Re: [CR]help

The only Stellas that I know of having been sold in the US were distributed from 1970 to 1974. Unusual for French bikes at the time, the two best models used Columbus tubing. Frame of the top-end bike was SL, factory paint was orange with a white head tube, 1/2 chrome fork and stays. Two things stand out, one from the old days and another from having put a bunch of braze-ons on one last year--with original paint, some genius decided that it was okay to put the serial number on a strip of paper clear-coated to the back of the seat tube--maybe there's not much bike theft in the town of their manufacture! The other thing is that the brazing filler in the bb area was silver colored. Anyway, frame features: Lugs were Prugnat with the little curl in front and long points (not type 62, don't know the model name) Fork crown looked like BCM, long campy dropouts with eyelets, chainstays too short for the seat angle and dropouts--if you have a high-end, '72 Stella you'll have to deflate the back tire to remove the wheel. Seatstay tops are capped and not plugged, and they wrap over the top. Equipment: Top bike was all Campy NR, used standard reach brakes. Second bike down had a cosmetically similar frame with the columbus "tretubi" sticker, don't know what the non-main tubes were. Used Nervar cranks, Weinmann centerpulls, generic seatpost and bars, NR derailleurs, Tipo hubs, generic tubular rims. Hope this helps, let us know if the bike is really old and interesting--maybe with "Louison" in faint hand painted letters on the top tube?

David Feldman
Vancouver, WA