verktyg 

DT Lugs? Please explain what you are referring to?

Lugs are the thin steel sleeves that the 3 main tubes are brazed into on a lugged frame bike.




On inexpensive bikes like your Stella, lugless construction was a cost savings method of assembling a frame.

I saw very few lugless French bike boom models. I don't recall ever seeing a frame failure on one of them but it was common on CHEAP American made brazed or welded lugless department store bikes.

You did a nice job of fixing it up. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

BTW, my snobbish attitude towards cheap bikes comes from working on some of them during the bike boom days of the early 70's.

Those bikes usually had cheap components that barely worked when new, very cheap cables and housing that all needed replacement plus frequently they were poorly assembled at the factory in Europe.

The amount of time spent repairing and sometimes even reassembling those bikes to get them to work properly amounted to more labor costs than the bikes were worth and in the end, the owner still had a cheap bike!

We wouldn't let department store bikes into our shop for all of the above reasons plus the liability factor of having worked on a bike that was unsafe before it left the factory! KID KILLERS!

verktyg

Cycle Tourist

It was a slip of the tongue. I meant bosses not lugs. This bike came with DT bosses for a nice set of levers. Granted the Simplex derailleurs were a joke. The rear ones actually work but I had better ones in the junk box so why not. Anyway the bike with the 105 crank is fairly light and doesn't handle like a gas pipe special. The nice paint on the old girl plus the bosses and the alloy wheels someone swapped out gave me the incentive to give up the $25. Most of the "new" parts were things I had taken off other projects except for the barends. I didn't see too many shift bosses on cheap bikes and everything is english threaded!! I was really surprised. The BB shell was 7.0 not 6.8 so I'm sure it's really a Stella but it doesn't handle like a cheapie. Maybe the French made better cheapies than we did. I got about $115 in it which is probably too much but it actually rides really nice and I probably won't lose money so WTH.🤓

Cycle Tourist

Sold the nice old girl to a young fella looking to commute to work from his girlfriend's house. The perfect job for a french bike! He fell in love with Stella at first sight. I made $24.17 not including any labor from two rebuilds (2 weeks). Not much money but I felt better about finding a home for this one than any previous bike. I have no worries that the bikes I have for sale will easily find a home eventually but Sella appealed to a very limited group of people. With a little upgrading Stella retained her french personality but became a little more capable of moving people around.

Packerbacker

I just joined Bike Forums so I could thank you all for sharing your stories and pictures of Stella bikes. I purchased one in 1978 as part of a quest to ride a bike across the country. I had no idea what a Stella was but the used one I bought off an add stuck to a bulletin board in a shop in Madison WI became my constant companion for roughly 9,000 miles of touring back and forth across the country. (I even wrote a book about those trips ..."I Brake For Strangers") I was a novice and the French threading gave me fits at first but I loved that bike and the adventures it helped me through. Had to sell it a few years later and regret it to this day. I would love to add one to my collection but they are hard to find. I don't even still have a good picture of it but it was a deep blue color that when the sun shined on it just right it turned more of a purple.....like it was blushing....

3alarmer 

...they do show up here and there. Check this other thread for many more examples and pictures of them.

Packerbacker

Was up in Wisconsin this past week and decided to drop in on Budget Bicycle Shop in Madison. Evan had a couple Stellas. I went with this one which is the right size and roughly the same year of the one I rode across country and back in 1978-79. It's not the same beautiful blue I rode back then and obviously some components have been switched out like the brakes, HB tape for that God awful foam, and it needs brake covers and the always plentiful French threaded pedals. I'm tempted to repaint and try to upgrade some of these parts. Anyone have any suggestions on where I could purchase a new set of Stella stickers?? I'd post pictures but I'm a newbie so it wont allow me to??

Maxey

You can load your pictures onto your personal album here on the site, and someone will post them for you. I've never assisted someone like that before so I will let some of the more experienced members do it for you. Looking forward to seeing your bike!

3alarmer 

...I would use these on E-bay, and just not use the Poketby one. Same lettering as on both the Stella bikes I've had. and the headbadge one is correct as well.
I guess you could ask him, to see whether he makes and sells any other Stella sets, but it's an uncommon marque, so a lot of the bike sticker guys don't make them.

3alarmer 

...it's a pretty easy modification to tap out the crank arms to take standard 9/16 pedals. You can get some much better modern pedals now.

Packerbacker

Thanks. I will check that site out. I have now removed all components from my new/old Stella and given the frame a good cleaning. It's just a simple stamped dropout frame but so was the one I rode so many years ago! Found what might be a serial number stamped on the left rear dropout. (K366). Any idea if this might give me a production year??