jdawginsc 

So....against my better budgeting, I thought I'd throw a first bid on this little baby and was surprised to win out. I have never ridden a F...g..gin, or Cromor. Paid $72 including shipping. A bit rusty, but might be fun to strip down and keep pretty unpainted steel.

Filter doesn't like the marquee.

thinktubes 

F.a.g.g.i.n + Cromor - both good!

Insidious C. 

That's like free plus shipping. When do expect to receive it?

3alarmer 

...Faggin was kind of famous for paint, so it would be a shame to strip it and leave it bare. All the ones I've seen have been chrome under paint.

BFisher

You know, I could swear that I just saw this brand name uncensored here yesterday or the day before and I figured they'd fixed it. Weird.

No experience with them, but I do have a Cromor-framed bike and like the way it rides.

cb400bill

Filter has been adjusted and thread title fixed.

3alarmer 

...I have, at last count, three of them here. One is full SLX, one is three main tubes Columbus, and I forget the other one. I can't tell much difference between them, except they are all painted in different flashy, pimped out colors. It's one of the Italian marques that doesn't seem to get much buzz, but the shop knew (knows ?) how to make a remarkable steel frame. If not, I would not have bought the second and third ones. You can sort of figure out the top of the line ones from the slightly "lesser" models from the frame tubing and the components, if that makes any difference to you. Which it probably won't at that price.

3alarmer 

...thx.

thinktubes 

Pic asst.

Mad Honk 

It looks a little rough but a good frame nonetheless. I would abandon the chrome plating and do a complete repaint with new decals. Cost would be about
$280 with decals and clear coating and would last for your life on the bike. Custom paint might be a bit more but you would have a great classic bike after the work. Smiles, MH

ratfink76

That would be a serious rat rod look with that Patina with all brand new parts hanging off it!

Mr. 66

Here's the Faggin I picked up a couple of months ago at Bike Works.

jamesdak 

So what would a Tretubi one be considered? Good buy? There's a nice looking one locally with a mix of Campagnolo/Dura Ace parts but I think the guy is asking 2x what it's worth, maybe. Seems like a lower end tubeset being Tretubi but I don't know much about Faggin. The others to show up locally over the years have been trashed in terms of paint and chrome. This one is quite good.

3alarmer 

...if you're already thinking it's priced at two times what it's worth to you, it's probably better to keep on walking.

jamesdak 

LOL, not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying I dont' know anything about these nor how they are valued. I think it's a beauty and if his price if honest I'd certainly consider it. I have to figure true value on the bikes I get because if it rides like a dog to me I'm not keeping it no matter how beautiful it is. Hence why I am curious as to it's true value. Been digging around but not finding much info on these myself.

non-fixie 

Well, you can now tell the seller that you know its actual value is $72, including shipping.

jamesdak 

3 Sweet rides by the look of them!

3alarmer 

....generally, they get priced around here (SF Bay Area/Sacramento) about the same as any other Italian bike that lacks the name recognition of Cinelli/Colnago/Masi/etc.

So when Masi's, Cinelli's, Colnago's were seeing CL asking prices of $1000-$1500 not so long ago, these were appearing on CL at about half of that in the $500-$600 range (in excellent condition). Because they don't seem to appear all that often, it's difficult to get comparables at any given time. A three tubes Columbus bike was, of course, originally sold for less money, and probably has a lesser component group on it (like maybe Campy Victory versus Super Record).

But at this point, something that is cosmetically excellent probably is worth more. As stated already, every one I've seen is paint over chrome...and that finishing scheme has a well deserved reputation for fragility in comparison to Imron.

The actual ride quality on any of the one's I've encountered is quite good. I doubt that there are many complaints about how well the frames ride. There was one guy here some many years back who stated unequivocally that a Faggin was the best handling bike he had ever owned. I had the impression he had owned more than a few.

But it's probably not something that will lend itself well to upgrades in terms of a lighter build to make it go faster.

Faggin website is here.

jdawginsc 

Thank you. Not sure what is going on there.

jdawginsc 

Actually, the guy asked for a bit more to cover shipping, which I thought was reasonable.

jdawginsc 

It is now at $96ish dollars! Haha

3alarmer 

...as suggested by @Madhonk, I too would de-rustify and paint the living daylights out of that frame. The chrome is beyond recall, but you could still pimp it beyond all semblance of good taste.

jdawginsc 

At the moment she is going to be the centerpiece for an art wall...hanging on pallet wall in my living room, but I fully expect to get her rolling eventually.

jdawginsc 

After a bit of finagling, and a bit of figuring out how to add money on to what I paid for shipping, transaction is complete. Looks like September 13th or so to arrive.

Sort of excited to work on this frame. Not sure what direction to go...maybe pro paint, maybe Jdawg paint...maybe clean and see what I can do with the chrome.

3alarmer 

...painting and re-stickering yourself has come a long way. I used to be reluctant to do it, but then I discovered the readily available cans of two part epoxy clear coat that you mix and use up within 24 hours in a disposable spray can that is pretty good quality. This stuff.

One can is exactly enough to cover a frame and fork with several coats to add gloss and depth, and whatever you laid down underneath it in terms of paint and decals is pretty well protected. I've been buying it over at the place that sells auto paints to all the local body shops. I have a small compressor and a couple of spray guns, but this stuff is so much easier than mixing yourself. And the industry is set up to sell enough of the paint to do a car when you buy it in larger quantities, so I just use these cans now. If I were doing four or five frames at once, I might buy and mix myself...but that's unlikely to happen.

Two examples from last year: