The Faggin Retro-Modern Road Bike, 47cm

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Finding a road bike for someone who is 5' or under is not necessarily a simple task.  The task is even further complicated when one doesn't really want to plop down $600 or whatever on one of the nice,new 24" wheel junior road bikes made by Trek, Felt and whoever else.   I was delighted when a 47cm classic, lugged steel Faggin frame showed up on the local Craigslist.  Well, to be fair, it was a frame, fork, seat post, brakes and bottom bracket.  Since the bottom bracket is Italian threaded, having a nice one there to simply rebuild was handy.  The fork had been replaced due to a mishap with the previous owner.  So, the fork it came with (which is the one on it now) is a little goofy since it's cut long for the headset.  It's also made for 27" wheels, so I figure for now I will leave it as it is and wait to find a nice chrome 700c fork that I can cut to fit properly if need be.  The fork does not accomodate recessed brake mounting nuts.   When I brought the bike home, I stuck the wheels it was going to use on it and it looked like this:

fagginframe.jpg After patiently waiting its turn in the project queue, the Faggin re-emerged looking like this:
driveside1.jpgI had a 1993 Specialized Allez with a full RSX100 group to donate the wheelset and running gear.  The appropriately narrow handlebar came from a 1976 Fuji (which was a 58cm bike, oddly enough).  The seat was my son's selection and, obviously I suppose, the fit is still "just barely" there and thus the low seatpost.  Here are some detail shots of the frame.  This is a really beautifully constructed frame and it is fully chromed beneath the paint.  I do not know what kind of steel tubing it has, but there is no doubting the quality.

bottom_bracket_Faggin.jpg  seat_lugs_faggin.jpg   rear_triangle.jpg   headset_stack_brake_faggin.jpg
non_driveside2_faggin.jpg