ID Assistance-- Pre 1982 Stella
 

Good morning Mr. Phelps:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it,
is to help me identify this Stella bicycle, in
my possession since 1982 or thereabouts.

It was rescued from a bicycle graveyard in
Merced, California in that year. I'm sure
the guy I got it from had either pneumonia
or TB, and was spending the winter there
in a small travel trailer next to the huge
mound of scrapped bikes and parts. I
suspect he did not long survive that winter,
but I recall feeling powerless to help.

I digress. This was my first taste of the
feeling and possibilities of a higher quality
road bicycle, having until then topped out
at the steel pipe Peugeot level. It was--
how can I say this-- a revelation. This
bike was one of the few bright spots in
an otherwise pretty dismal three years
working in the Merced Social Security office,
trying really hard not to be the guy who
showed up one day and sprayed the room
with automatic weapons fire.

So I am as a result, possibly unrealistically
attached to "Old Paint" (so named for reasons
obvious in the accompanying photos.)

I am nonetheless prepared to be told, once
again, that this is a low or medium quality
product from the period, hung with crappy
Simplex delrin derailleurs and a typically
French pain in the posterior. Do not hold back.
It is the truth that sets us free.

As usual, should you choose to accept this
assignment, there may be other posters who
state things like "you wouldn't know a Stella
from a hole in the ground," or "....and your
mother dresses you funny." It will not be me.
I am grateful for any and all information and/
or assistance in this matter.

Psssshhhhsshhhhsshh,
Mike Larmer

That Stronglight 49D crank puts it at least a couple notches above the bottom of the barrel - more like an old Motobecane Grand Touring than a Mirage/Peugeot AO8/Gitane Grand Sport. Is there a tubing decal anywhere? That might further elevate its status. Always had a soft spot for Stellas (and other French bikes in general). Good thing that one's too small for me...

SP
Bend, OR

It's very bad form to post pictures of the non-drive side.

I've also got a Stella, and for all the hours I've spent scouring the internet for information about it, I've come up with very little! There's just not much information out there about this brand... in fact, I've never even encountered a complete list of the models Stella offered. The SX-6 was Stella's entry-level bicycle... but it doesn't look to me like you've got one of those, as your components and paint are too nice. On the other hand, all the upper-level Stellas I've seen have had more ornate, long-point lugs, which you don't have...

I think bobbycorno's got it right... I'd say you've got Stella's equivalent to the Motobecane Grand Touring.

Mea culpa. Of course form and decorum have never been
my strong suits. Certainly though, this is one of the things
that serves as the glue of civilization -- lifts us above the
level of the animal and allows for intelligent discourse.

I assume this has something to do with the drive side
components assisting in identification, rather than a
purely aesthetic convention. So informed, I shall try
to follow the convention in the future.

FWIW, this came to me pretty much as a frame, fork,
and crank. I seem to recall replacing the Simplex rear
derailleur almost immediately with a Suntour GT that
worked so much more smoothly that I have never missed
the original. Still has the original Simplex front, which
works well.

Until the recent acquisition of a Davidson custom bicycle
from the late 70's, i have never ridden anything that
climbs as well as this Stella. Some fortuitous combination
of wheelbase and geometry that seems to come alive when
you come up out of the saddle.

I'm reasonably certain that it's made of butted tubing, because
of frame weight, the sounds returned from tapping the tubes
at various spots, and the generally responsive feel of the ride.
No tubing stickers are present that I can find.

Thanks for your replies.

Respectfully,
Mike Larmer

Check out the Stella page at Classic Rendezvous.