Veneto

[little jim]

I'm looking at buying a road frame badged as 'Veneto'
The frame is made of columbus altec 2 tubing and has a claimed weight of something like 1300 grams. Can anyone shed any more light on the origins of this frame and who it was made by as I can't find 'Veneto' as the name of a company on the interweb.
Any help is appreciated.
Cheers

P.S. Hopefully pictures in a couple of days assuming I win the frame

 

[orbeas]

Altec 2 tubing was the number 2 alloy tubing from Columbus and was used in may of the top firms - Orbea - Colnago -
The top tubing was Airplane, both were heat treated after being built.
These were the tubing of most of the pros used till carbon fibre cam along

 

[foz]

veneto is what zeus frames were marketed as in italy, until a few years ago. Now they're just all Zeus, but previously the same frames were sold as zeus in spain, orbea in france, and veneto in italy. not sure why, or if that is the right combination of names/countries.
I had a Zeus columbus airplane frame for 4 years, and a very nice frame it was. nice ride, nice weight, nice paint, nice smooth (filed/sanded) welds.

Andy

 

[little jim]

Thanks for the info

A picture now that I've just won it on ebay

 

[David B]

Thanks for the info

A picture now that I've just won it on ebay

Aluminium bikes generally aren't my cup of tea, but I like the cool paint job (often the case on Orbea/Zeus race frames of this vintage).

David

 

[foz]

looks almost exactly the same as the frame I had, except for the paint. thinking about it, I've actually had 3 zeus alu frames - the first in about 2000, broke at the vent hole in the drive side chainstay after about a year. the second, a replacement for the first. the third (2002-2006), a slightly smaller size to fit me better, after selling the second. I sold n3, and heard that it failed at the DT/HT weld (I think) about 2 years later. Don't get worried though - I don't think zeus have a higher failure rate than any other alu frame of the same period, and there are still LOTS of them around these parts that are as old of not older and still going strong! here are a couple of pics - numbers 2 (multi-coloured) and 3 (blue). I might have some paper photos of number 1 somewhere, if I can find them I'll scan some.

Andy

 

[little jim]

Nice bikes foz!
I love the paint job on the multi-coloured one.
As to failure rates, I would have thought any alu frame will fail if you have it for long enough so I'll only start panicking when the down tube snaps in half and I'm using my face as a brake
Mine should be a nice step up from my dawes 400 steel frame and a good place to hang my new handlebars

 

[foz]

well technically only 1 of mine broke

I kind of regret selling the last one, but then my pinarello rides so much nicer!

and I was wrong earlier, now they're all called orbea, not zeus. Their own parts are labelled zeus though - stems, bars, seatposts, etc.

 

[1duck]

veneto was blatantly just trying to cash in on the whole northern italian bike heritage, i've seen worse plans but i have to wonder if you'd be allowed to get away with that sort of thing now with european laws.

Someone should make a DOC bike, if its not produced in the area then it really shouldn't be branded up, it strikes me as a bit dishonest.

That said its a good bike, looks nice and isn't like a super market special being branded up.

 

[Gilco]

I live in Veneto (near the campy factory) and the brand I've never seen