I have had three DeRosas over the years, the first being bike in a metallic gray w/gold head tube & seat panel.. Must have been about 1976-7? When Gita first started importing them, only "DeRosa" blue was available, Gita saying that was Ugo's favorite color and all he wanted to export to the USA.. This grey & gold version was the first variation from that blue I had seen to that point. This particular bike had DuBois looking, not-investment cast lugs that had been sculpted and reshaped, Hearts cut in various spots, little points shaped at the droput/stay junctures.. (Richie Sachs still frequently does this!) This frame looked very hand made and was, in my mind, a top example of "Italian mannerist" bicycle frame styling. It's ride was very, very quick but very supple. Kind of an odd but nice marriage of a crit bike and a ride-all-day bike...
My next DeRosa was maybe 5-6 years later, this time an unusual full chrome plated job. Now the bike had the full dose of special DeRosa investment cast lugs, etc. The bottom bracket had machined in or more likely, cast in grooves rather like a roto bbkt shell I have used in some of my own manufacture frames. It seemed (without side by side comparison being possible, as I had sold off the first bike... sigh) at least as quick but not as compliant.. a bit harsher and, while riding very nicely, not as balanced as the first bike. It was sold but Karen Rawls now has this bike now and showed it at last years Cirque.
I had another more recent (early 1990s) bike briefly and I think it was again very nice but less distinguished , especially in craftsmanship, as it was simply a neat assembly of investment cast parts, with the "hand of the builder" barely discernible. DeRosa did retain the pointed edge filing details at the rear drops until recently....
Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina