For Sale: Gazelle Piet de Wit frameset Reynolds 653 Stainless steel

SOLD!

I'm selling this amazing Gazelle Piet de Wit reynolds 653 tubing and Noblex stainless steel forks. It's an unique frame, and it's in a great condition.

Size: 60 cm c-t
Top tube: 57,5 cm c-c
Rear width: 130 mm.

You can find all pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/79082624@N08/albums/72157670802731224

Most people know the Champion Mondial line of Gazelle, but maybe have never heard of Piet de Wit. Piet de Wit had a bicycle store in the Netherlands where he sold Gazelle road bikes. Therefore Gazelle had put their name on the frame instead of Champion Mondial. So basically it's a Champion Mondial.

The frame has a 653 triangle and stainless steel stays and forks. Very unique and lovely looking. Also very sustainable, because there is no rust forming and scratches can be easily polished out. The frame has a very deep purple colour. It's not ordinairy purple metallic but a kind of special paint with a blue gloss as you can see in the pictures. The lugs of the frame are a real eyecatcher, because of the little triangles on the lugs. Combined with the straight fork that Gazelle used for it's later models it makes a lovely and unique racing bike.

The frameset is in a good condition. The lacquer has scratches and some spots. All are pictured in the picture album. On a few areas there is some rust underneath the lacquer, you can see som bubbling going on. It's not clearly visible. Apart from that, the lacquer is in a good condition and yet very shiny.
The frame has a very tiny dent on the rear stay. I've made a picture of it in the picture album. The dent is so small that it's hard to tell which picture it is. The Stainless steel forks and stays are in a great condition.

The frame comes with a headset and a shimano bottom bracket. The headset could use some grease, the bottom bracket runs very smooth.

I would like Sold! posted excluding paypal fee. Dibs then PM.
If you have any questions feel free to ask me anything.

Really nice!

Can someone please explain what a 653 frameset is? So far a bit of research told me it was a bike with 531 main triangle and 753 stays, which wouldn't be the case if the stays on this are stainless steel?!

Interested as I have a 653 bike frame.

Great looking frame with lovely details, glws

Interested if you can post to the UK

dutch pron! GLWS

I can post to the UK, that's no problem

Ill take it pending further info. Can u pm me with contact details? Thanks. Trying to work out how to pm you ☺

edited

Wow, nice!

I've also looked up on the internet and found out 653 had the same thicknes in the butted sections as the 753 tubing. So I think it's about the same weight. So it's not that 753 tubing was used within the 653 tubing, it are two diffrent kinds. Reynolds 753 was a heat threated tubing, but as far I know 653 was not. So there is a diffrence.

what a beauty! I'd bloody love one of these in 56cm... whoever buys please start a CP thread
Cheers,
Matt

Thanks! I also own myselve a Gazelle exception 731 OS with stainless forks, in a 55 cm. Lovely bikes.

Ah ok thanks!

Really lovely frame.. sorely tempted, damn my empty bank account!

2nd dibs

3rd.

EDIT - Stays not chromed (as I assumed) genuinely Stainless steel

Reynolds say:

"531 Main tubes drawn thinner than 531C; 725 rear stays (replaced 531P)"

Oh so it's only the stays that are lighter? Did not know that

Not exactly.

REYNOLDS 501 2025
REYNOLDS 531C 1800
REYNOLDS 531P 1700
REYNOLDS 531ST 1935
REYNOLDS 653 1700
REYNOLDS 753 1650

I do not agree that the forks and stays are chromed.
Since I have the bike myselve I can tell it's really stainless. I also polished spots out the stays and forks, that I coulnd't polish out Chrome. It also says it's stainless in the Gazelle brochure:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B32pci5b781hY2JiZDNkMDMtNDBjNy00MGIyLTgwYWEtZjM3YTQ2MWI3YWEz/edit

The brochure says: RVS, which is "Roest Vrij Staal", which translated to english is Stainless steel.
And second I also don't agree with the identical spec of 531 tubing. If it was only 531 tubing for the triangle for a 653 tubing, why would Gazelle put a Reynolds 653 sticker on it, when it has diffrent stays? Scroll down in this thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/774565-how-much-flex-reynolds-653-forks.html to the constructors guide, you can see the 653 is very similar to 753 in gauge thickness. And not similar to 531.

The 653 tubes have the same metallurgy as 531 but are thinner (so lighter)

I don't know of anyone making stainless steel bicycle tubing in 1995! Happy to be proved wrong but I'd be surprised.

Ooh I love a good tubing wrangle.

Lush frame, glws

Rooting for first dibber to pull out so @Dicki can add it to his Gazelle museum.

I'm going to have to concede here... It seems Noblex was producing stainless steel back in 1995

"The Noblex tubing is an Austenitic stainless steel made by Poppe & Potthoff in Germany to specification X5CrNi18-10. It is similar to AISI 304.

Chemistry

C Carbon max 0.07%
Si Silicon max 1.00%
Mn Manganese max 2.00%
P Phosphorus max 0.045%
S Sulphur max 0.015%
Cr Chromium 17.5-19.5%
Ni Nickel 8.0-10.5%

Mechanical Properties

Tensile Strength 1000 N/mm2 (1000 MPa)
Yield Strength 900 N/mm2 (900 MPa)
Elongation 10%

Very educational! Certainly a unusual frame

Rad.

+1