Charles Wahl

I saw this crusty old frame for sale on local CL and picked it up this afternoon. It's large -- 63 cm C/T with 59 cm top tube, 43 cm chainstays. May be too large for me, esp. the top tube; but I will try anyway. Reynolds tubeset judging by the barely-extant triangular decal remains on one fork stay. The bike was originally a deep "flamboyant blue" with silver undercoat. It's too bad that the paint is in such awful shape, because the foil down, head and seat tube decals are almost serviceable, and not particularly faded. I don't imagine there's any way to get them off with Bestine or some other solvent, without demolishing them, is there?

Serial on left rear dropout is 035955 -- at least I think that's a zero sort of half off the edge of the metal. No other stamped markings that I can see, though I haven't removed the fork yet. Head lugs were painted black, front fork all chromed, with blue paint from crown halfway down the blades. Lugs outlined in gold. Seatstay caps have a nice "leaf" profile with a crease down the center, also highlighted in gold. I haven't weighed it yet, but it's definitely lighter than the Falcon frame I have from the same era. Simplex forged dropouts, of a rudimentary sort, compared to 70s and 80s ones. Despite the way the rear dropout photo on the CL listing looks (might be removed by now)
https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/bik/746754543.html
it doesn't have a derailer hanger; the claw shown in the photo didn't come with the frame. It has only one BB cup, a beautifully chromed TA fixed-side one -- don't know yet if it's any good.

QUESTIONS: Anyone have an idea what decade this frame is from? And what original components would have been? Oh, and the seller advertised it as model 610 -- how would he have known that? I don't see any marks that indicate a model number.

More photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/13175746@N05/

It's too bad that I didn't see (by another CL seller) it's alter-ego, a 22" red one with stem and bars, which sold just before I called this evening. Otherwise I'd have had a matched set, one for my spouse.

unworthy1

Nice frame and nice price too. I'd only be guessing (let CV-6 have the expert vote) but probably early to mid '70s. I'd try to soften the foil decals with a hair dryer and try gentle peeling, but if heat alone won't allow easy peeling, just get an edge up and drip in some Bestine or Zippo-type lighter fluid (which is naptha) or even WD40, then transfer them to carrier paper or wax paper.

Charles Wahl

Well, I have a "weird-but-true" story to go along with this. I tell my brother about my Jeunet frame find, and he's having a garage sale the next day. A couple shows up wearing shirts having some sort of bike-theme logos, and he starts talking to them about old bikes -- a fellow-bike-collector-sickness commiseration. He mentions that I'm even a worse case than he is, taking in French frames that are difficult to find ethnically exclusive parts for, and uses the Jeunet as an example. They say, that's so funny, because a co-worker of one of them wanted to give them a Jeunet with all original equipment to them, but it's a 60 cm, too big for either one of them -- so they gave the guy the advice just to put it out on the curb with a "free bike" sign on it.

My brother emails me, saying not to buy anything for the Jeunet frame. I reply that I don't want him to rustle up a bunch of French parts for me, because that's my fun.

Two hours later, the complete bike is in my brother's living room. He sends me a photo, in reply to my email, showing the Jeunet on top of the "free stuff" pile at his curb following his garage sale, himself in the background, making an obscene gesture. Aren't brothers great?

The bike is exactly the same color as the one I started with. Also a Reynolds 531 frame. I took the 63 cm apart. It's clearly a DB frame, weighing just under 3 kg stripped bare.

thestaley

I have the same jeunet, in a burnt orange color, In fairly better condition, I dont have the original fork, and this is the first time I have seen one like in yours. It has been my favorite bike I've ever owned, possibly because its my beater bike. Always in the market for another.

balindamood

I had an old Jeunet mixte come into the shop today. It looks like someone pulled it out of the ocean. The only thing that isn't rusty are the alloy Mafac brakes.