Airborne Head Tube Badge

Long shot I guess :-( but does anyone have a spare Airborne head tube badge they want to sell me ?

Like this one (Picture shamelessly pinched off ‘maxhc’) :



I heard a rumor that people removed them as they had a tendency to attack the skin on your knees, hopefully this is true and therefore I might get lucky …

Cheers,

WD

Badge

Sometimes they come up on Ebay, I got a foil decal version which looks really good on my early Lucky Strike, plus it weighes nowt Which frame is this? Love mine, best Ti frame I ever owned AND THAT INCLUDES and betters by a mile Merlin Mountains XLM.s 6/4 Ti's Litespeeds, Sandviks and XiZangs, Mine was US built.

When were airborne made in USA?
I thought they were made in China.
I have a lucky strike and have to agree about how sweet it rides.

We need to compare notes it's a lucky strike

I spoke to van nicolas and the guy was very helpful, assured me they were all made in the east, confirmed he had records of the serial numbers and then was promptly stumped when I told him mine

It has really neat welds etc disk and v mounts - will post more details tomorrow - on the mobile at the moment ;-)

WD

OK, here it is :



And the dropout’s / v boss’s / pipe clip’s / chain catcher etc that might help date it :



The serial number is SER02608

I initially got told that it could be a 2002 / 03 but then the guy at van Nicolas (up until the serial number confusing him) thought it nearer 2000 ? :?

So a few questions :

• How do the frame features compare to yours ?
• Are our serial numbers similar ?
• Do you know the exact age of your frame ?
• Show us your head tube badges – metal or sticker
• Where did you get your head tube sticker from ?

Do you have any other info on these things ? I am struggling to find out anything on them on the net other than reviews :-( Some catalogue scans etc would be nice perhaps we could start to build up a bit of an information archive with catalogues, magazine reviews, frame number v model v date log etc ?

Cheers,

WD

airborne

Hi
your lucky strike is different to mine which I think is 2002?
No pipe clips.
My disc mounting is mirrored on drive side .

Serial no SER22930

Lucky strike

Firstly mine has no disc mount, the frame is brushed/polished to a high level and the welds are flat and very smooth with zero build up, bare weight is 3 pounds and the head angle is slacker than on later models. The seat and chain stay finials are different and they are bi ovalised and oversize as are the seat down and top tubes.
Some were US pilot builds to launch the brand, then split between China and Taiwan, Same with VN, the pilot build were made in holland then copied in China. My frame no is 475, but it also has frame numbers etched on all the tubing.

Re: Lucky strike

Wold Ranger":3odsb4qr said:

Firstly mine has no disc mount, the frame is brushed/polished to a high level and the welds are flat and very smooth with zero build up, bare weight is 3 pounds and the head angle is slacker than on later models. The seat and chain stay finials are different and they are bi ovalised and oversize as are the seat down and top tubes.
Some were US pilot builds to launch the brand, then split between China and Taiwan, Same with VN, the pilot build were made in holland then copied in China. My frame no is 475, but it also has frame numbers etched on all the tubing.

Click to expand...

Let see some pics!

Well that's three all different then but two with similar numbers

Give me a bit of time to fool around with the phone and Photobucket and I will get a few more pics up

This probably shows the welds and profile of the top tube best - it almost feels triangular (and potentially painful ) :



This is the forming on the rear stays :



The down tube is ovalised at the head tube, round in the middle and then very ovalised at the bb shell (across the width). You can see this on the side view of the frame pictured in my earlier post.

The vernier says

Top tube (constant triangle) : 28.9 x 36.0
Down tube (front) : 43.5 x 37.8
Down tube (middle) : 40.2 x 40.2
Down tube (back) : 45.5 x 35
Seat stays (constant round) : 22.2
Chain stays (constant round other than tyre clearance) : 22.2

The angle gauge says a one degree difference between head and seat angle.

I didn't appreciate / notice from the pics before I bought it just how manipulated the tubes are

WD