Provenance
 

Proving provenance on a 60 year old bicycle is seldom possible. Few owners keep a receipt for 60 years. I was lucky enough to buy a pre-1962 Frejus "Tour de France" with the original hand written receipt from Tom Avenia. He was still using the old Lexington Ave receipt pad. And I got the Italian language hang tag.
Columbus tubing, Balillia quick release brakes, Ambrosio bars and stem, Campagnolo low flange steel sport hubs, Nisi rims. Serial 902xx.

Original cost was 105 for the bike, $6 for a spare, $5 for a helmet and $1 for a patch kit! $120.51

Easily put back into rideable condition. (Owner crashed many years ago and replaced the rear wheel with a French wheel.)

Sadly, due to the 10 post rule of the forum software, I could not post any images, a few days ago. But I thought some would be interested in the serial number series and the Columbus tubing. I will try for one image.https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1d1f22dd74.jpg

At the risk of being cheeky, I'm green with envy:innocent:. Very nice score there sir, very nice:thumb:!

Bill

That's "Verde Met." with envy. It was amazing how easily the bike came apart, even the seatpost was free. I had to replace the left cotter pin, the original was in backwards and way over-filed. But ebay came to the rescue. I saved the red brake housings, which I believe are original to the bike. The original tape was also green.

It came with a very ugly Wrights saddle, which I was told by the owner was not original. Everyone I knew rode a Mod. 50 Nitor so I put a new one on the bike. Also the original Balilla hoods had been replaced with ill fitting rotted Universal rubber. Looking for replacement hoods for this rare lever is hopeless, so I just taped them.

Wow, looks to be in incredible shape.

The difference in tooth count for the chainrings is so small on some of these pre-70s bikes you wonder if it's even worth the FD :lol:

The Frejus is a cool bike. Yeah my 1960 Olmo Gran Sport has a 3 tooth difference (49/46 rings).

Interesting. There clearly must have been a transition period from Simplex to Campagnolo gear and dropouts. I have s/n 104060 which has Simplex dropouts. It came to me with a Simplex Juy 61 rear derailleur and typical (I think) metal matchbox Simplex front derailleur. When I first got it, a bit of searching suggested it was late 50s. Then I saw Dale Brown's serial number registry which clearly suggests early- to mid-60s.

I rode thousands of miles on 49-46 chainwheels, and I'm probably in the thousands for my 45-42 current chainwheels (I'm getting weaker with age). It's pretty flat around here, and sometimes all I need for comfort is a 6%-7% difference. Shifting fast takes skill, but 'weaker' means 'slower.' Speed is relative, of course. More to the point, speed for me is a memory....:)

Front is 47-50, but the 28 tooth rear freewheel is about all the Gran Sport can handle. I had to leave a little slack in the chain. Even with a frame indent, the 47 chainring runs a few millimeters from the frame.
The dropouts have soft rounded edges as though cast, but are not precision.

As for what is "stock" on these bikes -- I remember in 1962 a dealer friend ordered two dozen Legnanos from Avenia and was able to spec them, component-wise.

[QUOTE=FrancoSuisse;21038366]Proving provenance on a 60 year old bicycle is seldom possible. Few owners keep a receipt for 60 years. I was lucky enough to buy a pre-1962 Frejus "Tour de France" with the original hand written receipt from Tom Avenia. He was still using the old Lexington Ave receipt pad. And I got the Italian language hang tag.
Columbus tubing, Balillia quick release brakes, Ambrosio bars and stem, Campagnolo low flange steel sport hubs, Nisi rims. Serial 902xx.

Original cost was 105 for the bike, $6 for a spare, $5 for a helmet and $1 for a patch kit! $120.51

Easily put back into rideable condition. (Owner crashed many years ago and replaced the rear wheel with a French wheel.)

Sadly, due to the 10 post rule of the forum software, I could not post any images, a few days ago. But I thought some would be interested in the serial number series and the Columbus tubing. I will try for one image.https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1d1f22dd74.jpg[/Q
UOTE]
Quoted to reveal the invisible link.

Nice bike. I have posted about my 64TdF previously here also. I was only able to comfortably get a 14- 26 Suntour perfect 6 speed rear in mine. As you state, I had to leave chain slack so as to allow the Gran Sport RD to have enough slack to get the big/big combo too. It was stated to me by veterans of half step gearing to not ride in small/small or big/big which makes sense. The Gran Sport was at limits of adjustment of both high and low, but it does get all 6 gears. The 3 tooth shifts to the 23 and 26 tooth gears are not as crisp as the 2 tooth shifts, but worth the tradeoff. Your bike also looks to be the larger frame size as is mine. It is really too big for me, but these old Italians are not easily found, so one works with what they have. I put a shorter handlebar stem on mine.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...48e7b75e72.jpg
5th gear slack, I wouldn't use small and 6th
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a180ff7652.jpg

Suntour Perfect 6 speed. 1 washer moved from left side to right and axle recentered so 14T misses the RD mounting bolt.

I find it interesting also that your bike like mine lacks the oval at the seat post. Most have that. Mine has no tubing sticker, but Falck has been mentioned. Do you think yours came originally with fenders?
Are your wheels 27"? I copied this ad from another poster that I found interesting.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...213e9a41e8.jpg

Mine looks and sounds like the top one


I was happy to get the 14-26 on mine as the 14-22 5 speed that mine came with was too tall for me. I am 62. I will need to investigate the 45/42 gearing that PhilBob57 mentioned. Flatlands here too. I didn't pull my BB, as it was adjusted to perfection and I didn't want to risk damage to the cotter. The 3 speed guys pour oil down the seat tube. I made a slightly runny lube of grease and 80/90 gear oil and put down seat tube. I had to push it to the bottom with a dowel. Laid bike on side for a day and rotated pedals. After a couple days of this, I saw traces of lube from the BB. Repeated on the other side. Not really proper, but BB adjustment and bearing feel was perfect and I wasn't going to risk cotter damage. This bike won't be ridden thousands of miles so good enough. A very interesting and unique find and project. Have fun and keep us posted.

45-42
 

I read with interest your posting on the 45-42 half step gearing. Perhaps you could point me in the right direction for this to replace my 50-47. It is flat here too and I am past my prime years also.

Oui:thumb:, but its my son that is a certified French Linguist, I have a hard time with saying France, and not letting my southern accent make it a three syllable word:roflmao2:

Bill

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4bd5743e2.jpeg
Mine has a Columbus decal, low on the seat tube. Also, it lacks the oval cutout in the seat lug. "Tubi Rinforzati"

I did find the cups were easy to remove using a combination of Park, Campagnolo, and Var.