I bought a frame and fork a few years ago, and put it in work on later pile in the back of the shop. It has now surfaced and I am trying to figure out what it is and If I can identify the maker. Markings indicate Paris- Sport with a single letter F on the headbadge. I'm hoping someone here will recognize this model and possibly the maker as it has some interesting characteristics. here are the pics:

It is a cute small frame, 44cm center to center, with a really nice pink paint. Probably like the few Tomasso's we sold in the early 80's.

Only markings are the down tube decals, and nothing special on the BB, just like an outline of a stick man. no serial number that I can easily see.

I'm not recognizing this headbadge. Single foil circle with the F and the USA chevron.

A closer look at the color and the fact that the bridge has not been drilled.

Nothing special rear drop outs almost like they were stamped. Front are not marked in any way.
Smiles, MH

A couple of interesting features:

Bottom bracket markings.

looks lie the top and bottom lugs were split and welded back together to surround both top and down tube.
Smiles, MH

I have a Paris Sport on my workstand right now. I think it's a little older than yours, and it looks more like this:

https://classicrendezvous.com/countr...a/paris-sport/

The head tube decal is more intricate on the one I'm tuning and includes "Cycles Victor" and "Made in France."

When I visited the shop in the mid 70's, Dave Moulton was the builder with a young women assisting as his lug filer (that eventually became his wife) and Mike Fraysse was the painter. They had a number of builders through the years.

Dave, that is nicer than I thought based on your description…that’s a heckuva nice frame. The rear stay-drops joint is very nice.

Maybe Cuevas and Limongi are in play!

I'll be happy to roll with the Dave Moulton suggestion that Doug proposes. The split head tube lugs look like it was something he would do to accommodate a very small young lady, while not creating a G. Terry type design. With the paint being still pretty nice I think it probably was a Mike Fraysse job. It is a pretty nice bike even with the modifications to help a petite young lady be able to ride. Thanks, MH

looks like the BB shell on this track frame may be a Cinelli I.C. (CCM model) shell that had the "panel" customised with the contractor's logo, something Cinelli did for many brands.
I don't recognise what might be a stylised figure "crossing the finish line" (but sideways on this shell)
Anybody know this logo?

I wonder if the F is for Fraysse?

"F" is for Fun Frame.

What the heck is it for? Track bike? Coaster brake bike? Am I missing accommodations for brakes and gears?

Have fun with the project.

https://classicrendezvous.com/countr...a/paris-sport/

Well this headbadge sighting certainly follows the idea Mike was involved with this bike. The very short head tube would require trimming of the badge to fit, and the foil on the bike does look like it had been trimmed to fit.

This level of sleuthing is awesome!

Probably just a coincidence, but one of the suppliers to Paris Sport

Could be purely coincidence, yet there IS a passing resemblance to the BB shell "logo"


appears to be some numbers (maybe 4 digits) below the 'figure', can Mad Honk look again and tell what they are (if they are actually there at all)?

3A5?

More like SA6 or SAG and the rest is the bubble design under the figure. That was with carpenters pencil and white paper. Even with a loupe it still shows up to my eye as just those three letters. Smiles, MH

The cast BB shell was a stock piece offered by Saba in the UK. Can't remember if it was manufactured in the UK or (much more likely) was imported from Italy. I don't think Cinelli was involved at all.

The Paris Sport shop had a framebuilding shop way in the back in the basement. The building was originally a bowling alley and it was quite long and large for a US shop at the time.

The Fraysse's had a number of different builders in the late 60's / 70's. Alot of them would come to the US and stay for a while, and then go home and return a few years down the road. Sort of "have torch, will travel" kind of scenario.
There was Pepe Limongi, Ramon Orero (from Argentina, I believe), Cuevas, and later on Dave Moulton. I thought Dave Moulton arrived more like 1978, but it was a long time ago. There were no doubt some others who did framework there.

The file marks on the rear dropouts makes me highly doubtful that this was built by Dave Moulton or Cuevas. The head tube lug treatment is pretty remarkably nice and creative for that era. I would guess this a Limongi or Orero, strongly leaning towards Limongi.
Mike Fraysse once told me he thought Limongi was the most talented of the lot, but, umm, if you ever met Mike or his dad, Vic, you sort of needed a pretty strong fliter to sort out some (most) of what they said from reality. And that is an understatement, my friends.

If this BB shell is a "Saba" product, maybe the 3 letters cast in the shell are "SAB"?
FWIW many of the pieces that were offered for sale by both Cinelli and Gipiemme (and later Columbus) were not directly made by any of those Brands themselves.
They had other forging, casting and machining contractors make items which were then branded and entered their catalogs and the market (for "the trade", and for retail).

No, what it says is "SABA"



They also made a nice lightweight fork crown.



I have heard they were an English company, can anyone confirm or refute? But the cast parts were made in Italy by Microfusione

We just had a Fraysse come through the shop. It was hanging in another LBS here in the city for maybe 5 years. Track bike with a black to pea soup green fade. Reading this about the possible provenance is awesome.
Phil

Yes, Saba was a distributor of frame materials in the UK. I visited them in the late 70/s and bought that same fork crown shown in this picture. I don't know when they went out of business.

I read on Retrobike that a Saba employee or principal formed Ceeway from the ashes of Saba. I forget the details or who said it, so don't quote me as a source, not reliable info!

The few Limongi frames I could find on the interwebs with clear-ish images showed he was a clever and quirky artisan.

Most of his work I could see showed fish lips stay ends, diamond angled tops of stays (not necessarily all I saw…I saw flat blades as well).

There is an exquisite chrome mixte at CR.

A saw a few Cuevas track bikes that have stays similar to Mad Honk’s frame above.

PS: take my observations with a grain of salt…I am not the best of bike sleuths!

jdawginsc ,
You may be onto something with the Cuevas idea. In some quick digging around, I found that the Cuevas family and the Fraysse family had worker together for two generations. If this was built in the Fraysse workshop, the family ties may be pretty good for the builder to actually be Cuevas. That Francisco was still doing some work in the 70's could mean this is one of his builds. Smiles, MH

coped this from the Ceeway catalog:
"...Ceeway...was established in 1983, by Norman Evans, a previous director of the UK marketing company SABA."
and this screenshot is one of the IC (cast) BB shells in that catalog that appears to be "a close match" to examples shown


note this is said to be BSC dims and threading only and "no guides" but does have that oval slot in the ST socket (maybe in the DT socket as well) which I notice on many from the "other well-known Italian brands" shells

All Shells are for BSA (English) thread 68mm Width unless otherwise indicated.