Mike Kone wrote about the high-flying De Rosa frame:
> The frame looks to be one of the original early DeRosa frames which is a very
> rare animal. Only questions in my mind are the seeming lack of the cool
> triagular chainstays, and the headlugs don't have the faces by the headset cups,
> but it is the early decal set. These things are really rare although I'm not at
> all impressed by the ones I've seen in person.
> For the Italian bike collector, this is a holy grail item. Much rarer in this
> country than a true Confente frame.
>
> For the avid collector, this was a very rare find.
The frame is not what I would personally consider an early De Rosa, given that Ugo had been building frames with his name on them for more than 20 years by the time this frame was built. According to De Rosa, this frame was built after 1973 and before 1977. So rather than being an 'early' De Rosa, this was one of the very few frames that was built right alongside Eddy Merckx's frames. This is indeed the exact period in which Eddy was riding exclusively on Ugo's bikes. It is therefore truly a very rare bike here in the US and the original person or shop who ordered it almost certainly had to wait longer than expected to receive it. BTW, I was one of the people who had programmed a snipe bid that did not even get a chance to register as the bidding had already gone through the ceiling for the bike. Charles should be proud.
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ