jamesdak
Old School Hero
So, this winter I scored a "used" but new Ultegra 8000 groupset at a great price and went looking for a NOS frame to put it on. I came upon this one at an Italian site and after some negotiating I pulled the trigger. Hard to find info on it but I did find out it uses a rare 24.3 seatpost which the seller didn't have. But after taking my offer the seller then checked around and found another dealer with the seatpost. So, double score.
I really can't find much reference to these. I did find some catalog info from the mid 90's and the 1997 mentions yellow being an option. I've also seen 3 different versions on line of how the seat tube is done up top. Forward slot like mine, rear slot, and then rear slot with a typical binder seatpost setup.
There are no decals on this, it's all paint. No headbadge either which is cool but seems a bit strange. I dig the clean look of the stronglight headset, it's got roller bearings inside. I just don't know if they are good or not. The bike came with the original manual and the wrench for this headset. The rear is really tight on this. Dropped seatstays and short chainstays. There's only about 4mm of clearance right now between the Conti 4000s II 700 x 25 tires and the seattube.
The welding isn't the prettiest I've seen but hopefully it's strong. It appears to have some glues components to it like the front fork blades and the "removable" rear dropouts. There's also a replaceable RD hanger which to me is a plus on an aluminum frame. Speaking of that, it's a different than normal 5086 alloy. If you look closely you also see how the main tubes are bi-oriented for strength and ride quality I guess. I also like the cable braze-ons mounted to the headtube, nice touch. Built up like in the pics it's weighing a decent 19 lbs 7 ozs. The wheels are Reynold's carbon fiber 46's with DT Swiss 180 hubs. My first deeper wheels and only C.F. clinchers.
Now for some pics:
I really can't find much reference to these. I did find some catalog info from the mid 90's and the 1997 mentions yellow being an option. I've also seen 3 different versions on line of how the seat tube is done up top. Forward slot like mine, rear slot, and then rear slot with a typical binder seatpost setup.
There are no decals on this, it's all paint. No headbadge either which is cool but seems a bit strange. I dig the clean look of the stronglight headset, it's got roller bearings inside. I just don't know if they are good or not. The bike came with the original manual and the wrench for this headset. The rear is really tight on this. Dropped seatstays and short chainstays. There's only about 4mm of clearance right now between the Conti 4000s II 700 x 25 tires and the seattube.
The welding isn't the prettiest I've seen but hopefully it's strong. It appears to have some glues components to it like the front fork blades and the "removable" rear dropouts. There's also a replaceable RD hanger which to me is a plus on an aluminum frame. Speaking of that, it's a different than normal 5086 alloy. If you look closely you also see how the main tubes are bi-oriented for strength and ride quality I guess. I also like the cable braze-ons mounted to the headtube, nice touch. Built up like in the pics it's weighing a decent 19 lbs 7 ozs. The wheels are Reynold's carbon fiber 46's with DT Swiss 180 hubs. My first deeper wheels and only C.F. clinchers.
Now for some pics:
