1991 Serotta Custom Lugged Steel Frame & Fork: 57cm - Columbus EL Ultralight Tubing - Henry James Crown - Metallic Blue

This lovely custom Serotta was custom made for one of Serotta's employees in 1991, who owned this frame until selling it to me. It's frame number is simply his last name "Chariton".  It was built with the goal of being an ultralight and fast classically styled frame, and it looks more like a 1970's race bike than a production 90's Serotta frame with their tapered tubing and S-bend stays.  It's the best of both worlds, a frame Ben Serotta or other American framebuilders like Albert Eisentraut or Bruce Gordeon wish they could have built 40 years ago.  The color is a sensual deep candy navy-ish blue, with a LOT of glitter.

The paint is It is built from one of the lightest materials of the era, Columbus EL tubeset, which was made from 7-4-7 Nivacrom steel, with standard diameter throughout. The fork blades are also Columbus El, with a lovely Henry James crown lug.  Fastback stays, Serotta pointy lugs. Seatstay bridge is an airfoil style, with a large and shapely center.  Campagnolo dropouts and fork ends.  Bottom bracket shell is lugged, and features twin braze on(?) cable guides.  And of course, a peg pump and chain catcher. 

The angles (measured with the top tube parallel to the ground) are 73 degree seat and 74 degree head  

Condition

The frame is largely in near mint condition, and has been cared for very well.  There is ZERO dents, bends, cracks, rust.  No chainslap/suck wear or other marks on driveside chainstay, original Stay-Tuff protector is even mint. Original paint overall is exceptionally clean and clear.  Under the paint decals are perfect.   As for the blemishes, they are restricted to these 6 points: 1) The seatcluster's upright point was not protected well enough in shipping, and it was slightly bent which caused it's paint to chip off. It was repaired by a longtime framebuilder and now looks just fine aside from the paint chip 2) A few paint chips around the BB shell opening from tool marks 3) big touched up chip on non-driveside chainstay, in line with the chainstay bridge 4) Small chip on crown from race removal, 5) two small chips underside of downtube between headtube and shifter braze ons 6) Chips on dropouts.   

Details

• Frame number: Chariton
• Top tube: 57cm
• Seat tube: 56cm c-t, 55cm c-c
• Headtube: 133mm
• Seat angle: 73 degree
• Head angle: 74 degree
• Rear spacing: 126mm
• Seatpost size: 27.2mm