View Single Post
Old 06-20-11, 11:12 AM
  #8  
bikingshearer 
Crawlin' up, flyin' down
 
bikingshearer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Democratic Peoples' Republic of Berkeley
Posts: 5,653

Bikes: 1967 Paramount; 1982-ish Ron Cooper; 1978 Eisentraut "A"; two mid-1960s Cinelli Speciale Corsas; and others in various stages of non-rideability.

Mentioned: 40 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1025 Post(s)
Liked 2,525 Times in 1,055 Posts
Lack of chrome is not an issue. Good frames have come with lots of chrome, some chrome, just a tiny bit of chrome, and no chrome.

[Edit: Lack of chrome is not an issue in and of itself. With some makes, presence or absence may be a clue as to what model it is, and hence where the frame is on their hierarchy. My recollection - and I am not positive about this - is that Lejeunes were not real chrome-heavy; I think I've seen some with chrome on the ends of the forks and stays, but i also know I've seen them with no chrome. Perhaps others with better memories or, better yet, one or more high-end Lejeunes in hand can fill in the blanks here.]

Based on my (crappy) laptop screen and the pic, I would guess it has a Columbus sticker. Somebody certainly wants to reinforce that idea by emphasizing the water bottle. The set-up says 1970's to early 1980s to me, so if it is a Columbus sticker, it is probably an SL tube set - possibly SP (a tad thicker and heavier - good for beefing up frames for giant economy sized types like me), but more likely SL. This was Columbus' top tube set at the time, and along with 531 was the Top o' the Heap for many years.

Lejeune had a good rep back in the day, and there are a few BF members who have some gorgeous examples - try searching for "Lejeune" in the forums to see if you can pull up any threads. Every nice one I've ever seen in person and most that I've seen in photos were that shade of red, so to me, that's the color a Lejeune ought to be - YMMV.

Try to inspect it in person. But since it sounds like the price is right, even throwing in the shipping, I think this just may be your Euro-find.

Of course, this opinion is worth exactly what you're paying for it . . . .

Good luck. Be sure to post pics if and when you get it home.
__________________
"I'm in shape -- round is a shape." Andy Rooney

Last edited by bikingshearer; 06-20-11 at 11:22 AM.
bikingshearer is offline