purpurite

Quick poll as I was creating new artwork for decals for my restoration project. I found a weird idiosyncrasy with the badge decal on the front of the seat tube. My bike is 100% original and made in 1960 +/- a year or so. The "FREJUS TORINO" decal on the seat tube has a diagonal World Championship stripe in the background of the Frejus shield. On my bike (and a few others that I have found), the World Championship stripes are upside down, with green and yellow on the top and red and blue on the bottom of the black center stripe.

While this is a pedantic detail to most, as I am recreating the decals on this bike by hand, I was kinda shocked to find this error. So I'm setting up this little poll calling out to all owners of ANY era Frejus bike with original decals and paint. I'd like to know what your shield decal looks like on your frame—is the World Championship stripe correct (blue and red on top) or incorrect/inverted (green/yellow on top)?

Remember, this is for the SEAT TUBE DECAL and not the head tube badge.

juvela

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wonder if the "incorrect" could have been done to get around some manner of copyright - wild speculation

much like the "olympic rings" motif on the Claud Butler crest where the rings were changed to squares to get the IOC off their back


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bbbob

I have a '63 with blue/red on top.

purpurite

Like Prince did in the 90s to get around contract issues. I'm not sure if there are trademarks or copyrights on the World Championship artwork, but there are definitely user brand guides. Wonder if they were in place in the 60s, though.


Please do vote in the poll at the top of the page. Great to hear the year of your frame is close to mine. I'm wondering if it were an error or something someone did without knowing that was eventually corrected. Definitely didn't last very long, that's for sure.




So, do I correct the mistake originally made or keep it "wrong" and make it accurate to it's own history?

FrejusFlyer

Here's my seat tube decal. Bike is around 1961. There's not much left of the blue color in the top stripe. The printing job is kind of a mess, with the red color bleeding down into the black stripe.

purpurite

Interesting! The blue has faded in yours, and I have seen that a lot. In one I have seen, the blue and the green have aged into almost the same exact color, but the position of the yellow and red helped identify the position of the stripe. So far, from what I have found, the correct to incorrect ratio is like 10:1. I think there have been a lot with replacement decals, though.

Big fan of that lime green color, too. Very pretty.

FrejusFlyer

I wonder what the manufacturing process of these decals was back 60 years ago. They've been putting decals on bikes since the 1800's and some of the earlier ones look much better done than the one on my seat tube. Here's a nice one from the 30's:

Pcampeau

I’ve never realized mine doesn’t even have rings. Now there’s this for me to be envious about! I think mine is from about 1960, but I don’t know for sure.

Ex Pres 

My '72 does not have that particular ST decal, but for BOTH the headbadge AND the stripes that are on the seattube,
From the Top:
Blue,
Red,
Black,
Yellow,
Green

(And the Blue has faded in places)

purpurite

Just so no one thinks I'm nuts, here's a photo of my bike first, followed by another bike I found with the incorrect order. This one even has the wrapped stripes going green, red, black, yellow and blue, which is completely out to lunch. Musta been a Friday at the Frejus shop.

Funny thing is that it wasn't until I was about 99% finished with the decal artwork did I figure out that the seat tube art was backwards. I had built it correctly then looked at the reference photos and thought I really screwed it up.

iab

I'd go the "incorrect" route. That is what they did, your opinion won't change that. Note below the older decals has 1933 as the year they won. They DID NOT win in 1933. At some point they figured it out and changed it to the correct 1932. Please note the last pic in this post with "correct" stipes is closer to 1970 than 1960.

3alarmer 

purpurite

That's a head tube badge... do you have a photo of the similar seat tube decal? Your bike appears to have had paint work done at some point in its life, too. Do you know of the decals are original?

3alarmer 

...I know little or nothing about the paint and decals. I did not ask the original owner, from whom I bought it.

iab

Frejus moved production from Torino to Milano in about 1951. So having Torino in the artwork is also wrong.

My guess is the person who did the artwork in Torino didn't give a ****. Their catalogs know they won Worlds in 1932 (Giuseppe Martano), but their headbadges and decals thought it was 1933 up until 1948. Then, low and behold, 1951 rolls around, production in Milano, and they have the correct 1932. Still have the weird stripes.

Wildwood 

Not sure the year. Not a highend frameset.
No longer mine.


The short top tube for 59/60 frame size resulting in a long stem (15cm) just never worked for me.

masispecial

I have photos of quite a few Frejus frames, mostly taken from eBay auctions. The only one that has the green at the top of the rainbow also has a 77-thousand frame number l;ike yours.

purpurite

That's kinda awesome. 👍🏼

Gashouse

Hello,
Here is the seat tube of my early 1964 Frejus Supercorsa.
The chromovelato paint has flaked away but the decals are intact and original.

Blue, Red, Black, Yellow, Green stripes.

Pogliaghi

Late 50s Super Corsa, very very faded!

purpurite

That one is reversed! DING!