Hi Gang,
I did not respond to this thread earlier because I was uncertain of the outcome.
I had an opportunity to spend this weekend in Reno with my lady. She had a art convention to work at so I tagged along to play. I called Roland Della Santa to see if he had time for me to come over and talk frames with him. He said of course and arranged to spend a few hours on Saturday. I called him Saturday am to get directions or an address so a cab could get me there, he said "cab, smab-I'll pick you up" and he did! We talked at length about his style of building, showing me some of his cool older bikes and my preferences in ride. We had just started talking about a frame for me when some friends of his stopped by and we all went to a wonderful Italian deli for lunch. 2 hours latter we still hadn't finished the frame order, but I was having a ball. Roland was talking about some of his days spent in the navy, and lots of other fun things.
Once we got back to the bike , we decided to do a "retro" bike. SLX tubing with True Temper stays, Cinelli BB shell and Masi lugs. Evidently he can still "acquire Some of these from time to time. It will be built up with Super Record parts, along with the NOS Headset that he sold me from his personal stash. It will be painted Della Santa blue w/ yellow headtube and decals. Needless to say I am excited about this new(old style) bike!!!
After spending the day with Roland, he took me back to the convention center, once again saying that I did not need to worry about a cab. All in all I can Highly recommend that those of you that listed a Della Santa as a lust bike to go ahead and get one. I will let you know when the frame arrives, and how it all turns out.
Sorry to babble, still reqouperating from the travel.
Garry Nold
Lacey, WA