Is this a Major Nichols?

[ayu786]

I recently bought this frame and forks from a collector who told me it was a major nichols frame and forks, I've also been told that major nichols are quit rare so I have a little doubt as to whether it actually is a major nichols or not, the frame definitely consists of lightweight butted tubing so is likely 531, I was also told this major nichols was from the 60's. It has "Chater-Lea" imprinted in the frame dropouts and may have two letters imprinted in the BB shell but it is very difficult to make out what these letters are. It measures 23" from the centre of the BB shell to the top of the seat tube and the top tube measures 22". The only other stand out feature is the very thin seat stays. Also has had a very tacky paint job...

pictures are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/100648654 ... 252720175/

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Midlife]

Seat stay cluster doesn't look very Major Nichols...........ish. The ones I have come across were always very elegant and chamfered for quite a distance down the seat tube. Mind you my knowledge is late 60's - 70's so the frame might well be before that.

Shaun

 

[Robbied196]

Re:

Unfortunately, I would say not, it doesn't look to be in Major's style at all, not all but a lot of his frames have wraparound seat stays. It should have a 4 or 5 digit number preceded by the letters 'MN', if it has then Alvin Smith is the guy to talk to.

 

[Excel]

Re:

......the jury is still out on whether it is or isn't a Major Nichols as Classic Lightweights feature a well written article relating to the Marque, the last sentence mentions the type of stays that you have:

"It appears that early frames may have been built with various styles to the top of the seat stays such as chamfered, fluted or sloping, and certainly the earliest known frames, 1954/5 have these simple patterns of seat stay top. In particular in the early days the cheaper stock built frames had simple rounded top seat stays"

I think the only real answer is to have the frame/fork number identified

Griff

 

[Robbied196]

Re:

Its possible it could be an early stock frame, but those type were bought in for the shop before Major started building frames. The paint looks pretty thick so it might be worth cleaning some off under the bottom bracket to see if there's a number. I think the forks only have 2 digits so that may not prove much.

 

[glpinxit]

Also has had a very tacky paint job...

About time we started a new competition for "understatement of the month". Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. And executed with a stick.

 

[ayu786]

Re:

I've had a look on the fork steerer tube and there is no code whatsoever, on the BB shell there is something imprinted but I can't make out what it says, it seems like its only two characters in length though.

I'm going to try and get in contact with the guy I bought it off and see if he has any other information on it, I just took his word for it being a major nichols as he had such a vast collection of bikes including some really rare stuff such as the hetchins with the wavey chain/seatstays, maybe I shouldnt have been so trusting...

I think he said it came from the solihull racing team and hence why it was painted as such. But I'm just so clueless with this case, no idea where to start identifying it.

 

[GasPipeWarrior]

Re: Re:

I think he said it came from the solihull racing team and hence why it was painted as such. But I'm just so clueless with this case, no idea where to start identifying it.

I wonder if he means Solihull CC? Might be worth contacting them to see if they recognise it as previously owned by one of their members.