This bike is kind of an enigma. It is obvious an early 1960s Frejus track bike, but it is not as tight of a geometry as other Italian track bikes of the time. It has longer chainstays, and more relaxed angles. It reminds me of a British path bicycles, a single speed bike that would be used on club rides. The current owner was told that maybe it was used on road rides, rather than soley in the velodrome. I never heard of Italian bike builders doing this, new to me. I know of French single speed bikes, intended for training and club riding. any help?
addendum- here is a email I received from a reader who owned a very similar bicycle-
"Regarding that Frejus track/path bike: I had one just like
it, same equipment except that it had inch pitch. Bought it
used in 1967 from Oscar Wastyn's shop in Chicago for $125.
My understanding was that it was about 4 years old at the
time, and it had suffered some damage in a crash which Oscar
corrected, then it was repainted in metallic red but still had the chrome fork. Oscar called it a path racer, and I
used it for lots of riding around flat Chicago. In San Diego I trained with it at the velodrome and used it for
short time trials, but when I moved to my present very hilly
area, I could not use it and sold it to Mike Kone when we
were at a CyclArt Concours d'Elegance. Oh, I used it with
a Weinmann short reach caliper on the front, but had to
file down the thread a bit on the posts to allow the pads
to contact the rim properly. The one you photographed is
made of Reynolds tubing, but mine was Columbus with .9 to
.6 mm butted tubs. It was a great bike!!
Preston"
