SH377T a nice eBay find

originalshinkicker

rBotM Winner
The 2nd acquisition of the week. I couldn't believe my luck that this was just sitting on eBay.

It had some fuzzy low res pictures in the ebay ad as the seller had broken his camera but the description mentioned a frame built my Mike Mullett for Steve Heffernan. Zooming into the pictures showed some blurry but interesting details... The ad didn't have the frame number and the seller didn't seem keen to give it but said that the numbers were confirmed by Mike when he saw the frame at a Track event about 15 years ago.



After a nervous last couple of hours bidding, I won and drove 6 hours down to London on Monday to collect it and took a few better pictures once I was there...



It has taken a couple of days to get some free time, but this afternoon I finally got a chance to look closer at this beautifully detailed piece of work.

It doesn't have many of its original parts, but does still have the lovely Super Record Pista headset and Record Pista BB - the other stuff is a lot more modern. The frame number ties into Steve Heffernan who was racing professionally for Midlet-BSA in 1977. Frame number "SH 3 77 T"

Steve won the National Elite Pursuit Championships in 77 & 78 and also came 3rd in the World Professional Individual Pursuit in 77




I've done a little research into 753 over the years and this is a type of frame that you probably won't see anywhere outside of the SBDU. The reason is that it has Imperial dimension 753 tubes at a time when 753 was Metric, essentially it is the type of 753 that later became known as 753R (25.4 top tube and 28.6 down tube and seat tube with a 27.2mm seat pin). The lugs are modified Capella and the fork crown appears to be Vagner?

It has an RGF BB with 4 slots and drilled Campag 1053 ends.

The fork blades are the same narrow oval section that I have on SB632, another 753 pursuit frame.



The brake and chain stay bridge are square section and drilled with similar star shape supports to my SB1500 TT frame. The style often compared to Presto frames



It is in great condition and the paint is still shining bright.
 

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The Campag Pista parts will go back on and I'll hunt out some nice wheels, bars and stem, saddle and pin to finish it off. The frame just needs a clean
 
Within living memory of Schuiten's hour record, I wonder what kit it wore in anger BITD. Raleigh were not exactly tied to campag and did experiment, they commissioned magnesium stuff as well as titanium. Is the paint quite thin?
 
Midlife":2spltm46 said:
Within living memory of Schuiten's hour record, I wonder what kit it wore in anger BITD. Raleigh were not exactly tied to campag and did experiment, they commissioned magnesium stuff as well as titanium. Is the paint quite thin?

I think I would say that all my original paint SBDU bikes are really quite thin paint, It's almost as if they are just coloured steel tubes if that makes sense? It is so easy to spot a repainted SBDU frame. SBDU frames have lovely thin paint with razor sharp lug lines and even things like frame numbers are crisp and well defined.

They made this frame with Imperial size 753 which was 5 years before Reynolds introduced it as 753R in 1982. That means it wasn't the lightest tube set but is was considerably lighter and stiffer than anything else in 1977. Frame weighs 1799 grams which is just over a pound lighter than a std 531DB track frame of the same size. I've sent Steve a message and just waiting to see if I get a reply. I'm sure the Super Record Pista headset is original and I'm sure the Record Pista BB is original too. It probably had large flange Record hubs but I'm open to suggestions about other period lightweight Pista kit such as rims, saddle, bars and stem.
 
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