Interesting Atala frame on eBay--cheap. CAMPAGNOLO TULLIO TUBING?
Pete Rutledge of Woodbridge, VA wrote: There's an interesting vintage Atala road frame (with Weinmann centerpulls, headset, and bottom bracket) on eBay with a starting bid of $14.99 and a Buy it Now price of $50; it ends today. Way too big for me (approx. 25") or I'd be tempted.
Last night I had the winning bid of the whopping sum of $29.26 for the large, black 1970s Atala frame on ebay that Pete Rutledge tipped off to the CR list. (My miserly, bargain-basement eyes had been watching the auction well before my kindly namesake had mentioned it). Based on the information at CR.com, it is Atalas mid-level model, #104, the GRAN PRIX (the only model available in black and in a 26 frame size), and came originally with a mix of Campy and other components.
My questions are regarding the tubing--which (at least with reference to the literature Ive seen) was used exclusively on the Gran Prix model. The tubing is TULLIO, described as high tensile . . . seamless tubing. The two models below the Gran Prix (#207 Corsa and #208 Giro DItalia) used unnamed best quality seamless steel tubing, and the two models above the Gran Prix (#109 Competizione and #101 Record) used Columbus.
Does anyone out there know anything about TULLIO tubing? Seems apparent, but in the bike world I know there are a lot of mirages and chimeras, so is this Campagnolo manufactured and named after the late, great Tullio Campagnolo? Or did some metal company simply cop his first name only, thereby artfully avoiding a trademark suit? There is an intact Campagnolo sticker on the seat tube, but I dont know if it refers to the Campy components or to the tubing. There is also a separate Tullio tubing sticker, which is all but obliterated, and so if it has any reference to Campagnolo in the small print, I cant see it. Was Campy in the tubing business? If so, for how long? How did they do and how was/is their product viewed? Was Tullio their signature--or only--tubing? What was the tubings physical composition and was it butted, etc.? Over what time period was it produced? Did the manufacturer of Tullio tubing have a special relationship with Atala or did other framemakers it as well? If the stuff is not of Campagnolo manufacture, who made it?
To the pros on the list these questions may be no-brainers, but for a neophyte domestique like me riding drain pipe at the back of the peloton, inquiring minds want to know! Thanks for the great resource that is CR and its list members.
Peter Jourdain Whitewater, Wisconsin Aiming to ride on all 91 of the state's official "Rustic Roads" (before they're turned into bypasses and subdivisions)