SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
I seem to have acquired an interesting, but anonymous old 5 speed, and I'm curious as to who might have made it and how old it is. I'll try to post some pics up tomorrow at work, but in the meantime I'll try to describe the features. Hopefully someone might have one the same and recognise the description.
Frame:- brazed & lugged 23" size gents, with approx. 22 1/4" TT length between head & seat tube centres. Head tube approx. 6 3/4" tall inside the bearing cups. Geometry looks quite old-school, with fairly slack angles, about 70 deg parallel. Rather like old frames @biggs682 has posted up on here. Head tube and seat tube lugs are semi-fancy, BB lug is plain. Paint is a mid-dark green, possibly Lincoln Green. The lugs have gold linings, including the BB one. Paint looks rather unusual, like it "glows" with a silvery sheen in certain light, almost as though the green was applied over something else and is slightly translucent. There are no decals, and no head badge, nor any obvious badge rivet holes in the head tube. There Is a serial number, stamped on the L/H side of the seatpost lug. It looks like it could be 66679 E, with the letter on it's own below the row of numbers. Forks are fully chromed, with braze on lamp boss, but I think they may not be original. There is a braze in gear cable guide on top of the R/H BB, and an unused braze-on boss on the L/H down tube, so it could be a 10-speed frame, or available as 5 or 10 speed.
No brake cable bosses, and the pump pegs are clamp-on ones on the seat tube, not braze-ons.
Gears:- Huret rear mech, with stem mount friction shifter. Rear cluster looks to be a 12-25, and front chainwheel is a 50T with cottered steel cranks.
Brakes are side pull alloy Weinmann model 810 on front and 734 on rear, roadster type levers. Rear brake cable fixed to top tube with 3 chromed spring steel clips, not bosses.
Wheels are a mixed pair, one rim dimpled one plain. Both 26" x 1 1/4" steel. Pressed silver metal mudguards fitted, not convinced they are original.
Seatpost is chromed steel and bars & stem are roadster-style flat bars. Saddle is a sprung wide roadster style Brooks - but not leather.
It's a curious-looking machine to my eyes, because of having flat bars combined with quite a close-ratio 5-speed, but of course it could have been cobbled together from several different bikes! It does feel quite light in weight though, considering it has steel rims and steel cranks, bars and seatpost. It's lighter than my 3-speed!
Frame:- brazed & lugged 23" size gents, with approx. 22 1/4" TT length between head & seat tube centres. Head tube approx. 6 3/4" tall inside the bearing cups. Geometry looks quite old-school, with fairly slack angles, about 70 deg parallel. Rather like old frames @biggs682 has posted up on here. Head tube and seat tube lugs are semi-fancy, BB lug is plain. Paint is a mid-dark green, possibly Lincoln Green. The lugs have gold linings, including the BB one. Paint looks rather unusual, like it "glows" with a silvery sheen in certain light, almost as though the green was applied over something else and is slightly translucent. There are no decals, and no head badge, nor any obvious badge rivet holes in the head tube. There Is a serial number, stamped on the L/H side of the seatpost lug. It looks like it could be 66679 E, with the letter on it's own below the row of numbers. Forks are fully chromed, with braze on lamp boss, but I think they may not be original. There is a braze in gear cable guide on top of the R/H BB, and an unused braze-on boss on the L/H down tube, so it could be a 10-speed frame, or available as 5 or 10 speed.
No brake cable bosses, and the pump pegs are clamp-on ones on the seat tube, not braze-ons.
Gears:- Huret rear mech, with stem mount friction shifter. Rear cluster looks to be a 12-25, and front chainwheel is a 50T with cottered steel cranks.
Brakes are side pull alloy Weinmann model 810 on front and 734 on rear, roadster type levers. Rear brake cable fixed to top tube with 3 chromed spring steel clips, not bosses.
Wheels are a mixed pair, one rim dimpled one plain. Both 26" x 1 1/4" steel. Pressed silver metal mudguards fitted, not convinced they are original.
Seatpost is chromed steel and bars & stem are roadster-style flat bars. Saddle is a sprung wide roadster style Brooks - but not leather.
It's a curious-looking machine to my eyes, because of having flat bars combined with quite a close-ratio 5-speed, but of course it could have been cobbled together from several different bikes! It does feel quite light in weight though, considering it has steel rims and steel cranks, bars and seatpost. It's lighter than my 3-speed!