pstake 

I picked up this frame recently and I plan to build it up from the parts bin for off-season riding.

The brand is Bernard Dangre, which built mostly value-oriented house-brand type bikes. You can Google and learn everything available, which isn't a whole lot.

The frame must be higher end. It's subtly marked Super Vitus (SV) 983 under one of the chain stays. And the frame weighs about 1,820 grams.

The paint is not great and the lugs look rough. I can't tell if the seat stays are welded or filet brazed. Can any frame builders offer insight?

Any other conclusions about the frame quality from these photos?

guy153

It looks like fillet brazing but it's conceivable it's a weld. Not pretty in either case. What does it look like on the inside of the tube?

pstake 

Andrew R Stewart 

Looks pretty typical of the high volume French bikes of the 1970s. Too bad about the damaged seat jug binder ears. I strongly susspect the seat stays are attached with brass as welds don't like any brass contaminations and the stays were attached after the lug was flowed. If you're OK with a small scratch on the fillet it will be easy to discern between brass and weld fillet with a file or knife being run over the fillet. Andy

pstake 

So I've heard. This would have been late 80s or maybe 90s. Paint makers in the 70s had subtler taste than garish purply pink, I think. SV983 was a late tubeset not released until mid 80s, too. I think high volume, value focused was the brand identity throughout for the maker. Apparently every bike was for order fulfillment. No warehousing. So here is where the value was traded for cosmetics maybe? The lugs don't even look filed to me. And the brass wasnt cleaned up before painting at all.

The seat clamp ears are a bummer but I think I can restore functionality in a cosmetic vein that the brand's production supervisor would have signed off on. The bolt was loose, its nut seized. So I'm cutting it. I suspect the ears got this way because someone went at it with force.

unterhausen

Unless it's an optical illusion, the back of that head tube looks to be dented fairly severely. I don't think it would be a problem, but something to consider.

Those seat stays were almost surely brazed. Not the best job.

The brazing on the rest of the frame is typical of European production, ç'est comme ça

We used to sell Falcon Eddy Merckx Reynolds 531/all Campagnolo bikes that looked like they were brazed without looking. They were cheap though, never had any problem selling them.

Andrew R Stewart 

"Paint makers in the 70s had subtler taste than garish purply pink" pstake

I don't know about this. Gitane and Motobecane had some pretty loud colors. Candi like purples, reds, greens and blues. The paint job on this frame shows poor coverage at all the edges of lugs and such. I forget what that's called but the flowing out and coating of edges can be a problem when temp and chemistry isn't right. Some painters do this on purpose as a "look" but I doubt very much this frame had anywhere near that level of care used when in the factory. Andy

unterhausen

I agree about the paint, I remember plenty of late '70s French bikes that had paint colors just like this. I don't mind it, but I'm not going to try to find the color code.

guy153

This makes me think it's a brazed joint. There would be some burn through with a weld and would probably be some evidence of it even after reaming.

pstake 

Note the placement of the rear brake cable guides. Think that was an "innovation" or an upside down top tube?

Geometry looked weird with wheels on. I measured the st and ht angles, and I was right. It is weird.

unterhausen

Having a seat tube that steep is strange. The placement of the brake cable stops is typical of French bikes of that time. I would say the weirdest thing about the bike is the fastback seat stays.

guy153

I always put the brake cable guides there! This may be because the bike I rode for years and therefore copied things like this off was a 1999 Peugeot. Where does everyone else put those things? It means the cable runs under the TT which is nice and out of the way.

unterhausen

The Italian bikes of this era had housing guides on top of the top tube. French bikes have almost always had cable stops under to the side. I think the French won this one, that's where everyone puts them now, and full housing is pretty rare except on mtb or gravel bikes. I can't remember the last bike I saw with cable stops or guides on the top of the top tube.

guy153

My Trek 520 had the cables on the top of the TT. The only real benefit I can see to this is if you need to carry the bike on your shoulder.