Anyone ever heard of Arctic?
 

My old ultegra 6500 gruppo needs a frame and I was thinking about picking up this Arctic. I've never heard of the brand. The seller claims it is a French made bicycle from the late 70's or early 80's. I'm going to ask the seller about spacing, etc. but can anyone tell me something more about this brand?

I had an early 70s one that was very similar to your picture. Had Durifort tubes, Campy dropouts, nice thinned lugs, some sloppy joints, but overall a nice frame. Made by Stella in France. If mine had been 2 cm larger, I would have kept it.

I had one that very same paint scheme and color. Shoot, I havent even seen one mentioned on the net anywhere but once other than yours at this moment.

It had a strange hard plastic seat. Mine was said to be french made, too. Mine had a cottered crank set, center pull brakes, cant remember the derailleur group. It was a nice bike. Sold mine back in '82 after owning it for a year or so. Supposedly a '77 or '78.

I think a Viking needs an Artic :D

Yup, I think I'm going to pull the trigger on this one.

Thanks for the help. I couldn't find anything on Arctic either. Seems like an oddball.

[edit] price is $60 + shipping for frame, headset and seatpost. seems like a reasonable deal. just have to work around the french bb.

I just went and looked at these: http://raleigh.craigslist.org/bik/341139213.html

both bikes were identical except the yellow one had north road bars and a cushier seat. The red one had the hard plastic saddle. Both appeared to be in good shape except the wheels, they were a little rusty and out of true. 5 speed, simplex derailleur. The feature I liked best was the oversized wingnuts used for wheel lugnuts, I wanted to offer for just those alone.