I had never heard of the late Canadian builder Mike Mulholland and his Cyclops line until I came across this Columbus SLX frame and fork that had some serious rust issues--to me at least--with worm tracks under the paint around the lower head tube lug, the entire bottom bracket shell, and worst of all, a series of pinhole penetrations around the bottle bosses on the seat tube. The owner was up front about the issues and we ended up working out a trade after I consulted with a few professionals about whether the seat tube would need to be replaced. Some quick research showed no replacement decals available and since they're very striking I rejected a full repaint as an option unless the tube had to go.
Drive side view.
I love the decals.
Close-up of some of the worm tracking under the head tube paint.
Almost entirely surface rust, the inner shell and threads are clean.
Seat tube damage.
Another view of the seat tube damage.
After shipping it off for assessment the shop determined it could be cleaned up and repaired. Here's how the seat tube looked after bead blasting. What was thought to be a couple of pinholes turned out to be a few more. The damage came from a rag being stuffed into the tube and forgotten as the frame spent most of it's early years in the southeastern US, an area not noted for it''s arid climate.
