[CR] Pogliaghi detective work

(Example: Framebuilding)

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:54:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: "P.C. Kohler" <kohl57@yahoo.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR] Pogliaghi detective work


I guess for me bicycle buying is done on impulse since I seem to find out what I have after I have purchased it.

My recent acquired Pogliaghi Italcorse from German eBay has had me trolling the 1500 entries on the marque on the CR Archives (which seems to say STOP! you've seen enough after about 6 pages!), contacting other owners and web searches.

For those interested in such things, the best I can determine my frame no. D570 was manufactured in 1973 for Bruggelman's in Frankfurt. This is based on no. D574 (on Flickr) and no. D558 (sold on German eBay in June 2010) with the same Faema colours as mine. Both D570 and D574 have "D58" stamped on the driveside bb undershell, no. D558 I cannot determine. The original sales receipt from Bruggelman's for no. D574 is dated 1973 and has a '73 Pat. derailleur and D570 has '73 date coded cranks.

So we can add another bb distributor stamping to the list: D58=Bruggelman's and deduce that these date to c. 1973 and were offered in Faema livery. D possibly for Deutschland and perchance 58 the no. of frames?

And at least three from this order all seem to have the "D" prefix to the serial no. on the seat post stamped in reverse leading some to think it's a "9" or "8" but it's clearly a reverse D on the examples I've seen and D574 verified now by the owner as such. Whoever did the stampings on this run had too much chianti at lunch for the other stamping on my bb is, curiously, "67" with a European "7" and since this usually denotes the frame size, he was five cm off as my is a 62.

Here is a photo set of D574 (cited in error as 9574) on Flickr in original paint and with original components:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/campafreak/sets/72157614854459221/with/3285307602/

Finally, I wish I had a Pogliaghi when I was studying Italian at university for it sums up in one word all manner of delightful tongue twisting Italian pronounciation conventions.. it rolls right off your tongue and you couldn't keep it there if you tried. Dave Stollar would have had more fun saying "Po-lyah-gee" (with a spit inducing hard Lombardian "G") than Masi.

Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA