For Sale

Sadly, it is time to say goodbye to this bike. It served its purpose well. That purpose was to infect my wife with a love of road cycling. It turned out that it was too big for her and we’ve recently taken delivery of a custom Tomii Cycles road frame, so she has a new love.

This Casati appears to be a custom fabrication (which Casati often do). The measurements do not match up to one of their standard sizes.

• The top tube is 53cm c-c,
• the seat tube is 50.5cm c-c,
• and the head tube is 10cm tall.

The sticker says it is Columbus EL tubing, though my measurements indicate that it is EL-OS. The top tube measures 28mm in diameter (bordering on 29mm) and the downtube is 32mm dia. The down tube and seat tube are ovalized at the bottom bracket. The entire frame is chromed, with the head tube lugs and stays shining through. Casati isn’t one of the first names that come to mind when you think of Italian racing bikes, but they are one of the oldest builders out there. They are revered for their spot-on alignment and top quality construction. There are some very cool details on this frame, such as the tiny “dot” cutouts on the chainstay lugs at the bottom bracket and the yellow painted windows of the back of the bottom bracket and front derailleur hanger.

There are a few minor scratches, which I’ve tried to show in the photos. The seat tube had a tire rub mark on the back, which I have repaired with 4 coats of self-etching primer, 4 coats of metallic blue, and 6 coats of clear. It was a challenge to photograph it so that the repair could be seen and if I hadn’t mentioned it, you may never have noticed it. It will be unnoticeable once a wheel and tire is installed.

I am selling it as a frame, fork, and ultra-cool Mavic 310 headset. (The photos in the lower gallery show it as it was built when I handed it to The Lovely Annalisa to start riding start riding in 2012, for reference.)

$800 plus shipping. Contact me if you are interested.

I won the Ebay auction for this bike in March of 2012. It was being sold by a nice young fellow in Brooklyn. He originally purchased it at R&A Cycles in 1990 but said he only put about 500 miles on it before storing it in his basement. Poor thing, it didn’t even have a chance to stretch its legs.

The Lovely Annalisa acted interested when I brought it home, thinking it lovely and all, but wasn’t quite ready to jump on and go. She already enjoyed riding her mountain bike, but the road was still a stranger to her. It took more than a year for her to throw a leg over after an initial tentative spin. I like to think that witnessing my constant joy from riding piqued her interest enough to try the road with me. Since then, she’s put around 1000 miles on the Casati. It has been enough to realize she loves riding and wants to continue to do it and to work to improve.