531c alec bird

phoog":2regxyrc said:

this is properly confusing

when I bought it for the first time is was blue (the same as in the pics) but with Ken Bird decals on it, I bought it from the old bike shop in Tylney rd, bromley and the guy there told me it was actually a carlton that had been refinished, so it may or may have not been, I remember a couple of people saying it was carlton, and what with the lugs being capella ! at the time lots of frames were rebranded by the shops that resprayed them so it seemed to all fit. I took it as a carlton sprayed by (and badged up as a) ken bird, it would also have been worth more as a "new" ken bird rather than an "old" carlton


no idea on frame numbers I'm afraid, I wouldn't have even looked, old track iron was worthless back then, no one really wanted them and no one would have ever nicked it so I never bothered making a note ( I would now though !)

there was no hole in the brake bridge, the "mudguard" in pics is an old venicion blind kept there with the block of wood you can see in the photo, only way to go with no bridge hole for proper mounting.

can't remember which 531 decal it had I'm afraid, like i say, it was at the time a "cheap" training hack.

so to recap
bought and then sold as
blue "ken bird" the first time
blue "Alec bird" the second
but always belived to be an older carlton by me, but with no proof etc

no, the guy I bought it from the second time wasn't the guy I sold it to the first (I knew the first bloke)

obviously all this assumes that it was the same bike !!!
I'm sure the numbers must be look upable somewhere,

Click to expand...

phoog":rl8koq18 said:

yeah the frame had the fastback stays etc , it was identical, I'd have assumed it wasn't the same bike otherwise
the the seat isn;t the one in the pics, (it's still in my shed somewhere) neither is is the stem (thats an old cinelli road stem) it had a cinelli track stem , everything apart from the wheels/pedals were the same the second time I bought it.

I never really thought about if it was 531 or 531c, and I never got the bike down to frame only to weigh it. the 531C decal was under the lacquer, which I assumed was done by Ken Birds, I used to go there sometimes as I went to/from work via Penge / Crystal Palace / Herne Hill now and then, He always struck me as straight down the line sort of bloke (a spade is a spade) so i assumed it was 531c if thats what he'd labeled it as , I didn't buy the bike there though, it came from the bike shop (can't remember the name of it) in Tylney Rd. Bromley, they did servicing and kids bikes mainly but alway quite cheap The fact that he sold it to me as an old Carlton resprayed by Ken Bird speaks volumes as it would have been worth more money as a newer Ken Bird back then, if I were putting money on it I'd still say it's a Carlton, unless someone at Ken Birds gave me good reason to think otherwise.
as an unrelated footnote I did buy a "written off" carlton road frame with head-badge and undamaged chrome forks with eyes the second time I owned it as I did contemplate restoring it . but it was never going to be the right size, which is why I sold it

I suppose it could be a demo model but if i were refinishing it now I'd try to find some pics/frame number info of the old "house/club/rental" bikes from Herne Hill as I think they were Carltons (or maybe Raleigh) and probably had weird numbers on !! the lugs maybe a bit too fancy. who knows

I'm quite jealous really as think it's quite nice to know the history of what your riding

Click to expand...