Originally Posted by unworthy1

yep ,this is too nice a frame to do any halfway measures. I'd both sand and apply the acid of your choice, including open up any of the "Spider-webs" with a pointed tool (needle) before you seal up with some touch up lac. Lucky the fashionista probably are way into pearl nail polish so wouldn't surprise me if you find some that sort of matches!
My pref is phosphoric acid, and would saturate cotton balls and tape them or saran wrap onto the rusty spots.
this paint job looks like it could be another of the "Varnish by Dosenno Carlo" jobs, even tho not labeled as such. Which may be a clue as to who was the contractor to build these for Fondriest. I don't have any reliable info but my guess is someone like Bonati, possibly whoever also built Guerciottis (?)
Also no real info as to what makes this "new" SLX, never seen that decal before, but since it's also clearly a "custom" set made for them by Columbus, might be nothing but marketing.
a fine bike, bound to ride like a champ, so enjoy!
Last thought: since there's a decal that celebrates 3 victories and the last is '95, chances are this frame is no earlier than that, maybe '96.
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Originally Posted by Steel1

Are the tubes oversized, or ovalized at any of the junctions?

Originally Posted by Andrew_G

The general difference between SL and SLX tubes is that there are additional reinforcing ridges added to SLX tubes at the bottom bracket area, to stiffen things up a bit. The rIdges in the SLX seat tube also reinforce that tube where a front derailleur braze on is attached.

The first generation of SLX tubes has reinforcing ridges on the inside of the chainstays, where the tubes enter the bottom bracket shell. The chainstay ridges run lengthwise and are not spiraled, like the reinforcements on the seat tube and down tube (like those already existing on the steering tube).

Apparently the chainstay ridges were a stress raiser, and created some frame failures. Some harder used frames of original SLX developed stress cracks on the chainstays. The reinforcing ridges on the chainstays were eliminated on the "SLX New" tubes.


I was told directly of the frame failures of original SLX chainstays by framebuilder Roland Della Santa. Here is the SLX card from Columbus, and a section of a tube used to build my 2017 DS.

Columbus SLX Tubes card, with sample of tube


For the Fondriest, I do not know whether there are any differences in their SLX tubes compared to standard production SLX.

Originally Posted by smd4

I don't think it looks terrible, although I do prefer this one:

Originally Posted by Andrew_G

One additional comment: SLX tubes were made of traditional diameters.
If the Fondriest has oversized tubes (I can't reliably tell from the photos) that might be the reason for the special Fondriest SLX decal.

See measurements above.

New SL, as I recall, changed from fluted and indented chainstays, to round-oval-round.