I've got this old, 1958 to 1960 Frejus Tour de France frame with really...ok
paint. Way to good to redo just because of the paint, hand striping all over,
plenty of nicks and scrapes, nothing serious (depending on your definition of
serious!) but horrible chrome. Not too many worse. So, my solution (I haven't
ridden it, so I don't even know if I like it or not) was to polish the steel
where the chrome used to be and have it clear coated.
The headlugs have polished up nicely, the disappointment I ran into was found
on polishing the seat stays. I should have said earlier, this is a frame with
a red Columbus tubing sticker on it. I found what appeared to be a split in
the left seat stay about 2 inches long. 3/4" or so is filled with brass,
probably from when the drop out was brazed. So here is this 2" long split. The only
conclusion I can draw is the frame was built with seamed stays. I know
Columbus made seamed tubing, at least that is what I presumed when I found seamed
steerer tubes in my 1950s 1960s Bianchis, but I didn't expect to see it in the
frame tubes of a frame with a red sticker on it.
I admit to being a little bit of a snob when it comes to quality of tubing
(I've built a few frames) and seamed tubing, well...I don't need to say too much
to this crowd, but I'm disappointed in Frejus.
I'm going to fix it, I'm going to ride it and objectively see if I like it.
It may not matter, but it has made a subtle change in my opinion of Frejus, I'm
sure partly because they were one of my initial inspirations to build frames.
Then again, I may just get over it.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA