Helix Lamont

I got a nice teal colored Atala today, my first score, but I was a bit disappointed to find out the decals were just just stickers. Overall I'm very happy with the bike still, but I just thought at least the brand name would be painted on. Oh well got a lot of work to do on this bad boy. Does anyone know why they don't paint the name onto the frames?
https://imgur.com/a/LsiQa

rootboy 

Because for factory made bikes, it isn't practical. Too expensive and requires quite a bit of skill.
Early Atalas probably had real water slide or varnish fix decals. The only vintage bikes I'm aware of that had actual hand painted graphics were Herse and Singers, though there were surely others. But those were hand made bikes.

xiaoman1 

Very few of the classic/vintage ( 1950-current) marques hand painted the names on their bike...it would take too much time and require a lot of skill. If you think about how long it would take to do this simple task and repeat it frame after frame with the precision you would understand why.
Some makers did do custom pinstriping on the lugs as well as the frames of the bike to add a more custom touch.
Waterslides came next but also required time to wet slide and place and also necessitated drying time for proper adhesion and lowering the risk of damage to the decal itself....
Move forward to the 80's current and almost all Mfg's use stickers..ease of application and no down time to let dry.
The cost of progress!
Ben: thumb:

Helix Lamont

I gotcha. Well my next step is to clean the bike and remove the minor rust from it, but I am a noob at this? Any recommendations? Also do you know of a way for me to preserve the Atala stickers, to make sure it never comes off? I plan to ride this bike, My goal is not to resell it at this point, but maybe in the future. I appreciate the help.

oddjob2

Google bikeforums rust

Helix Lamont

Very interesting stuff! Well my next step is to clean it, but I don't know if there is a proper way to do it. It's mildy dusty, and has some minor rust, all surface though. Any recommendations? I'd also like to know if there is a way to permanently preserve the stickers on the bike, at least the ones with the Atala name? They've seem to put up all these years with minor damage, but if there is a way to make it more permanent without damaging the bike that would be cool.

randyjawa 

Probably be much too costly to paint every decal onto every bike. These decals(stickers or what ever you wish to call art work) appeared on one bike, an old Moser I built up many years ago. Imagine how much work it would be to hand paint each decal and then repeat the exercise hundreds and perhaps thousands of times...



Legnano, however, did paint the down tube decal, or what ever you want to call it, but only the down tube, not all the others...



However, don't get too excited about hand painted art. Even the pin striping left much to be desired in the "perfect department"...

cycleheimer

Post some photos of the bike. Get some shots of the components. We love photos of C&V bikes, and can probably give you a better idea of what you just got yourself. BTW, the real Motobecanes that were made in France apparently had hand painted graphics up until some time around 1980.

xiaoman1 

Op,
Hose off all the loose dirt and debris from the bike....I use liquid Dawn dish soap with warm water and an infants toothbrush to clean oils from BB, HS and RD, don't overdo it with a lot of pressure etc. it may take multiple times to get the bike clean.
You will need to repack HS and BB after cleaning as well as looking at all cables and tires etc.
Good luck.
Ben

Helix Lamont

I'm hyped to get into it and start cleanin her up. Need 2 more posts to post a url .....

Helix Lamont

so .......

Helix Lamont

Here you go, below is some of the pics of the frame and components. Guy I bought it from said he it was his fathers and he kept in his garage for some time, so not much damage from water at least. Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

1989Pre 

The early Francesco Mosers had painted-on graphics, but were stenciled.

Kdogbikes

Nice pick up Helix. Like Ben said dawn dish soap. Copper scouring pad for chrome then some rubbing compound then wax It'll look great. Keep us posted.

repechage

Legnano for a long while used a metal stencil to provide a mask got painting the downtube graphics. One day I will find a bike with.
C.N.C. Also painted down tube graphics on the upper models and Rene Andre.
Not too many brands though.

cb400bill

Pic Assist.

smontanaro 

I have a 1970 Super Professional. Note the lack of decals. The main labels were either varnish or water slide decals when new, and must have long ago dissolved. A couple smaller bits were stickers, even then (the Super Professional sticker near the shift levers and the Made in Italy oval on the seat tube). The green cromovelato panels do appear to be hand painted, but this was Atala's top bike at the time, so some extra expense was probably warranted. I have replacements from Greg Softley (cyclomondo.net), but they are vinyl.

From the looks of the components on your bike, it would seem to be from roughly the same era, but I don't recognize the font on your stickers. Looking at Greg's site, the Italy A-M page has a couple Atala options right at the top. I recognize those as from the 80s (Atala 1, Atala 2). Scroll down further and I see Atala 3 and Atala 4 (your bike), then Atala Team 2 1970s. That's mine. There are also some catalogs online, but I didn't see the font from your bike there, either. Interesting little mystery.

Does your bike have the serial number stamped into the seat tube, on the right side near the top? (Maybe elsewhere, I think it did move around a bit.) If so, and it looks like YYLNNNN or similar, the first two digits probably signify the year of manufacture.

Narhay

My 1972 Raleigh Professional has handpainted top tube "Professional" and downtube "Raleigh" script. Unfortunately the "Professional" had seen better days and some judicious scraping allowed me to replace it with a decal. I kept the downtube script.