Joe, I'll post some more photos in a few minutes and edit them into this post. THANKS for the tip-off and for your skilled negotiation, wow is all I can say.

Joe put me onto the Merckx EX Titanium that I got for $500 a few months back and that I posted. My first contact with that seller was after Joe had worked him over, and he really sounded like he wanted to ring Joe's neck. This guy was a 6'2" veteran, ex-pro BSA motorcycle racer and Ironman finisher, and as I recall his last offer (after the legit $500) was for $300 if Joe came right over so he could give Joe some "talking to". It took me some effort to calm him down and explain that I was ready to drive to Reno and pay the already-low $500 that Joe had negotiated earlier.

Drillium Dude, your frame looks like an earlier Custom 'Traut, mine's a production bike, albeit well-finished. The bb cable guiding is normal, under-the-bb routing with little ribs/grooves and loops, in other words it is ordinary. I'm glad that the bike didn't turn out to be a Limited, those were much lower cost frames with a lot less finishing. I found a couple of tiny "bug"-type defects in the paint, but the Imron looks good and shiny overall. Workmanship at the dropouts is also very clean.

I've suddenly learned so much about the Eisentraut bikes, especially his special Italian-derived geometry which is also reflected in the Nobilette frame that I rode today. Marc Nobillette was a student and employee of Albert Eisentraut and has said that Eisentraut was his greatest influence in bike building. Their geometry favors a very steep headtube for shorter wheelbase, steeper on the bigger frames as more weight on the front wheel supposedly lends stability. My 'Traut has a 73.5-degree seattube with a 75.2-degree headtube, while the top tube is of modest 57cm length for a 59cm frame. My 59cm Nobilette also has steep angles (just north of 74-degrees), with only a 56cm toptube, so there is "heavy" overlap between my foot and the front wheel. The Nobillette is quite stable at all speeds, surprisingly, perhaps in part because it has a 13cm stem extension. I am expecting my new 'Traut to handle similarly.

Anyone who is interested in how the high-end American road bike developed over the last 60 years should in my opinion read what is posted on the Classic Rendezvous site under Albert Eisentraut, particularly the 1987 article in Bicycling that featured American frame builders and which can be found linked on CR's site. The article is linked below:

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