Boot sale find benotto 2500: gravelly buildy thingy

[Mod-Master]

looking through the thread again and all the photos. I’ve owned well over a dozen benotto going back to 1978, and have never seen one like this. I would say the nearest model to this is an 800. That’s going by the seat stay lugs and dropouts. But as an earlier poster said, no Benotto on caps so very strange. I doubt looking at tge ligs and internal it is Columbus sl. If Columbus at all, can’t really go by the badge after a heavy respray. Possibly sells or tge like. If it is a Benotto then certainly Mexican built late 80s

The late 70s through early 80s bikes were high quality with campag dropouts. People think they were built my DeRosa but they weren’t. The only Benotto built by DeRosa were the team bikes with flat fork crown and Dubois lugs.

Still an absolute bargain for £30 given the bits on it.

It’s definitly sl due to weight. I don’t care really what it is but as you say it’s still a bargain.

If you do a bit of digging then you’ll find a picture of a benotto 2500 with the exact lugs and paint that I have(once had, a sort of sparkly blue)

If you look on some websites it says that it was only the 3000 that came with campy dropouts and that it had a 27.2 seatube.

Still could be wrong, but as said, I don’t care and I’m still calling it a 2500

 

[Mod-Master]

looking through the thread again and all the photos. I’ve owned well over a dozen benotto going back to 1978, and have never seen one like this. I would say the nearest model to this is an 800. That’s going by the seat stay lugs and dropouts. But as an earlier poster said, no Benotto on caps so very strange. I doubt looking at tge ligs and internal it is Columbus sl. If Columbus at all, can’t really go by the badge after a heavy respray. Possibly sells or tge like. If it is a Benotto then certainly Mexican built late 80s

The late 70s through early 80s bikes were high quality with campag dropouts. People think they were built my DeRosa but they weren’t. The only Benotto built by DeRosa were the team bikes with flat fork crown and Dubois lugs.

Still an absolute bargain for £30 given the bits on it.

It had benotto on the caps so I’ve figured it’s been stolen at some point. Can you not see the faint “tto on the NDS seat stay lug?

 

[petgel]

It had benotto on the caps so I’ve figured it’s been stolen at some point. Can you not see the faint “tto on the NDS seat stay lug?

Sorry I didn’t see that. It adds up to being a Benotto (obviously) also they only seemed to do the two colours, Champagne as it was called (Gold team bike colours) and the metallic mid blue. It’s a real shame the fork is not the original as it would have told you a lot.

For me, the giveaway is two things for this not being a 2500. First is dropouts. Although there is information on the web stating 2500 had Benotto dropouts this is not the case. I have owned around 5 or 6 of them and they all have campag dropouts. The other this is the bottom bracket area. it’s pretty unrefined, with a straight joint at the point where is joins the chainstays coupled with a plain brazed chainstays bridge without any lugged area indicates this is a lower end frame. The seatlug area and the headlugs have no filing down and are quite clunky again indicating a lower end frame.

At the time Columbus SL was the highest end steel (barring the exotics such as 753 and Ti) and it wouldn’t make sense to build with SL with lugs like that…as for weight, you wouldnt tell the difference just by handing even from ishawata.

When I was about 15 and started racing I bought a brand new Champagne 850. It was £75. The SL 3000 was £250 and the difference in weight was negligible holding the two frames together, I remember doing it in the shop.

As production of Benotto had completely gone to Mexico by the mid 80s I would be very surprised if this wasn’t a Mexican produced 850 is either Aelle or Ishwata tubing. Incidentally both very good tube sets, ishawata better in my opinion. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, you’re building it for you, not to sell for profit. All the best with the build and I’d be very interested if you find any more info.

 

[petgel]

2500 headlugs

 

[petgel]

1977 2500

 

[legrandefromage]

have just read the whole thread - for those wanting to go naked bare metal, its Marine Varnish time

A friend makes outdoor furniture from old iron baths and such like

Heres one I did earlier - stripped, left outside to rust a bit, then coated

 

[Mod-Master]

Sorry I didn’t see that. It adds up to being a Benotto (obviously) also they only seemed to do the two colours, Champagne as it was called (Gold team bike colours) and the metallic mid blue. It’s a real shame the fork is not the original as it would have told you a lot.

For me, the giveaway is two things for this not being a 2500. First is dropouts. Although there is information on the web stating 2500 had Benotto dropouts this is not the case. I have owned around 5 or 6 of them and they all have campag dropouts. The other this is the bottom bracket area. it’s pretty unrefined, with a straight joint at the point where is joins the chainstays coupled with a plain brazed chainstays bridge without any lugged area indicates this is a lower end frame. The seatlug area and the headlugs have no filing down and are quite clunky again indicating a lower end frame.

At the time Columbus SL was the highest end steel (barring the exotics such as 753 and Ti) and it wouldn’t make sense to build with SL with lugs like that…as for weight, you wouldnt tell the difference just by handing even from ishawata.

When I was about 15 and started racing I bought a brand new Champagne 850. It was £75. The SL 3000 was £250 and the difference in weight was negligible holding the two frames together, I remember doing it in the shop.

As production of Benotto had completely gone to Mexico by the mid 80s I would be very surprised if this wasn’t a Mexican produced 850 is either Aelle or Ishwata tubing. Incidentally both very good tube sets, ishawata better in my opinion. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, you’re building it for you, not to sell for profit. All the best with the build and I’d be very interested if you find any more info.

SLX was highest end.(I think)

Remember this is late 80s early 90s so there could be differences. Anyway I’m going to get on with my build and not worry about numbers as the sticker set I have doesn’t have the model number on it anyway! I’m going to strip the frame of paint and see if I find anything.

 

[petgel]

Nice one. I have heaps of Benotto decals, some original some reproduced. Give me a shout if you’re after any….

 

[chickendrumsticks]

have just read the whole thread - for those wanting to go naked bare metal, its Marine Varnish time

A friend makes outdoor furniture from old iron baths and such like

Heres one I did earlier - stripped, left outside to rust a bit, then coated

View attachment 786208

You might want to adjust that front brake a bit before you ride it.