Yet another early (?) Dave Lloyd

Motivated by NeilM's thread(s) on his early Lloyds, I thought I should try to figure out what vintage the DL in my garage really is. The best way obviously being to tap into all the knowledge gathered here on the forum.

So, I got this frame off Ebay in 2008, after riding the 1st edition of the Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge in Wales, but never got round to building it up.

Some spec and measurements:
531c frame tubes, 531 fork blades, Zeus 2000 fork crown
55cm tt, 53cm st, 11cm head tube, 98cm wheelbase, 126mm rear spacing
Campagnolo rear and fork drop-outs
Lots of braze-on for cables and shifters
1960gr frame weight, 730gr fork weight

All of this suggests early, but not super early. I'd say early 80s.

However, the puzzling part is the serial number: just "2", on the bb .

I asked the man himself, and got this response:
"It's a frame I built, but a very early one when I first set up my frame building business... Could be around 1989 or early1990..... "
How come he dates his early frame building days that late? Were all frames built before 1989 made by Argos?

So what do you all think, when was this one built?

I'm still unsure what to do with it. It's a bit on the small side for me (tt is ok, but the seat tube and head tube are shorter than what I regularly ride), but I love the paint scheme and lugs. Tire clearance seems to be pretty generous, so may build it into an Eroica bike.

Note that the bottom shell of the headset is missing, so I just put it together to take the pictures.

Re:

You got a response? :shock: Face to face I assume, as he has never to my knowledge been known to answer e-mails on the subject of his frames.

First, Argos. They made Dave's own frames, mostly for racing, they did not make frames sold as DL's. I have this information directly from the horses mouth when I took my 1978 frame in to be painted.

Next, frame number. It may be the case that it is prior to Dave adopting the LLXX prefix, who is to know. My 78 frame has a four digit number which gives no clues to date of manufacture, my recently acquired earlier frame, with wrap over seatstays has a cast BB shell with 551 on it.

Personal guess would be early Dave made or late made elsewhere, early to middle 80's. But that is guesswork based on back brake cable guides, white decals and OLN of 126.

Build wise, whatever pleases you.

I have a faithful 70's reproduction I rarely ride and a retromod Concept90 which I rode a lot before the weather turned nasty.

It is a cracking looking frameset and being 531 I bet it will be a nice ride too.