benz76 wrote:I cannot see anything similar between Billato and Pinarello.
It's quite obvious you've never put your hands on Pinarello's frames.
They are not that rare, aren't they. I can honestly say that i have laid my hands on more than one of them.
benz76 wrote:The story of "bikes made by other manufacturers" is old as cycling history.
Sometimes is true (Armstrong riding Litespeeds, e.g.), but most times they're only rumors.
let me quote a posting from the "classicrendezvous" Archives
From a Billato rep: wrote:"I can't really go into who we build for a great deal as we have to
respect client confidentiality, but over the years Billato has built a
great number of frames for a whole host of well known names. You mentioned
Lemond, when he won the 1989 Tour, his time trial bike was built by
Billato, so that should lead to another brand! The guy who won the year
before, rode a Billato-built frame, as did the guy the year before. In
1990, Lemond won again, riding steel frames built from Excell tubes that
Billato helped develop. Some of these were TIG-welded, which hadn't been
seen on a road frame before. Others took the credit for introducing this a
year later.
There was the big Dutch team in the 80's, they rode Billato built frames.
More recently, in 1999, five of the teams riding the Tour rode
Billato-built frames. Last year 'only' three. Perhaps the best one — for
me anyway, is that shortly after Silvio Billato started the company, he
was supplying great rivals Coppi AND Bartali - at the same time!
Some of the early US Masi's were Billato. Also Cinelli Super Corsa.
They're no longer built so it's OK for the public domain as it were!
BTW, I spotted a Vicini on Classic Rendezvous a couple of weeks back. That
one too
benz76 wrote:You cannot mismatch Pinarello with other bikes.
maybe not the current line. look at that pic below, it shows a Pinarello Prince model 2001. If there are differences to other italian frames from that period w/ carbon rear stays, they are marginal IMO.
The "Rudy" labelled frame i mentioned in my other post looked *very* similar.
The frames you see on their website are merely their standard portfolio. I'm sure if you order a large enough number of frames they will build them according to your specs.
In fact it would be a sign of quality to get a frame made in Italy, instead of the many frames from the far east.
I have no information whether or not Billato actually builds or built frames for Pinarello. But it is quite obvious that many prestigous bike brands' models are made by OEMs like Billato or MZ in Modena.
benz76 wrote:Insted, I found Billatos very similar to Viner (or other italin brands) bikes: this is quite obvious, since they use standard tubing (Deda mostly), forks and stays.
Billatos carbon frames resemble Basso's, Moser's and Daccordi's current frames a lot.
Martin