Bob Jackson 1978

Picked this beaut up recently... Bit of an eclectic mix of parts but the frame was what I was after ...

Advertised as early 90's but even my limited knowledge had me thinking it was good bit earlier ..

Good folks at Bob Jackson confirmed frame was ordered September 1977 and its a Grand Prix Messina

On collection I noticed the fork had been rattle canned black

However I noticed some nice shiny chrome underneath a scrape ... Was the paint hiding flaky chrome ? Paint stripper revealed the truth !

As collected


Untitled by Plus one2010, on Flickr

After strip/polish and paint removed from fork



Untitled by Plus one2010, on Flickr


She will be built as a nipping around town bike

i thought it would be 70's cause in those day's there was a trend not to fit cable guides and braze on's.callipers look nutted too might of had a conversion done
also there was a tendancy for mixing components from different group sets,kind of cast offs from club racer's
bitd. do you think the chain set could be original ?is it a strong light ? looks in keeping. smart ones
[ if i could i would send you a list of components ,saddles etc for you to ponder over to make it original but i cannot cause i do not know :|

I have an almost identical Bob Jackson frame that I bought as a bare frame on here a number of years ago. I'd never thought to get in touch with them to ID it.



Ignore all the rest of the components, all I got was the bare frame. It's very, very light and the tubes are very thin. 27.2mm seat post but it's lighter than I'd expect a 531 frame, though I could easily be wrong on this. I don't think the track fork belongs on mine. It's got chrome lugs at the front and chrome stays with Campag drop-outs, but where the paint is chipped off it looks like a lot of the frame is chromed underneath. No brake cable guides, no braze-ons and the BB cable guides are on top of the bottom bracket.

Interesting that yours has TT bars etc because mine was suspected to be a TT frame. Mine also has quite big clearances like yours and I'd wondered if it originally had 27" wheels, being a 1970's bike.

Yes some low rent parts on it .. Chainset/headset/seatpost are all nice campagnolo .. Brakes are dia compe blaze dated 89 and look workmanlike .. Cheap rear wheel probably just to get bike rolling ..

I will build as a fixed wheel :facepalm:

I have few geared bikes and hanker after a vintage replacement for my modern kona bandwagon..

Keeping it tasteful though no clown wheels etc :roll:

Biggest shame was bike hasn't been used in last 20 years so glad to press it into service as a gentle cruiser ..

Yours looks lovely Jonny !! The brakes on mine look normal drop so may be 700c ?

Now that's a nice jackson from my era even has those little tangs on the inside of the fork blade with holes in it..............

Shaun

Re:

Interesting to see another frame on here that's arrived minus cable guides and braze-ons etc. I was in a similar predicament with my first build and had also considered going fixed gear before I realised it would be next to useless for where I live and ride in and around Eryri, north Wales. I have trouble enough on some climbs with gears! After a lot of deliberation and despite a few problems and setbacks I managed to build mine into a fully working road bike again as detailed here http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... p;t=292279 Although from a different era to yours you might find it to be an interesting read and may help you decide which way to go with your frame. Either way, road or fixed it's good to see some more black and chrome bikes

Good luck with the build!

Midlife":291w77e1 said:

Now that's a nice jackson from my era even has those little tangs on the inside of the fork blade with holes in it..............

Shaun

Click to expand...

Cheers Shaun

I figured the fork chrome may have seen better days being the reason for painting !! Guess chrome fell out of favour for a while ?

Chrome fork sits really well with black frame

Re: Re:

Mac_Mwnci":m93hmhnf said:

Interesting to see another frame on here that's arrived minus cable guides and braze-ons etc. I was in a similar predicament with my first build and had also considered going fixed gear before I realised it would be next to useless for where I live and ride in and around Eryri, north Wales. I have trouble enough on some climbs with gears! After a lot of deliberation and despite a few problems and setbacks I managed to build mine into a fully working road bike again as detailed here http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... p;t=292279 Although from a different era to yours you might find it to be an interesting read and may help you decide which way to go with your frame. Either way, road or fixed it's good to see some more black and chrome bikes

Good luck with the build!

Click to expand...

Cheers

Looks like you had a lot of fun building yours !!! Came good in the end

I love that old frames have no/very little braze ons(guess it's why fixie crowd love them) leaves lovely clean lines running fixed/ss..

Had these grips/collars lying unused but have a pair of nice black grips if I change ..

What's the general opinion ? Tacky ? Really wanting classic looking build so these may go


Untitled by Plus one2010, on Flickr

Re:

Think the cool thing with a fixed gear build is that you're free to do what you want - more so than with a 'period' road build. The gold goes well with the decals and Reynolds badge. Showing my age but black/gold also makes me think 'Raleigh Gold Burners' in the 80s

I'd actually started collecting parts for my fixed build, Nitto track bars etc...which can only mean one thing down the line: Another bike!

Look forward to seeing how you get on...

Missing braze on's were fashionable in the early 70's , the manufacturers told us that it was so we could have the full campag ensemble of clips.

The other opinion was that given the petrol rationing / 3 day week etc the framebuilders could cut costs and still charge the same for the frame............

Shaun