Originally Posted by
sd5782
Thanks much for the frame info link. I did have a couple questions. Why no oval on the seat post lug? I have seen pics of others without the oval on Classic Rendezvous though. Also, this bike seemingly is from 1964, so was the steel crank and sprocket a step down at the time and maybe being phased out? That crank seems more common on older ones.
....in 1964, the good bikes like this one were built up in various ways by owner preference. If you look on that Condorino site, there's an article on NOS mystery Legnano's that explains some of what was going on. And a lot of people who were serious about going fast did not yet trust cotterless cranks. Your bike appears to have a half step racing setup as far as gearing goes, so I guess whoever was using it was a gofast guy.
The seatpost lugs varied over the years, and also with both brand and frame tubing. I think they were more common on Legnano's, but I have only seen two of each (2 Legnano and 2 Frejus) in person. So I'm not exactly the expert here on these. @
juvela probably can tell you some more, and the guy with the condorino site and collection has a BF account and sometimes appears magically.
I can't exactly tell, but it's possible your value estmate might be a little less in the current market and depending on your paint issues. There are not that many around for sale at any given time, so establishing a cash value is kind of iffy. They ride very nicely for a bicycle of that time period, and if you are a fan of that long, lean, open Italian frame with slacker angles than was in vogue from the late 70's onward, they're fun to ride. Yours' looks like it wold only be fun to ride on a flat course, but there are some creative ways to extend the gearing range. I just ride mine pretty much along the river here, and any hills are short enough that I can stand up in the pedals and push on through.
Condorino also has at least one or two entries on Frejus bikes, because Bozzi.