Saturday, November 8, 2014

For Sale: Cuevas mixte frame road bike

     I had mentioned this bike in a previous post, but here it is with adequate photos and description. This is the only mixte frame I have ever seen by Cuevas. Francesco Cuevas is originally from Spain, but came to the USA in the 1960's. He set up shop in Astoria, NY and built frames in the old world style, meaning using brass brazing over the newer silver that was available. He also built bikes by eye, no jig. A detail I personally really like. He retired back to Barcelona Spain with his wife and daughter. His son Andres continues the tradition in Ridgefield Park, NJ.  Here he is building a bike by eye. Photo courtesy of classic Rendezvous.









Cuevas8.jpg (82357 bytes)This Bike has been changed a bit from when we first got it. It originally had a lot of aftermarket alloy bits and pieces for the Campagnolo rear derailleurs, pedals, and stem, etc. I switched those components out and replaced them with standard Campagnolo Nuovo Record parts. The measurements are as follows:
  • 50 CM CTC seat tube
  • Distance between seat tube and head tube (CTC) is 56 CM.  this bike would fit some one of medium height well, 5' 6" - 5' 10".
  • Campagnolo high flange NR hubs laced to Rigida alloy (Rigid Alu) model rims (clincher).
  • Campagnolo NR rear derailleur pat. 73'
  • Campagnolo NR front derailleur.
  • Campagnolo NR brake calipers with Super Record brake levers (drilled blades)
  • Campagnolo NR 27.2 seat post.
  • Stronglight P3? headset (steel)
  • Campagnolo NR Bottom bracket.
  • Campagnolo 170mm strada crank set (no date code)
  • Campagnolo NR pedals (not pictured) included
  • Cinelli Unicanitor saddle in great shape.
  • Cinelli Campione Del Mondo (crest logo) bars 40 CM wide.
  • old logo Cinelli 1A stem.
    The bike has no decals, but seems to be original paint with the signature Cuevas seat stay caps and large windowed seat lug. Chromed head lugs and fork . Nice double arching rear brake bridges. No tubing decal, but it feels like a Columbus built frame to me (just speculation). I estimate this bike to have been built in the 1970's.  Very nice high end mixte bike. Please email at: bikeville@gmail.com for price or with any questions you may have.
Thanks!




























1 comment:

Greg Pitman said...

I worked with Francisco (yes, it was Francisco even though many spell it Francesco) in 1975 and'76. At that time he was working for Denco Distributors in their shop on 14th street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan. This predates his association with Paris Sports out in Jersey or his own shop in Queens. The job with Denco appeared to be his first job after coming to the US from Argentina and he was employed as a mechanic. The owners allowed him to stay after hours in the shop and build custom frames. Mine was built in '75 and I got to do some of the filing. More on all that here:

http://cinelli.typepad.com/welcome_to_dullsville/2005/03/a_tribute_to_fr.html

The frame you have looks very interesting. Have you checked under the bottom bracket for any numbers? In the years at 14th St. Bikes he was stamping numbers on the bb shell, mine is number 026, or the 26thg frame he built in the US. The diamond stamp on the stay caps seems like an early frame to me.

Really enjoyed seeing the great pictures. If I could afford it, I would buy it for my daughter, but there are too many other expenses right now. My wife would kill me.