers for sure, lol.

 

[Specialeyes]

That looks very much like a mid-80s Bianchi Campione d'Italia to me.

The seat-stay B-in-a-circle and the downtube B embossing are definitely 80s Bianchi and the weight implies it's mid-range.

As has been mentioned above, I'd expect Battaglin to be able to spell their own name

Still a cool bike though - enjoy!

 

[MichaelW2]

Bianchi B on seat stay cap
http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2011/02/lug-samesies-vintage-bianchi-vs-trek.html?m=1

 

[MichaelW2]

Bianchi Alloro had the B on lugs.
Columbus unbutted main tubes.

 

[I_Nonchev]

It looks a lot like the Bianchi Campione d'Italia. As far as I can see (correct me if I'm wrong), the Alloro has the cable guide brazed on the upside of the chainstay, whlie the Campione has it on the downside (like mine). Also, mine has bottle mount bosses on the down tube and on the seat tube (like the Campione), while the Alloro has only one bottle mount (on the down tube). That's what I could tell form various photos I found.

Anyway, thanks for your help, guys

 

[I_Nonchev]

So, here's a little update on the project, as I promised. The "Pseudo-Battaglin" turned out to be a repainted and re-decaled Bianchi. I'm still not sure if it's a Campione d'Italia or a Nuovo Alloro, but it doesn't really matter to me. It's now fully operational with an almost complete Shimano 600 groupset. Only the cransket is some kind of cheapish Shimano FC-R2000, because I don't want to ride anything other than a compact, and the retro looking compacts were way beyond my budget limit. Maybe someday I'll equip it with a Stronglight or something like that. The wheelset is also kind of cheapish Novatec hubs with Remerx Alcyon rims and it's the only part of the bike that is not suited to the 80's timeline, together with the Ultegra rear derailleur. I cold setted the frame to accommodate the 130 rear hub and I put a 10 speed Ultegra 11-28 cassette The bike has a 42cm Guid bar with a 100mm ITM stem. The seatpost is also from ITM. So now the only thing it lacks is some decent mileage Today I added some 32 kilometers in the mountains with an 800 meters of elevation and I think the Bianchi felt home

Cheers!

 

[FrothNinja]

Coming on a treat