Dawes 531c........help needed

Hey Guys,

i have just won a 531c Dawes Imperial circa 1984 on ebay, i bought it as damaged purely for the wheels, to donate them to my current restoration project (1987 Raleigh Randonneur)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dawes-Imperia ... TRK%3AMEWN

picked the bike up today and the damage isn't half as bad as i expected, yes there is some bending of the forks/steerer but i think this is an easy fix for a framebuilder, so i'm going to stash this frame as a future project.

Can anyone point me to some decent pics of an Imperial of this era so i can get some details of the decals?

Have posted some pics of the frame detailing so any Dawes experts out there can guesstimate the exact year. Have looked on the BB shell and there is a 3 digit frame no, but i understand frame nos aren't much help with Dawes due to their records being lost in a fire some time ago.

Appreciate any help guys.

i have this one for sale

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=268110

if you need any close ups let me know and i will forward you my flick r

doesnt look bad

Thanks, appreciate that. The previous owners bought the bike in 88 at around 3 or 4 yrs old, so I think its prob an 84 model. I particularly need detailed photographs of the top tube 'imperial' decal and any decals on the seat tube.

davester1965":17cwi952 said:

Thanks, appreciate that. The previous owners bought the bike in 88 at around 3 or 4 yrs old, so I think its prob an 84 model. I particularly need detailed photographs of the top tube 'imperial' decal and any decals on the seat tube.

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should be some on my flick r quite a few pages in

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68734341@N04/page3/

Here's another

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62249235@N ... 368722803/

Thanks you two, some cracking detail pics on flickr, now i'm confused, Robbied's Imperial is the same colour as mine and a year newer, Biggsy's looks a bit older than mine (guessing from the 531 decals at very early 80's) but both have the same top tube decal 'Dawes Imperial' in a plain font similar to the downtube decal. I've downloaded a copy of the 84 Dawes catalogue and the pic in there shows a top tube decal which simply says 'Imperial' in an italic style font. Any ideas why guys?

davester1965":ciok56nu said:

Thanks you two, some cracking detail pics on flickr, now i'm confused, Robbied's Imperial is the same colour as mine and a year newer, Biggsy's looks a bit older than mine (guessing from the 531 decals at very early 80's) but both have the same top tube decal 'Dawes Imperial' in a plain font similar to the downtube decal. I've downloaded a copy of the 84 Dawes catalogue and the pic in there shows a top tube decal in an italic style font. Any ideas why guys?

Click to expand...

from memorey the calipers on mine are either 80 or 82 if that helps

biggs682":1wype46k said:

from memorey the calipers on mine are either 80 or 82 if that helps

Click to expand...

Do you know if yours has been renovated at some point?

davester1965":38a133td said:

biggs682":38a133td said:

from memorey the calipers on mine are either 80 or 82 if that helps

Click to expand...

Do you know if yours has been renovated at some point?

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original as the day it was made

Arggghhh! I had a Dawes Imperial when I first went to Uni - Everything went wrong with it in three months, the rear cassette went, bottom bracket packed in, and then the head lug started to come away with poor brazing. DAWES never again!!!