Harry Quinn 753, 1980. Time Trial frame.

[fiks]

The only reason that I can see that the gear cable guides are not going under the bottom bracket is that it's a Cinelli cast BB shell; I've never seen routing going underneath these, but on the other hand, I've not seen that many of them.

I think most Cinelli cast BB shells would have the cables going under. In the 70s when over-the-bb-routing was the standard, Cinelli cast BB shells were not all that common. By the time they were used on a lot of frames, routing under the bb had taken over. Look at all the Cinelli "spoiler" BB shells, I bet not one of them had over the BB routing.

At that time, before lo-pro frames and aero bars, a TT frame would have been not much different to a road road, perhaps except for closer clearances and steep angles

 

[Old Ned]

According to a comment on Classic Rendezvous, frame numbers after Q5300 date from early '80 after Frank Clements became involved. Was Harry himself still involved with frame building then? There seem to have been a real 'mixed bag' of frames supplied around that time. I have one with an early 5300 number (need to check!) and it is a bit of a 'gas-pipe' job with seamed tubing and heavy - but Zeus 2000 ends and very nice detailing. A bit of an enigma!

Perhaps Frank was using his (and his brother's) trade contacts for 'average' frames.

Plenty of frames used Cinelli BB shells and under bracket routing. No different to any other shell in that respect. The 'aero' shell had the cable guides cast in.

 

[blightyinfurs]

With it being 753, I can't see that a frame would have been brought in and sold off the peg; I've got one of the Clements era frames, and it's a real shocker. Heavy tubes, heavy and bulky lugs, massive clearances... it's definitely not one of them. The build is definitely comparible to the '67 frame and the '75 frame that I've got.

Harry sold up to Clements on February 14th, 1977, but stayed on as Master Framebuilder until he retired. When that was, I'm not sure.

Reynolds TI were very particular about who they'd sell 753 to - in '77, only Raleigh, Bob Jackson and Harry Quinn had the licences, I've read. If it wasn't Harry putting this together, would it have been one of his apprentices (Bill Whitcomb, Terry Dolan)?

 

[Nob]

This just doesn't look like a TT frame as the wheelbase looks to long & I suspect this was a true road frame with odd time trials in mind also.
Frames in this era had really close rear wheel clearences for a proper TT frame & the angles just don't look steep enough either.

 

[alanf1968]

The frame would have much closer clearances for time trials, the 753 transfers are later than the date you have given too, I would spend some time looking into what the frame really is before you begin building it

 

[blightyinfurs]

According to Harry Quinn's frame record book, it's definitely a 753 TT frame, built on the 17th November 1980. The 753 stickers are renovation stickers, which is why I'm not getting sentimental about keeping the current paintwork. C&G often tended not to put any Reynolds stickers on anyway - my 1975 531 HQ has it's original paintwork and has no Reynolds sticker.

 

[alanf1968]

Just had another look at that rear wheel clearance, time trial frames were often built with vertical dropouts back then to get a tight clearance, but horizontal dropouts were also common, the wheel position will be according to the chain in the ss set up, how close is the wheel to the frame when taken as far forward as possible, a time trial frame was often so tight you had to let the tyre down to get the rear wheel out, leaving a clearance of just a few mm, sounds like you have good info on it, would be nice to see built with period stuff, Campag Nuovo Record, Mavic GP4 rims, Cinelli bars/stem maybe?