Ian May Cycles
- Thread starter WandaFish
- Start date
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Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
to the forum.
biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Thanks @Cycleops
Afternoon and welcome @WandaFish
Does your father in law have an Ian May bike ?
I would love to see some pictures of it please .
There is little info about Mr May but the basic's are he ran a shop in the Merseyside area , he also sponsored a cycling team and competed in time trials as far as i can make out. He died quite suddenly and quite young and from what i can make out all the records of his business have never been found.
Over the years i have owned four Ian May decalled bikes but only 1 of them had an IMC prefixed frame number which as far as i have been able to find out were made by himself and they seem to be less than 199 of them . A lot of the bikes carrying his name seem to be nothing special one's that at some point for and for unknown reason's have his decals on ?
The other 3 that i have owned have all looked to have been quality hand made frames but none of them had no identification marks to enable me and many others to say who made them , 2 of mine have been aero style tubing and had Italian threaded bottom brackets it is thought that Simoncini and Daccordi both made frames of similar squashed profile tubing which ties in with the Italian threads .
Quite a few people have come forward with snippets including at one point his sister but to this date i have not uncovered a lot of info .
Why the interest from your father in law ?
Does he have any info he can share ?
I love my Ian May and it comes out to play weather permitting on May 1st and then stays out during the summer clocking up miles and always make me smile and i don't think i have ever seen another one whilst out riding it.
Afternoon and welcome @WandaFish
Does your father in law have an Ian May bike ?
I would love to see some pictures of it please .
There is little info about Mr May but the basic's are he ran a shop in the Merseyside area , he also sponsored a cycling team and competed in time trials as far as i can make out. He died quite suddenly and quite young and from what i can make out all the records of his business have never been found.
Over the years i have owned four Ian May decalled bikes but only 1 of them had an IMC prefixed frame number which as far as i have been able to find out were made by himself and they seem to be less than 199 of them . A lot of the bikes carrying his name seem to be nothing special one's that at some point for and for unknown reason's have his decals on ?
The other 3 that i have owned have all looked to have been quality hand made frames but none of them had no identification marks to enable me and many others to say who made them , 2 of mine have been aero style tubing and had Italian threaded bottom brackets it is thought that Simoncini and Daccordi both made frames of similar squashed profile tubing which ties in with the Italian threads .
Quite a few people have come forward with snippets including at one point his sister but to this date i have not uncovered a lot of info .
Why the interest from your father in law ?
Does he have any info he can share ?
I love my Ian May and it comes out to play weather permitting on May 1st and then stays out during the summer clocking up miles and always make me smile and i don't think i have ever seen another one whilst out riding it.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
cougie uk
Guru
My first custom bike was an Ian May. He had a shop in Bebington and a few hundred yards away Dave Lloyd had a far flashier showroom for his own bikes.
He did die young I'm afraid.
The shop stayed on for a while with another guy running it and then his wife took the lease over and it became a hairdressers I think.
Still got the frame in the garage 30 odd years later.
He did die young I'm afraid.
The shop stayed on for a while with another guy running it and then his wife took the lease over and it became a hairdressers I think.
Still got the frame in the garage 30 odd years later.
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
Didn't Dave Lloyd claim to have invented the compact road frame? Concept 90. Also, he learnt framebuilding from Harry Quinn and then Terry Dolan (who was himself a Harry Quinn protegé). The incestuous world of Merseyside framebuilders!
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biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
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SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
I've got an Ian May touring frame, full Reynolds 531ST. I believe it may date to 1987, based on a stamping found on a hub, assuming the wheels originally belonged to the frame of course. Mine doesn't have an IMC frame number, so I don't know for sure who actually built it, but it's nicely fabricated all the same. There's not that many of them around, especially not the known in-house fabrications.
Hi all, I've just finished a restore/restoration on an Ian May Road bike frame. The original paint job has been as much as possible kept the same (see both new and old pics) the components used in the reno are mainly campagnolo, cinelli, TTT, Tange, Selle and Mavic open sup. The frame number on the BB 006 CIM looks like it could be one of Ian May's work. Very special to me as Ian May is my name. Taking this to ride in Eroica Britannia. Feedback welcome.
Attachments
biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Very nice and the unusual colour seems to work ok, at least to my eyes it does.
The seat stay cluster on my touring frame is very different from yours though, mine isn't wrapover.
There seems to have been bread & butter off the peg Ian Mays, and true custom build Ian Mays. I suspect mine is one of the former, and yours one of the latter.
The seat stay cluster on my touring frame is very different from yours though, mine isn't wrapover.
There seems to have been bread & butter off the peg Ian Mays, and true custom build Ian Mays. I suspect mine is one of the former, and yours one of the latter.
. I can just see IMC at the right of the BB pic?