I have a NOS 25mm Atax seatpin for sale - $35 plus $14 shipping. Payment by Paypal or cash sent registered post.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
Norris Lockley wrote:
> This particular model of pillar was very popular in France during the
> 80s. It was sometimes used for certain models of alloy frames..the early
> elegant Altec (not Columbus Altec tubing!) ones coming to mind, and I
> have seen them used in frames such as Vitus Duralinox and TVT, and RBE
> carbon frames as well, although these frames did have standard means of
> clamping pillars.
>
> One frame that relied upon the internally expanding pillar was the
> twin-seat-tubed Mecacycle Turbo, which was not built with any means of
> clamping the pillar.
>
> I have sold quite a lot of these pillars over the years but never
> associated them with the ATAX brand, as they usually had Stronglight or
> Vitus stickers on them. If anyone ever needs a large supply of these
> pillars I know, where ther are several hundred of them!
>
> ATAX, Vitus TVT and Altec were all based in or around Lyon and St
> Etienne..and the three framemakers sometimes used some of the same frame
> components..or at least the same manufacturer, a small engineering
> company also based near Lyon in the suburb of Grigny. The French cycle
> industry always wanted to use French sub-contracted labour wherever
> possible, and to have it as near as possible..an earlier version of the
> current "just-in-time" type of supply.
>
> The castings for all the seat pillars and for the lugs of the RBE, TVT
> and Altec frames were also made in Grigny by Fonderie St Georges, just
> along the street from the engineers Duracycle (formerly Lyon-Raccords),
> who did all the fine turning and reaming, and just around the corner
> from the company that did the final polishing...making the products well
> and truly French. Vitus used the casting facilities of CLB to
> manufacture their lugs.
>
> I recall that the ATAX/Stronglight/Vitus pillars were made in a variety
> of diameters to fit Reynolds (27.2mm), Vitus tubes (26.6mm) and the
> alloy frames at 25.0mm..
>
> As the velo-orange website doesn't give any details of the diameters
> available from their stock, I would be grateful if Chris could post the
> info on the List.
>
> Norris Lockley.."It's Raining Again"..Settle Uk