Who made this frame?

PerB

Old School Hero
I recently purchased this DBS Proffessionale from the mid late seventies.
DBS was a Norwegian bicycle manufacturer, they made all kind of bikes, but they stopped making their own racing frames around 1972, all racing bikes frames after 1972 was purchased from other manufacturers.
Known frame sources are Holdsworth and Daccordi, other makers mentioned in the literature is Piazza,
Plum and Mercier and Centurion (Centurion got their frames made in Japan at unknown factories)

The years after about 1982 Daccordi frames were predominantly used for the better models like the La Migliore and Proffesionale. In mid 70ties Holdsworth frame were used for the La Migliores and I own one of those. The period from say 1977 up to 1982 is dodgy to say at least. The bike below belongs to this rather dodgy period of many different frames used.

The bike below bears decals placing it at around 1976-77, the groupset is mostly Dura Ace 7400 bearing date codes from 1979. The bottom bracket has British treads, Campagnolo drop outs and the seat post is 26,8 mm. The breaks has nutted fitting. There are no labels identifying the tubings used. The bottom bracket is marked with 63 which is the c/t frame height. There is possibility that frame could be from around 79-80 and was resprayed in the period, using the older decals. There are traces of red paint under the golden color, all known DBS racing bikes from 78 to 82 were red.

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By the lug work it looks to be a upper end quality frame Strange the MG eyes were left onThe seat piller could give a clue to tubing If 27.2mm possibly 531to co with UK threaded BB 26.8mm seat post Dia could point to metric size 531The seat stay top eyes resemble Falcon upper quality frames of that time period I doubt if it's a custom builder as the numbers involved sorry can't be more help
 
Thanks for the reply, after carefully inspecting the bike and comparing to other bikes, I am concluding, the bike is repainted and rebranded. The headstock label is from late eighties, the two other labels are from around 76-77. I have so far no clue of the frame origin, but it's most unlikely it started it's life as a DBS. Through a friend who was in the bicycle trade and as a cyclist on national level in the seventies and eighties I have learned that rebranding of a bike was not uncommon. DBS was sponsoring several teams in Scandinavia and we may speculate that one team member never found a DBS to his liking and thus rebranded his old bike. In this case its unlikely as the groupset is from the late seventies and the headstock label is from the late eighties. Anyhow it's a nice bike fairly lightweight for the size so I will keep it in my collection as a mystery bike.
 
Nice frame! (and my size too :) ). The mudguard eyes, the cable guides on top of the BB shell and the lack of cable guides on the top tube and braze-on shifter bosses all suggest a seventies build.

Bocama lugs were widely used in the industry, and are not much of a clue, I'm afraid. The 26.8mm seat pillar suggests decent tubing, although not necessarily French. Japanese bikes often came with that size.

Have you checked BB shell width and threading?

EDIT: saw that you did: BSA.

In that case France is unlikely, and Japan and Belgium would be my prime suspects.
 
Re:

Thanks for the reply. I am not convinced about the Japan lead, because all Japanese frames I have seen from this period seems to have distinct serial number using a system of letters and numbers under the bottom bracket. By the way around the late seventies the French manufacturer moved over to BS bottom bracket threads. There are several presumably Mercier built DBS frames here in Norway from the late seventies with BS bottom brackets. But a friends Gitane from 1980 has still the French threads. By the way have studied several photographs of Mercier bikes from this period and there are no similarities to this bike, neither to the presumably Mercier built DBS frames. I agree with you that the late seventies is the year of manufacture, the nutted brakes also points in that direction.
 
Yes, the lack of a serial number is a distinguishing feature, in a way. And one of the reasons to look to Belgium as a possible source. There were quite a few shops, big and small, that made 'blank' frames for others to brand. Many reputable Dutch brands used them as well. And as they weren't too keen to let on to the fact that they hadn't built them, it's often not easy to identify them.

The other reason is that Japanese tubing, such as Ishiwata, was quite popular with many Belgian builders.

The one thing that stands out on your frame are the stay and fork blade ends. They are quite distinctive, and probably your best clue as to who built it.

It's a very nice frame, thanks for showing it.
 
Re:

I got a new lead today when a similar frame popped up in a Facebook group. The distinktiv hollow ends at the rear stays and the front fork is used by Batifoulier & Collas also known as BaCo, a French company.

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Re:

I am not sure what happened to the photo, I might have copied the UREL from an non public Google map, I try again here.


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Yes I have seen the pictures you are linking to in my search for the frame. I belive we are on the right track.
 
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