What have I got? All parts are zeus except the saddle (brooks pro), stem (cinelli), levers (dia compe) and bars (SR north roads). I have the orignal ambrosio drop bars but no zeus levers.Dropouts are zeus also!
Worth restoring?

I think it's worth restoring. It's almost all there.

Zeus bought the right to use Campagnolo patents for a while. The specific patents they could use were from the 60's, I think, but maybe earlier. It was the stuff BEFORE Nuovo Record. They continued to make stuff by those designs in the 70's. When NR was the shizzle, the stuff you have was still on new Zeus bikes.

I'm glad someone on this forum picked that up. I almost pulled the trigger, but didn't want another project right now.

I have one like yours. Mine is all Zeus except wheels. It is next on my restore project.

I think they're cool bikes... I have 3!

sure that's worth it, oxalic acid all the way! You even have the Zeus tubular spare holder rusted fast to the saddle rails! Notice the "A" Reynolds tubing sticker? Try to preserve that cause you won't find a replacement easily. Zeus was probably the biggest customer en mundo for that tubing.

Tell me more, I thought Zeus must have made that themselves!

I can't give you exact dates and metallurgy formulae, it all seems lost in the dusty annals of the Reynolds archives...but back pre-WW2 there was Reynolds HM tubing (High Manganese) which might have been invented in 1924 but didn't show up in bicycle frames until around 1932 (or '33). Prior to this, or maybe concurrent to this, there was "A" and "B" quality Reynolds tubing (exactly how that differed from HM I don't know, it might have been plain high-carbon steel, no manganese, apparently the "A" quality was cold-drawn seamless and double butted, don't know about the "B"). When production resumed after the War, HM had been replaced with 531 (though the formula for 531 had been developed in 1935, 4 years prior to War when tubing production became reserved for aircraft, only).
"A" quality was still being drawn after the War, but very few builders aside from Zeus (or is that Razeza?) in Spain used it. There were a handful of French bikes that used "A" tubing postwar, but few. Zeus seems to have kept "A" production alive all the way into the '70s, or maybe they bought such a huge stock it took that long to use it up!
I assume (but don't know) that it came in metric dimensions for Spain and France.
One of those questions for the Historians.

Seatpost is 26.6 according to my calipers, if that helps. Not sure yet if I'm going to refurbish it or pass it on to someone that wants to.

I'm a sucker for hard-luck cases. I'd restore that puppy!

Make it a size larger and I'll buy it. Super cool!

Yours looks a lot like the one I saw on CL the other day. Funny that all these Zeuses seem to have been so neglected.

Anyone know what the color is. It is sort of a Grey with a green touch? They must have had bad paint. Mine looks bad but the rust is only a patina and it rubs off and is not into the metal. Seat post and stem came out as if new.I saved most of the decals by heating them with a heat gun and removing them. The 531 sticker is a true decal and could not be saved. The paint peals of in long strips before sanding.
Ed

I would love to get my hands on an old Zeus, one of the tops on my list. restore it.

correction - seatpost is marked 26.2. Also it appears that the headset is not zeus, locknut top seal is marked FSA 22.2mm NORMAL SIZE SEAL.

26.8 on mine I think. Here they are, the yellow one was in worse shape than that when found. Cyclomondo has the stickers on ebay, as seen on the gray one.

Interesting. Just never saw that particular sticker.

Like this one. Sorry I can never resist the opportunity, no matter how small, to post a pic of my Zeus.

I have only seen (pics and in person) the "A" decal (a couple variations), never seen the "B" and have only read about it.
Maybe people didn't want to draw attention to something called "B" Quality and left the decals off.

You folks with Zeus frames: for posterity it would be useful to know what the OD of the seat tubes are, and the corresponding seat post that fits that tube. Might tell us more about whether they used only metric tubing and what the wall thickness of some of that tubing is.

What brake levers would be appropriate for this bike if I can't find zeus levers at a good price? I found some NOS levers on ebay but they co$t a lot plus I think "rider" levers would fit in better with the rest of the parts. What about Weinmann levers ?

The Zeus Alfa levers were virtually identical to Mafacs. Pull the blades, file off the Mafac name, polish and no one will ever know. (they did say Alfa, though) Look at my red Zeus, those are the Alfa levers. The Mafac 1/2 hoods even fit.

Weinmanns are better levers I think (Mafacs too long a reach for me)

Oh, I have a lot of Mafac levers if you need a pair.

Why would I want to file off the Mafac name, when I could just buy these no-logo Mafac levers on ebay?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Mafac-Co...item4840655886

Actually would these work? https://www.ebay.com/itm/300717038583...=p5197.c0.m619
Not exactly like Alphas but they seem similar. Or, I may take you up on your lever offer.

Heck, get those no name ones. Your bike deserves them!

Well I got around to stripping the parts off the frame (all went well except for a dropout adjusting screw, I had to hacksaw the head a bit to keep the screwdriver engaged). The previous owner apparently had the original french headset replaced with an english threaded FSA headset. The locknut came off okay, but the threads on it are marred. The adjusting nut came off okay also, and seems fine. Should I look for a french locknut and use the rest of the FSA? Or just replace the unit - Velo Orange has french headsets. I doubt I will look for a Zeus headset.

The models that were imported to the US use English threads through out the bike. If you check the pedals you will find they are English. I have not checked the BB yet but I bet it is English. My bike and another I checked had a small import sticker on it, Made in Spain
Ed