verktyg 

I'd heard that Scapin was one of the pre-Billato builders too.

Don't like being the bearer of bad news but there is a hairline crack in the shoreline of the BB.



I found a similar crack in my 1985 Raleigh 753 Team Pro right after I bought it back in 2010. I was sick....

I pulled the BB and cleaned everything inside and out then did an internal inspection to see if there were any cracks in the down tube. I took it to a frame builder friend and he said that it was probably a crack in the braze and that he could run a little bead of silver to fill it and could match the paint afterward.

He also suggested that I just ride it and keep track of the crack to see if it spreads.



I marked both ends of the crack with a Sharpie pen and I've been watching it ever since then. I don't ride that bike very often but it hasn't spread.



verktyg

Lemond1985

I recently found one of the Carnielli ones for sale, albeit with a broken rear drop out / derailleur hanger. Only $500 I had no idea Carnielli ever built Lemond frames, though this one is far from impressive-looking:

https://bakersfield.craigslist.org/b...830688185.html

Shrevvy 

I think you are right. I did not see that before. I'll have to take a closer look this weekend. This is not my most ridden bike, but I do take it out. If not too bad, I'll mark it like you have and keep an eye on it.

cycledog1

calamarichriswhat kind of stem is on that white early lugged lemond?

CV-6 

Here is my contribution to the thread. TSX frame was a Xmas gift from my loving wife. I think it falls about 1992. Used the 8 speed Campag from a Lejeune frame. I am considering rebuilding it with 9 speed Shimano so I can put the Campag back on the Lejeune. So now I am regretting selling off the 9 speed Ultegra stuff I had. Oh well, the wheels on that set were blue and they would not have worked. LOL

I do like the ride.


DSCN2584 by L Travers, on Flickr

jamesdak 

^ Sweet

My TSX Maillot Juane is one of my top rides. I like how well it responds and how it seems to carry speed well even when I get tired.

I love the color of yours and those wheels.

verktyg 

Here's a January, 1990 build sheet for maybe the last frame that Roland Della Santa made for Greg Lemond. I had a chance to buy the frame from an LA Collector back in 2009.

I'd just bought two new 1991 Billato Team Z bikes with C-Record gruppos from the same collector. It would have cost about $700 to have Joe Bell paint the Della Santa frame. He painted the others. I had too many irons in the fire so I passed.

It was part of the last order of 12 or 13 Team Z frames Della Santa built for Lemond. He took all of them but the last one. It was unpainted but had the decals and documentation.

1990 was around the time that Della Santa had a falling out with the Lemonds over building production frames and bikes in Reno, NV. The frame work eventually ended up with Billato in Italy.



verktyg

CV-6 

So you are confident mine is a Maillot Jaune?

And on another subject. Any thoughts on this?

Della Santa Team Frame?

Did CyclArt do the original paint?

jamesdak 

Never confident on these as the documentation is so hard to come by. But it seems to be built like mine, it is TSX, and red was one of the few colors it came it according to one document I have.

Painted fork and the one chromed chainstay are a match too.

Here's a bunch of detailed pics:

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/maillot_jaune

cycledog1

I've built up 16 lemond frames over the years, the latest is a DS Team Lemond Pro #010 I bought a few months ago in 59cm. great shape, it had been owned by a racer that had a couple of team bikes, the other being a Billato Team bike. he liked this one more, but didn't know why as they both seemed to have the same geometry so the tubing and lugs,other things at play that Della Santa employed had to have been the difference. this one is only part of the way done, building it with a nice clean set of 6600 ultegra w/the 6600 compact crank to modernize a bit. Looking forward to riding it soon, comparing it to my '01 Zurich I just sold recently. the other to build is the 01 Maillot Jaune that made the Zurich expendable, as I liked the red/black paint scheme better than the blue/yellow color of the Zurich.

xiaoman1 

CD1, That is very, very nice!!!!!
Ben

AJI125 

+1 on Lemond 650b. Set up a '99 BA with 650bx38mm and love the ride. Become my favored commuter. Other road bike is a 700c '05 ADH, same geometry but AC/DC vs 853. Might be some of the difference there too.

shoff535

Not all the blue on top came from Della Santa. I have a Billato from TSDI with the same color scheme. I talked to Jim (forgot his last name) in California a year or so ago, sent him some pics and he said that the Billato frames were either painted in Florida at TSDI or by him in California at for the TSDI warehouse in Camarillo/ San Marcos. I'm the third owner of this bike and the guy I got it from said that it originally came from San Diego.

I suppose it's reasonable to assume that the ones with the red on top/yellow/blue on the bottom (Billatos) are from TSDI in Florida.....unless an original Calfee shows up somewhere

shoff535

James,
these two images are great! Especially being documentation is hard to come by. Do you have any others, and is there any chance you can save (post) them as pdfs....

Thanks,
Steve

nlerner

I did end up making that transfer of parts from the BA from to the Zurich frame, using the fork from the BA (the Zurich came to me with a CF fork) and had the whole thing powdercoated in a color close to the original BA red. Haven't sourced decals yet, however, so if anyone has any leads, let me know.

AJI125 

Not having 10 posts can't post a direct link. Check out wanit <dot> co <dot> uk ; can be hard to navigate, but they have some stuff. I've either seen a list of options there for several generations/years of decals, or maybe another old-school website with different LeMond decals, but you'd need to do some checking and measuring to make sure they're the right ones given a certain model and year. I believe I saw someone from that site post on a forum about decals and offer to help, so emailing them if they have a contact thing on their site may be a good idea.

Edit: check under "Home > CYCLING DECALS > CLASSIC DECALS > USA" on Wanit, and scroll down to "LeMond" section 1/3 of the way down the page. Lots of options, but again make sure they match up to what you had.

Also VeloCals but their LeMond decal selection seems limited.

Do please post about your experience if you go down that route because I'm considering a powdercoat on my '99 BA (yellow with red decals, ST/DT on white panels)!

jamesdak 

Hi Steve,

Sadly all I have are those images I saved from others...

The closest I have on actual documentation on the early Lemonds is a 1994 catalog that I've scanned and made available.

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/1994_lemond_catalog

and this image:

shoff535

James,

Thanks very much for posting the additional info.. much appreciated!

delbiker1 

I bought this 2003 Poprad one week ago from the original owner. He upgraded the original Sora components to Ultegra 6500, except the front derailleur. Also, the wheels to Mavic Open Pro/Ultegra hubs and had almost new Gatorskin 32mm on them. The frame/fork was powder coated last year. This is my first 853 Reynolds bike and it is a pleasure to ride. Much stiffer than my early 90's Ochsner with Aelle tubing. I am tickled to have this addition to my rides.
Rehoboth Beach, DE early Saturday morning, 56 miles of enjoyment.

aceves 

Here is my step father-in-law's Billato-built Greg LeMond Le Vanquer. Don't mind the Bianchi saddle, it replaced a beat up one. Truly great machine!

aceves

manuandorra

I don't own a Greg LeMond bike for the moment but I'm currently building a world championship 1989 bike replica. I will be glad to present as soon as I will finish !