Can I pick the brains of the Stella experts among us?

This is a curious beast. It's a dead ringer for the first bike I pictured above (at this link). That bike has French decals describing Columbus tubing ("jeux de tubes en acier special" and "fourreaux Columbus"). The Stella that gugie repaired has metric sized tubes, but the steerer does have the telltale Columbus rifling. The fork is very slightly lighter than the Raleigh fork, but the frame on the Stella is about half a pound heavier.

Any ideas what this is? Tubing? Year? Model?

Good job on the hanger restore Mark. Now that you touched a Frenchy frame, are you infected enough to move on to that classy Rochet that's hanging around the corner?

Andy, Vertyg says the 70 series stellas used Columbus SP, 1.0 mm ends and .7 mm body. Mine has those same lugs, but they aren't chromed and my lesser (probably Durifort) non-Columbus fork didn't get the long re-enforcement tang on the inside of its leg. Mine does have Campagnolo dropouts front & rear though. So I have just Columbus "Tre=Tubi" main frame, so got the triangle decal while the full Columbus frame sets have a rectangular Columbus decal on the seat tube plus the little, oval Columbus decals on the fork legs.

I sense we need a "French Bike" gathering: Bastille Day, (July 14), is on a Saturday this year, would that be a good day? I'm going to sound out some locals to see if there is a low or no cost gathering spot in or near Salem. Don

I'll post a couple of pictures of my '73 for comparison. I bought it used in 1977 and had lots of braze-ons added and repainted (it was a light sky blue) not too long after that. It served as my college bike and is the bike I toured across the country with. It has many of the earmarks of the subject Stella bike: wrap around seat-stay cluster, really long fork crown tangs, main tubes Columbus, Campy dropouts. Mine has heart shaped cutouts on the lugs though. I have the rectangular Columbus sticker but I think to be more correct I should switch to the triangular 3 tube version, will have to track that one down.

My older brother turned me onto the brand when he brought one home from school in Santa Barbara. I knew little about bikes then. It hasn't been since the advent of the interwebs that I learned anything about the brand. I've always assumed mine is an SX-76 model as the catalog indicates Campy/Columbus. I'll be riding it at the Eroica California ride, hope to see many of you there.

Thanks! That classy Rochet needs motivation. It's a long term project. Needs some parts rechromed, and probably a fancy paint job. I've already collected most of the bits, as well as most of the decals.

Bastille Day ride? Might dry out and warm up by then. Sounds like a plan!

Bastille day ride is a great idea.

What about French decaleur day West?

Thanks! This is exactly the sort of summary I was hoping for. I had read a few of the old threads, but I was confident that I was correctly applying what I reads there. So you don't have the Columbus rifling in your steerer? Columbus SP would probably account for the weight difference I'm seeing between this and the International.

Does your Stella have metric-sized rubes? I don't think I'd ever seen Columbus tubing in metric sizes before.

Also, I love the idea of a Bastille Day ride. Count me in!

That's beautiful. I love the paint job. I'll be looking for it at Eroica.

Just re-read this thread & realized I never followed up with a tubing measurement on my Stella for Andy.

Outside dimension on all: Seat tube is 28.5 mm, Down tube 28.3 mm and Top tube 26.3 mm, not sure how much of that is powder coat and clear coat. Don

Those numbers seemed strange to me, so I looked up a chart for Columbus SL/SP. Supposed to be 28.6 ST/DT & 25.4 TT, my eyes are old and the lines are fine, so we may need help from Gugie with his tubing micrometer. Don

Haven't checked charts but measured an early 80's Italian, reputedly SP (in at least the main tubes) - and my measurements on painted frame are 0.1 - 0.2mm larger than you list.


Not to derail thread, but:
Does anyone know what metric 531 (main tubes) would have measured??? Still talking early 70's.
28.0 for ST/DT??? TT = ?



Golly, I know - "Doesn't Google work on your connection?"

Break-away thin Italian paint maybe? My measurements were all under the spec for unpainted SL/SP. Charts are late 70's Don

edit: sorry about the double chart pic, not sure what happened, it was single when I saved it.

[MENTION=8403]ollo_ollo[/MENTION], I'll bring the gauge back to see pappy on Bastille Day.

Top Tube - 26.1mm
Seat Tube - 28.3mm
Down Tube - 28.2mm
Seat Post - 26.4mm
The frame tubes have maybe a 0.1mm thick layer of Imron over them.

I think these compare very similarly to the numbers you posted. I'm not sure how to interpret them though, I always assumed 1973 was pre-SL.


Stella 2018.04.21.jpg

On the SL being later, that's what I thought too . Some one, maybe Vertyg?, said Stellas were SP in another thread. Interesting. Those are closer. And mine has powder coat plus a clear coat and I had to clean up a run in the powder coat of the seat tube.

The chart was labeled "late seventies". Don't know when Stella had the fire & shut down, most accounts just say "in the 70's", but I would guess (due to bike boom+ fire) most Stellas are more likely early 70's than late 70's. Looking forward to Bastille day.

That's pretty much exactly what I'm seeing except my seat post is 26.2. I think this must be metric sized Columbus tubing.

The numbers would be strange for normal Columbus SL/SP, but if we assume metric sized tubes with a bit of extra thickness from the powder they sound right.

I've learned that [MENTION=61614]verktyg[/MENTION]'s memory on these things is very reliable. So if what he said seems inaccurate we probably just misunderstood what he was saying. I know I've done that a few times.

28.0/28.0/26.0

That's what I like about French dimensions. They only need the decimal place to let you know they are being precise.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one labeled later than 1974. Bevil Hogg, one of the founders of TREK in 1976, imported Stella’s. Just surmission on my part but he may have had to due to the fire. Some history here: gnat23.livejournal.com/267071.html

Agree it isn’t SL, I was looking at the wrong chart header. I do have an original brochure my brother gave me lists the SX-75/76 as built with Columbus.

I came across an interesting bit of trivia last night. Apparently the internal code name that Atari used for the 2600 game console was "Stella" and the name was chosen because one of the engineers rode a Stella. As a child of the 80's who wasted a significant portion of my youth playing Atari games on that console, I'm pretty happy about that connection.