nickynick

Hey everyone, I am looking for your knowledge here.
I found this bike. It has shimano 600 tricolor group and a columbus frame, it actually rides quite nice. But I wonder about these Flandria stickers. I now that flandria stopped making bikes somewhere in the early 80's, and this frame is clearly from the late 80's-90's. So what do you think, is it just someone who bought sticker from ebay, or was there actually replica of flandria bikes that any of you know of ?
Because this is definately a good frame. I have another columbus aelle bike, and this one rides better and is lighter. Do you have any advice on trying to identify the tubings ?
Thanks for the insight !

unworthy1

I think you may be correct that it's not a "genuine" Flandria, but then who would bother to counterfeit that marque?
Could be that some Benelux shop resurrected the brand to use on their "house brand" frames, and maybe those frames were made locally or could have been imported (like from Italy?) both common practices.

would help to see more details of the frame, especially close-ups of the lugs, ends, bridges, BB shell bottom...but looks like it has internal brake routing in the TT, plus a FD tab.

Useful info: BB threading (check the BB unit for width and size marking) plus check the bottom inside base of the steerer for "rifling" and report the size of the seatpost (27.2, 26.8, etc.)

nickynick

It is odd indeed that some random guy would counterfait a brand, but maybe he just found it cool ? Because I beleave the paint is not original. So someone painted it, and further put these flandria stickers.

Regarding the frame, you can read columbus on the rear ends (faintly through the paint) and on the fork ends. The BB threading is 1.370"x24TPI (campa). I don't have a precise tool to measure the seatpost size, but it is larger than another aelle frame (from changing the seatpost from one to the other), so I'd hard guess 27.0 or .2. Haven't checked the steerer yet, I'll give it a look later today.
Thanks for the reply anyway !

here are some more detailed pictures:

T-Mar

It's almost certainly a repaint based on the overspray on the dropout adjuster screws. That only increases the probability of the Flandria decals being incorrect. Given the investment cast seat lug and bridges, in conjunction with the top tube cable routing and other fittings, it likely is better than Aelle. However, given the lack of embossing and era, it's likely a private label brand or no better than Cromor. I hope that the absence of the seat lug cinch bolt is not indicative of a seized post.

unworthy1

Yes, agreeing with all T-Mar mentions plus one detail is many of the
"housebrand" Benelux frames we see have those "number plate hanger braze-ons" which are also intended to make it extra-cool (you just MIGHT be a pro racer)!
The age when Columbus branded frames ends were in use plus the BB threading (ISO/Brit) makes this as you suspected: likely late 1980s or 1990s.
I have no idea if this is one but LOTS we see are products of Martelly.

nickynick

Allright thanks for your feedback ! It confirms what I thought.
Furthermore, the stickers are not really good quality, they tear quite easely. I might end up taking them off
Still a nice bike though, I'll see what I can do with it. Took it out fr 20k, rides very nice.
I just took it off because it had to be changed
Indeed it ticked my eye ! None of the classical steel frames I had from known brands had one.

ollo_ollo

Possibly a Titan frame. I have 2 with that same cut-off square seat stay tip. A treatment I have only seen on some, but not all, of those Titan frame sets sold on e-Bay back in 2005-2006. They were advertised as made in Italy for the Swiss Titan company. Some had flamboyant paint schemes by Italian painter, Dossena Carlo, but I did not see a number plate hanger on any Titan frames. I'll try to add a couple of pics which show the seat stay ends on mine. Don edit: Subject area is dark blue on one bike and black on the other. Even with flash, hard to photograph.

zandoval 

Nice Bike!!! Maybe ya just need to change a few things...

ollo_ollo

The blue bike above has Columbus dropouts and a Cromor decal, other has an SLX decal but I couldn't see any rifling inside the seat tube. Its fork steerer tube does have internal rifling.

kroozer 

The Flandria pro team was quite famous in the 70's, and maybe earlier and later as well. But you almost never see a high-end Flandria bike, so it's understandable that somebody would want to recreate one. Maybe the old team bikes were built by someone else anyway.

non-fixie 

This. I've read stories about pro riders smuggling their own frames into the Flandria factory at night to have them painted in the colors of their "red brigade". Apparently the Flandria management was initially unaware of this, and when they discovered that Freddy Maertens' Flandria was actually a Gios, they had his frame sawn into pieces. Or so one of the stories goes.

BTW, Belgium has always been a leading bicycle racing nation, and there have been (and still are) quite a few excellent frame builders. Many of them operated from small shops and are unknown to most of us, as their frames were painted in the colors of their patrons, or their patrons' team sponsors. Who weren't about to disclose that their bike was built by someone else than themselves or their bike sponsor.

The OP's bike looks to be of very good quality, and the number tab is no surprise, as it was probably built to be raced.

nickynick

Cool story !

I'll keep you updated if I find out more about the frame. But in the mean time, it's a keeper, I'm growing to like it.

Now the tricky question. Should I leave the Flandria stickers ? What would you do ? Kind of aching to pull them off, I think it would look great in uniform dark red.