Authenticating a vintage Colin Laing frame

[Drago]

They were 531 at that era, just the flavour (plain guage or butted stays, etc) that differed.

The same frame would likely have been used across several different models, which further complicates matters, but it certainly could well be a Special.

 

[davester65]

Pulled this off an old Holdsworth Catalogue site, all the geometry matches as well as the lugs.

 

[Drago]

Yep, thet could very well be the one. Yours would look nice refinished in that deep blue colour.

 

[davester65]

Yep, thet could very well be the one. Yours would look nice refinished in that deep blue colour.

Great thing about the 531 Special of the mid 70's is you could order them in custom colours, so paint job could be any colour and it's still authentic, all the original livery decals available at H Lloyds. The bike belongs to a friend, I'm not intending to do the refurb, just trying to identify it first and then find out how much it would go for on ebay.

 

[midlife]

The 531 special seat stays were “special” being half mitred into the frame. The OP frame is not this style. Still nice though.

 

[Drago]

Sadly they and their Claud cousins dont go for a lot. Just too many left I guess. Only the rarer niche models go for more, and even then rarely very much. The market criminally under-values them IMHO.

If you got shot of the frame for £50 you'd be doing fairly well. Strip the other bits off, clean them and you might add another £75 +/- a wee bit to that sum. Not being original to the bike they don't do anything for the frames value leaving them on.

 

[davester65]

The 531 special seat stays were “special” being half mitred into the frame. The OP frame is not this style. Still nice though.

I see what you mean Midlife, the lugwork around the seatclamp is almost identical but the top end of the seatstay is definitely different, I also noticed the lugwork around the BB Shell is slightly different from the restored one. Were other frame builders of the 70's making copies of Holdsworth frames because of the success of the Holdsworth pro team?

 

[midlife]

It could be a Holdsworth, just not a Holdsworth Special 531. However unless it went “out the back door” it would have a frame number stamped on it if a Holdsworth

Some builders did not put numbers on to fool the tax man, Pongo Braithwaite for example

In that era there were loads of frame builders knocking out frames for all sorts of shops and outlets. I have Carter and Hall (Carhall) that was actually made by Wally Green. Mostly without frame numbers. The shop stamped them if they wanted usually initials of the buyer and a post code

Autostrada (Mike Kowal) made a business out of it,

It’s a nice frame, the forks may be earlier and in my eyes scored art whatever name is on the down tube

Nowadays the value has gone down the toilet. I’d keep it but that’s just me.

 

[davester65]

I just had to scratch that itch A light sanding has revealed a covered serial number, i think? If this is a serial number it would suggest a genuine Holdsworth from 1956 (info from the Norman Kilgariff website). Or is it possibly a Colin Laing frame and those numbers refer to the date the frame was made? What are your thoughts please guys?

 

[davester65]

Am now in the process of doing a basic refurb on the bike as she's decided to keep it for sentimental reasons. Found something interesting when I removed the forks, the serial number stamped into the BB shell is also stamped into the steerer tube of the forks & the numbers match! So I'm now convinced it's a genuine 1956 Holdsworth Frameset (probably a Monsoon but not 100% on that) but it has had some work done to the seatstays/chainstays, as the rear dropout space has been reset to 126mm with a new brake bridge. Not too sure about 50's wheels but I think the dropout space would have been 120mm (or the Imperial equivalent) at that time.