Yet another present to me from the bike Exchange. No sooner had I taken the Schwinn Signature Slicker hotrod out of my truck and given it to the Q A Crew to check over than I spotted an old Italian Ligie that had just been donated. I quickly scooped it up and put it iin the truck before anyone could stop me and now it is in my garage. I think it is probably 60's vintage and judging from the fancy luggs and the adjustable stem, campagnolo dropouts, fork ends, hubs, shifters and front derailleur might be something special. I found a good website https://utahrandonneur.wordpress.com/the-lygie-barn/ which is dedicated to this make and hopefully will be able to pin down the detail through them.

Here are the as found pictures. More as the resto progresses. Any info re this bike greatly appreciated.

Missing the pics!

EDIT: They made it!

lygie more pics

Open C on the downtube shifter makes it more 50s than 60s. Lovely Venetian (Veneta) bike.

-----

...wonder if it came out of a Tomb...

Oldairhead shall be along shortly to enlighten

​​​​​​https://utahrandonneur.wordpress.com/the-lygie-barn/


-----

The adjustable stem is a nice score. The rest of it though- looks like a lot of work

Nice score . Could be well worth putting some effort into. I look forward to future posts on what is planned for this bike.

Looks like a great find. And it will likely clean up to be a cool bike. It's not often a 1950's model shows up pretty much complete. Can't wait for the follow up pictures of the restoration. Smiles, MH

This is kinda drool worthy for this crowd. It looks to have sat for at least 3-4 decades. Most here would have a lot of fun slowly bringing it out of its slumber. Have fun with this!

The serial number is on the seat tube, the first two digits are the year of manufacture. The pic isn’t perfectly clear but from here it looks to be 60, so 1960. Cool find!

I was thinking 1960, as well. Is that an Agrati crankset with aluminum chainrings? Reminds me of my mostly-original 1960 Sieger, which has an adjust-reach-from-the-rear stem, rather than your Major Taylor style adjust-from-the-bars. Mine has an obvious safety disadvantage if you move the bars too far back. .

-----

should you gaze upon the underside of the shell you shall likely find a "21" in two places

this is the cycle's nominal frame size as measured in inches c-t-t

frame constructed with Agrati lug pattern "BRIANZA" ART. 000.8030/U

upper head lug N.000.8034

lower head lug N. 000.8033

seat lug N. 022.8039

from the bit which can be seen of the shell it appears it may be pattern "AM"

tubing likely to be something such as Falck plain gauge, would expect a pillar of 26.2 or 26.4

hub axle locknut dates should be something close to 59

pedali originali would likely have been something from Sheffield, most probably model Corsa 655 or model 663 rather than these Sakae Ringyo fellas




OEM stem would have been either Ambrosio I-beam or Champion

count yourself fortunate that chainset Y-adaptors are ferrous, they were also produced in dural which were failure prone

wedgebolts are 9.0mm in diameter with a "medium" cut

original gear mech would of course been a GS

model appears a midliner, one up from base and two down from top

Oldairhead shall have far more & better information whenst he chooseth to drop by


-----

I dunno, I see some pretty fine worksmanship there. Thin/smoothed lugs, delicate seatstay top work... I'm thinkin' closer to top o' the line.
Pics of the dropouts might help. I especially like to see the inner face of the right rear DO, to show what they did for chain/freewheel clearance.

Anyway, definitely worth cleaning up, full spa treatment without repainting is what I'd like to see. Not that my opinion counts, not my bike, just mouthing off...

If you don't have any EvapoRust, consider buying a gallon, works like magic.

If the bike is indeed 1960, Gran Sport and a steel crank would be a midline bike. 1960 would have all the Record aluminum on the top tier bike. But the components look to be a mishmash or original and owner upgrades. I think the FD, calipers, levers, headset, crankset, probably BB, shift levers are original. Owner upgrades include saddle, wheels, RD, stem, maybe bars.

I have access to only the 1956 catalog. It has a Corsa Normale and a Corsa Professionista. Both are sporting Simplex 543 RDs, 4-speed for the Normale, 5 speed for the Professionista. So not much help there.

I will also say the seat stay is a bit perplexing. If you go to the Lygie site in the OP, you see bullet style tops in the late 50s, early 60s. You see the OP style of pointed tips in the mid 50s.

Great find cap’n. I’ll try to swing by and check it out.

-----

this image telling

frame constructed for 700 wheel with brake centres of 51mm front and 64mm rear to accommodate the Fratelli Pietra Extra calipers

now fitted with 27" wheel pads need to be raised 4mm in slot

​​​​​​

-----

A trick Lygie employed was to use Campagnolo ends on mid tier bikes. Increases Perceived value.
‘these seat stays are interesting, the basic geometry of the bike appears good. I would really consider tubulars or 700c.
‘the owner spent money on upgrades over time.
‘the LA bicycle licenses are a throwback to a different time. They were good for 3? 4 years. The background color changed each year, like annual renewal stickers on a car.
I expect the seatpost to be 26.8 at best.

As I recall the LAPD Police (who issued the bike license decals) often put the new ones on top of the old, assuming you (or siblings) kept a bike long enough to need "layers of licenses". It's an LA thing

I spotted my first Lygie (and never saw the alternate spelling "Ligie" except in recent posts, here) when a Junior High classmate whose family had Money, bought him a white model with Campagnolo gear and "rat-trap" pedals. We classmates thought this bike was sooooo exotic and special, and "Doug" closely guarded it from the errant louts who might tweak the shift levers out of curiosity and "strip my gears"!!!

Then many years later (College in Santa Monica) there was a Golden Couple of Very Attractive SoCal Architecture Students who had matching His-n-Hers Lygies, also in white with Campy gear. So I had the idea that Lygies were only sold in white (with chrome lugs) and always had expensive Italian gruppos: thus WAY out of my league!

Clearly there was at least one shop/importer for the brand (frame decal on the OP's says in West Hollywood) but I think another one or two handled the brand elsewhere in Greater LA.

Blast from the Past as I stumble down Memory Lane!

Thanks everyone for the interest in the Lygie. I have some more pica below for your examination.
I have beem deconstructing the bike since my previous post. It has been fighting me but so far I am winning. Both the seat post and stem were stuck solid . luckily for me they were both steel and liberal dousing with Kroil , some appropriate cursing,. threats with a sawsall and hammer, and finally a blood offering to the bike gods saw them both gradually rise from the dark recesses of the frame into the light of eternal bliss.

Unfortunately the handle bars are no longer with us. Every attempt to seperate them from the track stem proved futile. Even after sawing off one sideof the bars I had a tough time removing the remaining piece. They don't appear to have been anything special though, no markings st all on them, so no great loss. The track stem will be put up on E Bay by the bike Exchange . I have a variety of old stems. we'll see what fits.

The seat post is indeed 20.8 mm and is in good shape. Some variety of brooks ish saddle will replace the Specialized perch currently installed. I have cleaned up one 27" Weinman wheel so far. the Campi hub polished up nicely and the internals were like new. I dropped one of the bearings while putting it back together and discovered that they were 6/32".A few minutes pushing my floor magnet around finaly uncovered the wayward item and I was able to button everything up. The spokes were rusty so I used 0000steel wool followed by linseed oil to clean them up.

The Crank appears to be a Simplex with Lygie branding and 50-47 tooth steel chain rings . I will have to wait till Wednesday to go into the Bike Exchange and use their cotter press to remove them.
The freewheel is a Maeda 14-28 tooth. I tried to remove the locknut from the rear axle so I could remove it but the nuts on both sides were frozen. I put some kroil on them and let them sit overnight. Hopefully when I try again they will give up and let me have my way with them.

I am not sure about how to finish the bike. Lots of folks will advocate for keeping it in original paint. I tend to want to make it look like new if possible. I am likely to keep the 27" wheels as I am thinking they are original.I have lots of 700c wheels but none with age appropriate Campi hubs. If I can ever get the rear axle off I will probably change the freewheel. possibly to a more close ratio mech like 14-24. I 'm sure we have some italian freewheels in the shop. Then again, a 5 speed Shimano hyperglide would be a worthy improvement as far as ridability is concerned.

the brake levers had Diacomp hoods on them which I removed. Any chance they are universal levers?
So here are the pics. Feel free to comment or ask for more detail.

and more pics
Any guess about the red painted fork ends and dropouts? I think I saw pics of another lygie with this detail???

Thanks everyone for the interest in the Lygie. I have some more pics










below for your examination.
I have beem deconstructing the bike since my previous post. It has been fighting me but so far I am winning. Both the seat post and stem were stuck solid . luckily for me they were both steel and liberal dousing with Kroil , some appropriate cursing,. threats with a sawsall and hammer, and finally a blood offering to the bike gods saw them both gradually rise from the dark recesses of the frame into the light of eternal bliss.

Unfortunately the handle bars are no longer with us. Every attempt to seperate them from the track stem proved futile. Even after sawing off one sideof the bars I had a tough time removing the remaining piece. They don't appear to have been anything special though, no markings st all on them, so no great loss. The track stem will be put up on E Bay by the bike Exchange . I have a variety of old stems. we'll see what fits.

The seat post is indeed 20.8 mm and is in good shape. Some variety of brooks ish saddle will replace the Specialized perch currently installed. I have cleaned up one 27" Weinman wheel so far. the Campi hub polished up nicely and the internals were like new. I dropped one of the bearings while putting it back together and discovered that they were 6/32".A few minutes pushing my floor magnet around finaly uncovered the wayward item and I was able to button everything up. The spokes were rusty so I used 0000steel wool followed by linseed oil to clean them up.

The Crank appears to be a Simplex with Lygie branding and 50-47 tooth steel chain rings . I will have to wait till Wednesday to go into the Bike Exchange and use their cotter press to remove them.
The freewheel is a Maeda 14-28 tooth. I tried to remove the locknut from the rear axle so I could remove it but the nuts on both sides were frozen. I put some kroil on them and let them sit overnight. Hopefully when I try again they will give up and let me have my way with them.

I am not sure about how to finish the bike. Lots of folks will advocate for keeping it in original paint. I tend to want to make it look like new if possible. I am likely to keep the 27" wheels as I am thinking they are original.I have lots of 700c wheels but none with age appropriate Campi hubs. If I can ever get the rear axle off I will probably change the freewheel. possibly to a more close ratio mech like 14-24. I 'm sure we have some italian freewheels in the shop. Then again, a 5 speed Shimano hyperglide would be a worthy improvement as far as ridability is concerned.

the brake levers had Diacomp hoods on them which I removed. Any chance they are universal levers?
So here are the pics. Feel free to comment or ask for more detail.

more pics.
Are the red fork ends and dropouts original? the brake levers had diacomp hoods. Anyone recognize these levers. could they be Universal?

That must be their detail style. I have white detail on the tips and dropouts

The levers look like Universals to me. Horrible, horrible levers btw.