What is this bike?

I have just revitalised a re-sprayed 23.5" steel road bike with a frame that almost matches only one of many 1980's light blue Sun Solo bikes among the many hundreds I've found pictures of on the forums and adverts. It has a plate brake bridge, braze-on and holes for left seat stay bottle dynamo with internal wiring, kick stand plate, three brake cable guides on top of the top tube, plastic Raleigh cable guide under the bottom bracket, SR stem and Raleigh bars, was a double Custom crankset with gaps in the big chain ring for the guard to attach, Maillard front hub marked 84, Maillard Normandie freewheel on Quando hub and Alesa rim, and Sachs-Huret gears. The serial number on the bottom bracket is 59249F, which doesn't seem to match a chronology I can find on the web. Under the spray paint there's an indistinct light colour - perhaps a pale green, but it could have been grey or blue. For now I swopped the wheels for a pair from a Raleigh Quasar with a Maillard Helicomatic 6-speed and concave rims because they're in better condition, the pedals and cranks for something that is (and goes) round, and the derailleurs with some much less stiff old Shimanos from a kids bike. The Sun Solo I saw with the plates differed in having hooks for a pump under the down tube though and its brake cable was on the lower right of the top tube.

My questions are, please, ... based on the frame and period and parts what models could my bike have been? And on Sun Solos, why would a kid's racer sold in the UK have been built onto a frame more suited to touring or a continental market? Was there a period around a closure or a strike when plates intended for Raleigh Twentys were used to complete road bike frames? Was the Sun Solo ever used as a paint job used to sell off frames that were hanging around the Worksop Carlton or Sun or other factories that were built earlier or for other models, and if so what were they? What company and period would a serial number 59249F correspond to?

Sorry, that should have been hooks for a pump under the top tube. The axle for the bottom bracket has external threads. The seat post hole is pretty much one inch.

The tops of the rear stays says it was a Dawes to me. Someone else would need to back that up though.

The plate for the rear brake and the plate for the kick stand says either something like Steyr-Puch ..................or a far eastern frame brought in by people like Falcon when they started importing rather than manufacturing here.

Shaun

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I was wondering about sandblasting it back to metal and painting it. Do you think it looks worth the effort? It's the only road bike I have so I'd like it to last me a good while.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I looked closely at Dawes as a possibility and the lugs and plate are a match against this 1974 Galaxy http://coastkid.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ ... m.html?m=1
The cable guides on mine may put it mid 80s or after and the plates and dynamo wiring set up may be a custom option, but it looks like a Dawes tourer to me. Plus there are three distinct sounds along each of the tubes so double butted just like me. Thanks again.

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Unfortunately, I'd say definitely not a Dawes Galaxy. The Galaxy was their top end touring bike with Reynolds 531 frame and forks. I think Midlife is on the right track with Puch but its just a low end, mass produced frame, hence the rear caliper plate and plate behind the bottom bracket.

If its got some sentimental value then its worth a restoration, otherwise I'd say with the cash you'd spend on prepping, priming and painting, you could pick up a nice 531 frame for £30-£50

Strangely enough some dawes models did come with a plate for the rear brake with two holes in the plate for a rear rack...........not sure it was a Galaxy though?

Shaun

Here is the back end of a 78 Galaxy, they used to come with a colour co-ordinated rear rack. I think the later Galaxy's then had braze on fittings for racks





Top of the seat stays are very Dawes like, I've got a few of their catalogues through the 70s-80s during which they had a lot of models. All photographed from the side though so no caliper plates to be seen

Midlife":m9ohxoie said:

The plate for the rear brake and the plate for the kick stand says either something like Steyr-Puch ..................or a far eastern frame brought in by people like Falcon when they started importing rather than manufacturing here.

Shaun

Click to expand...

Funnily enough, from slightly faded memories of my first adult-sized road bike (a repainted one built up for me by Dad, of which I'm unable to provide any pics), Puch did spring to mind - the seat cluster appears similar and the plate for the rear brake bridge rings a bell. Although I'm sure mine had a much flatter top to the fork crown.

Edit: ignore comment about seat stay fittings earlier, just re-read the OP's paragraphs.

David