Strange, late 90's, welded, ALAN Frameset.

(Note, this is a thread I posted on Bike-Forums a long time ago that I never remembered to post up here. The bike is in a very different guise now, but it doesn't stop me being curious. Any help is appreciated!)

Hey all! On gut instinct (And rather ideal measurements) I went on a whim and picked my self up a ALAN cyclocross build for £100. With the most sporadic kit out ever that was clearly done on a small budget we have a lovely Alan Aluminium Cylocross frameset (Serial no 119 and some Compagnolo Mirage brifters.

Still, for £100 i've picked up what seems to be a rather lovely frame set with some definitely serviceable brifters.

But of course I have a couple questions! From what I gather, the serial number suggests the bike is a 1998 model made in November. Does this correlate with others findings?

Secondly, what can you guys tell me about the bike! What sort of level of bike would this have been way back when? It seems very light and has lots of nice features such as removable guides no unnecessary sundries such as rack fender mounts. All seems to suggest a pretty high end racey bike but I'm probably being hopeful

Lastly, the head badge seems nothing alike what I've seen before on other Alans. Instead of the globe logo decal, it bears a gold coloured pressed badge bearing just the stylized Alan. Does this denote anything in particular?

Photos to follow in next post

Cheers in advance guys!




http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/1516/20120401193517.jpg[img]
[img]http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2194/20120401193554.jpg

I could be wrong, but I've never seen an Alan or Alan badge like these before :?

Robbied196":392mmppt said:

I could be wrong, but I've never seen an Alan or Alan badge like these before :?

Click to expand...

It definitely matches the typeface used on the regular Alan logos and the serial stamping appears to be in the same style as others.

One suggestion on the thread on Bike-Forums was that it could have been a pre-production or team frame as the welds were not very finished looking.

Jacque Lucque":1mdt01u5 said:

Robbied196":1mdt01u5 said:

I could be wrong, but I've never seen an Alan or Alan badge like these before :?

Click to expand...

It definitely matches the typeface used on the regular Alan logos and the serial stamping appears to be in the same style as others.

One suggestion on the thread on Bike-Forums was that it could have been a pre-production or team frame as the welds were not very finished looking.

Click to expand...

You're right, looking again it does look like a naked ALAN badge

http://velobase.com/ListHeadBadges.aspx ... 8325941598

Here's the reply from Osporto, the UK distributor of ALAN:

Hi Jack, nice bike. From first impression it is one of the top model alloy frames that they made, it would have been one of their best cross bikes at the time and of course, hand made. It is possibly from around 1997-99. The entire frame looks naked and has been stripped of paint. That badge is still used today, the world background and paint from "ALAN" has also been removed. We will see what more information we can find for you from ALAN with the serial No.

Why not try a direct approach to ALAN? I emailed Alberto (the AL in ALAN, his sister Anna was the AN) at alfa@alanbike.net when I had a query about a Competition '89.

I translated into Italian using a translation tool since I figured it was the least I could do and he promptly responded.

nope, i don't recognise it at all so it's after my time, somewhere post 1992 i reckon..

bobbinogs":25zm4uny said:

Why not try a direct approach to ALAN? I emailed Alberto (the AL in ALAN, his sister Anna was the AN) at alfa@alanbike.net when I had a query about a Competition '89.

I translated into Italian using a translation tool since I figured it was the least I could do and he promptly responded.

Click to expand...

Using a translation tool is a waste of time. Simply send it is English or find somebody who can properly translate the text into Italian. A company like Alan will have somebody who reads English. If you need help with Italian, I would be willing to help if I have time.