help please on frame identification and date

[Excel]

got hold of this handbuilt frame recently and was wondering if anyone could date or help hopefully to identify the marque.....tubing appears to be generic Reynolds 531/dropouts are Campag. it takes a 27.2 seat post/shot in stays /frame and fork number is 32370 (possibly 1970?) the transfers stuck on top and head tube are aftermarket stick ons

http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx329/griffks/SAM_5018.jpg[img]
[img]http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt55/Telsun/Silver%20unknown%20frame/SAM_5024.jpg

 

[biggs682]

thats a different rear brake cable support , looks interesting

 

[keithglos]

Elegant frame, does look 1970 ish. Not many of us still using handlebar controls by then.
Forgot: Is it British threading?

 

[Excel]

Elegant frame, does look 1970 ish. Not many of us still using handlebar controls by then.
Forgot: Is it British threading?

yes it has 1.37 b/brkt threads plus I'm now on the lookout for a set of Campag. bar end shifters for when it comes back from the spray shop!

 

[Midlife]

Clean looking frame long campag rear dropouts and other brazings make it late 60's early 70's. The fork crown is "waisted" which came to fashion a bit later, I wonder if the forks match?

Shaun

 

[Excel]

yes Shaun I reckon too it's 60's or early 70's, frame and forks have matching numbers also I have a 1964 Saxby's with the same crown and inner tangs so could be mid 60's or so......be nice to identify the frame make but the number is the only thing I think that may pin that down

Clean looking frame long campag rear dropouts and other brazings make it late 60's early 70's. The fork crown is "waisted" which came to fashion a bit later, I wonder if the forks match?

Shaun

 

[torqueless]

Isn't this the same one that Tel had on "Reader's Road Bikes" (edit: Shouldn't that be: "Readers' Road Bikes"?) a while ago? If not it's a dead ringer. I don't see why it wouldn't be a 1970 frame. Off the top of my head, builders who used a five-figure number with either the first two or the last two for the year: Mercian, Pennine, Dave Russell, Jack Hearne.. I'm sure there's more. With most of them the first two digits for the year. I understand Mercian sometimes used first two, sometimes last two.

I like this one. That fork crown inspires confidence, plus someone has shaped the tangs into the crown with an eye for a fair curve- I'm assuming the crown didn't come from the manufacturer with those tangs- that the framebuilder welded them on?

Apart from asking for Barcons, frame says: "Mafac Competition, please, and LF hubs". Does to me, anyway. YMMV

 

[Excel]

....'tis indeed the self same frame that Tel had, I didn't know he was a member on this forum thanks also to everyone for their kind comments so far I plan to respray in olive flam. and cream panels plus subsequent build with early Nuovo Record/Mafacs/GB etc
Griff

 

[torqueless]

Trouble with panels is that they are begging for a framebuilder's name. I hope you avoid the problem that I've got- a bike with cream panels and no certainty as to what to write in them. I guess doing panels is a sort of bribe to fate to grant you a positive identification. Not too long ago I said to myself: "Fk it, this frame had Shorter transfers on when I got it, it may as well be a Shorter again", did some work to that effect, and then a Shorter turns up on "Readers' Road Bikes" (see what I did there?) which seemed to confirm what I already suspected- that what I had was not a Shorter. I don't remember ever seeing a Shorter with panels BITD anyway- they were always one colour. Wishing you better ID luck...

Toleration of mystery is an attitude worth cultivating... well, this sort of mystery, anyway. Alternatively, "Is there actually any grease in my wheel bearings?" would be an example of the sort of mystery which one is probably better off not tolerating at all...