Headset wasn’t anything particularly special, neither were the cranks. Doesn’t seem to have any fittings for bottles/pumps/etc brazed on, but it has road dropouts which kind of confuses me?
Here’s a serial on the bottom bracket:
5995064 (triangle?) 022E38
Sort of, still very hard to make out despit having now stripped paint fro the frame.
Seat post is roughly 26mm judging by eyeball and ruler.
Any help would be great, would be cool to know what I have.
That would be the majority of frames built up until the early 1960’s here in Oz.
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Looks like a cool frame. Trying to narrow down the builder by the type of frame fittings might prove fruitless as they were common for the time and here in oz most all the builders used parts from the same single distributor. Sadly, the BB serial number you mention is merely a casting in the shell from the manufacturer which notes the angles and specific info for the builder.
Don’t be dissuaded … look for stuff like the distinct nature of the seatstay caps/wrap around, vent holes, mitering, slotting for the drop outs etc etc … these will give clues to who may have built the frame. Lugs are just lugs, especially for that time … nobody did any extra shaping or unique hand worked lugs here in Oz, they just held the tubes together whilst being brazed.
The above shell casting is 59.3 x 64 degrees, 22mm chain stay sockets
dunno what the F38 may suggest? Style or model #? 38MM external diameter shell size?
Ha! It’s Ok … I’d much rather type it here so at least the info is out there, easily searched/referenced in future and others will pass it on (which is all that I’ve done). It’s the PM’s and emails that I’ve given up on long ago.
More importantly Thriller gets bonus points because it’s clear he has been doing some homework in norrowing down the lug styles/models. A good egg deserves a little help … Unfortunately it’s hard to see or take pics of the little details of the frame and successfully match them with other frames from the same builder. This can take some time, and sometimes it’s never clearly ID’ed.
Thank you so much for the info! I have spent a few days on and off searching around but it’s quite hard to find out anything about old frame builders and ‘trademark’ stuff that they might have done. Let alone Aussie ones.
Honestly it doesn’t seem to be anything super special (geo doesn’t look super tight with wheels chucked on, obviously no track drops and fender eyelets), but I love the lugs & am planning to build it into a classy looking fixie.
There weren’t any other markings around the frameset that could have been some kind of manufacturer stamp so I guess it would be down to the clues like Spirito said. So it looks unlikely to ever know, but that’s okay. Definitely a 60’s frame? Early/mid/late?? Guess that’s the question most likely to find an answer for.
Anyway if you’d like I could take heaps more detailed shots if anyone feels like playing detective?
Back at the time this frame were made tyres were a little larger than is common today and roads weren’t as good so the angles were usually a little slacker as well. Given that it has fender eyelets I’d say it would comfortably run a 200 x 28c tyre and fender so that’s what the extra space is for. Tight clearances were an 80’s thing but for the most people are just now starting to recover from this
Dating the frame is gonna be tricky but i’d suggest somewhere from the early 1950’s to possibly as late as the mid 1960’s. This was around the time those lugs and dropouts were used by Aussie builders.
You don’t have to but given the frame has this extra space you may as well use it with some fatter rubber. It will also improve the way it rides.
I think i will build up a to be a cool ride. Careful that you don’t discard the headset … keep it as it’s likely the stack height will be lower than most of what is available today. Many have learnt this the hard way.
