"Acciaio al Carbonio 0.10" Chesini steel help need

lae

Retro Guru
Hi all

I'm looking at a nice Chesini frame - the material is listed as "Acciaio al carbonio 0.10" which translates to carbon steel 0.10. Am I right in thinking that this is some sort of plain old high-tensile steel, rather than a good quality chromoly/chromium-manganese? The seatpost is 26.8.

The tubing sticker is a Chesini one, not a Columbus one, if that helps.

Here it is:
http://www.lfgss.com/thread86215.html

If it's good steel then I'd be willing to pay for it (Italian bikes in this size are rare... even rarer with clearance for mudguards), but if it's gaspipe then obviously not...
 
The quality of the lugs, bridges, stays and panto work point to a quality frame.........you don't spend that amount of time and energy on cheap steel :D


Shaun
 
Yeah, it does seem well-made. The 26.8 seatpost and clamp-on front derailleur point to relatively thin tubing.

That said, google reveals that the Gran Premio was at the bottom of the Chesini range... and even their town bikes had panto'd seatstay tops and clamp-on front derailleurs.

I'm going to see it at some point this weekend - I'll give it the fingernail test and see what I think.
 
Heh, I was just about to post that - Italian bikes are always expensive, it seems.

Anyway. It doesn't seem to be quite the same frame, although from the looks of it, it does have the same tubing sticker.

I found a catalogue for the bike and the tubing is 1mm thick plain-gauge carbon steel, and it has pressed lugs. It was a lower-end model with pretty cheap parts (definitely not as nice as the one you posted!)

If I'm honest, the tubing puts me off. I know it's Italian, but I've already got two frames in my size that are made from lighter/springier tubing (one is 531 main tubes, the other is full 531c) and were much cheaper; I'd rather build one of those up.
 
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