Holdsworth Frame Numbers

[keithglos]

Holdsworthy made these in the early 70's, they owned the Claud Butler name also, but used it for mid range frames. This was the top model, and also supply to the trade for own transfers.
Keith

 

[Twozaskars]

Lovely, thank you both. Do you know if it would have been sold as a complete bike, or just a frame+fork? I know next to nothing about road bikes so if it was in a catalogue somewhere I’d have some idea of what parts to look for.

 

[keithglos]

Almost all would have been sold as frames. Anyone buying one would either replace existing frame, or purchase new parts over time .
Keith

 

[Twozaskars]

I’d better do some research then, if I decide to rebuild it I’d like to get parts from the correct period. Top model = top parts then I guess. Any idea on the forks? I also googled Barrie Farnsworth but found nothing.

 

[Grahamalexander]

Started new thread on this subject in the hope of identifying more numbers. With a lot of help from Doug (CBguy) on frame identification I have updated the numbering charts seen on the original thread.

A summary of the various numbering systems used by Holdsworth is shown below with more details on Goggle Cloud. This is based on a growing number of frames found on line and information from other websites on the subject. The following are the systems that these numbers seem to fall into.

Pre-War.
Post war 5 Digit numbers and the continuation of this from 1965.
Early 60's 4 Digit numbers (1962-1964).
Shop numbers from 1965 with 1st 2 digits for the year.
Early 70's 4 Digit series (with leading zeros) including branded frames.
6 Digit System from 1976.

The predictions shown are based on the usage of Factory issued numbers and steady production of 1500 frames per year up to 1961 and 1200 frames per year from 1965 when the shop had its own system. 6 Digit numbers have an increasing yearly production up to 1985. The Framework graphs show how this fits around known fixed points in production and frames with good dates or documents to back up their dates.

There are issues with this mainly around shop frames and others that seem to have taken longer to progress through the factory. There are also a few that show up too early, for which I have no real explanation. I have show these on the graphs to indicate the level of accuracy that can be expected with this approach.

All other frames with less clear dating have then been added in where they would occur along with the original description in the Excel sheet. I would be interested in any frame numbers, particularly those with good dates. Hope this is of interest.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... TNKZkN4TmM

Hi I have in my possession a Holdsworth professional built in 1972. The frame was made to spec due to my brothers size.
He was racing for Hemel Hempstead cycle team who were aptly named the likely lads. The club was associated to Holdsworth cycles through Roy Thame. the club raced in the Holdsworth colours, I remember Ian Banbury, Derek Hunt and John Dowling who my brother raced went on to become pro riders. We immigrated to NZ were my brother became successful racing until he passed away at an early age. Roy Thame arranged to have this frame built. The Frame number is 777 with matching number on the steer tube. Other than it was spec built is there any reason for this unique number