Splendor bike restoration

[cloonaghpat]

Hi,

I recently purchased this frame. It is a pre 1982 Splendor frame. There is not much info out there on them. Does anyone know who built them from 1978 to 1982.
It is not Eddy Martens, he confirmed to me that he built the Splendor frames from 1982 to 1985 and it is not one of his.
I have only found one more close match from this period, there are no decals available, but from the photos I have collected it should be a stunner when it is finished.
The bike from this period that I have seen was sold in the UK. i have dropped them an e-mail as well.

 

[cloonaghpat]

these are just some photos of the bike from Coney Hall Cycle works looks like a team bike with a number hanger - no photo of the bottom bracket underside unfortunately.

 

[cloonaghpat]

these are just some photos of the bike from Coney Hall Cycle works looks like a team bike with a number hanger - no photo of the bottom bracket underside unfortunately.

One other thing I wish to get the stays rechromed, has anyone a good recommendation for rechroming in Europe

I am located in the Republic of Ireland and I am just looking for quotes at the minute. I would imagine custom charges are going to make it expensive to get the chroming work done in the UK - Ashford chroming did a couple of jobs for me in the past and were excellent.

 

[pigman]

 

[cloonaghpat]

Hi Pigman

The frame builders changed over the years, for 1979 they used Colnagos, 1982 to 1985 Eddy Martens (Martelly built the team frames - he confirmed to me by e-mail. so that would be a Martelly frame in your photo. Mine is earlier the gear cable routing is over the bottom bracket so it could be anywhere from 75 to 78 or 80/81

 

[cloonaghpat]

photo of the 79 team bike

 

[cloonaghpat]

Sean Kelly on his 79 Colnago at the Tour de France

 

[cloonaghpat]

I am going to replicate the 1980 scheme my frame has Columbus dropouts and a 68mm English BB shell , I am not an expert on Colnagos butwould have thought it would be a 70mm BB shell if it was a Colnago

 

[cloonaghpat]

Just some background on Splendor, they were a bicycle company in Belgium, the factory was in Namur and the bikes produced at the factory were mass market type bikes. It appears they alway had their team bikes build by custom frame builders in Belgium or Italy.
Here is an example of the bikes built in-house.

 

[cloonaghpat]