Ken Evans Help!

General Fixed Street
1

Hi All,

I’m new on the Forum and I was hoping that you might be able to help me out with a little info…

I mainly ride road but a little while ago I picked up a Ken Evans track frame, with the grand plan of building it up and starting to ride Track. I’m almost finished the build, and am looking for a bit of info on whether the consensus is that it is a legit frame. Its in Green and Gold Colours, and the story goes that it belonged to an old Australian Team Mechanic who was clearing out things that he had picked up across the journey.

I’m questioning whether it is legit or not because it doesn’t have the customary Seat Stay & Fork Crown ‘K’. If its legit, I’m assuming it was a cheaper model, if its not, it could mean its anything. There are some Ken Evans with very similar lug work, and no details similar to mine i.e. here: http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll298/petemcleod/kenevans.jpg
Lockedcog.com – Bikes on the Streets. » Blog Archive » Ken Evans and a Repco.

And to be honest, I can’t imagine it would be the sort of bike someone would dodgy up to try and make a dollar!

And I’d be keen to know if this frame likely had any olympic pedigree!

I’ve attached some pics here :slight_smile: , and would really appreciate your help.

Chapsenson CC

Thanks!

Tim

2

^ I’d say it is legit. Serial number is in the right place and looks to be a high quality frame. (Check out that fork crown, phwoar!) I believe some earlier Kens didn’t have the K pantos.

But why don’t you ask him yourself?

3

Serial number placement, and numbers stamped in the lugs is extremely similar to the 2 Hillman’s i used to own, Kempie’s verified Hillman, and another mates unverified Hillman.

Food for thought.

Can always ask them too - that’s how I verified the authenticity of my frames.

4

^ Isn’t the Hillman serial further up the lug closer to where the down tube joins?

5

faux hillman

6

you’d know… :wink:

7

One of mine was more on the down tube, the other more in the meat of the BB shell. depends on the day I guess.

8

This is yours:

This is someone else’s:

It’s like looking a twins! :stuck_out_tongue:

9

while we’re pooling some Kenevens knowledge - anyone ever heard an explanation on the hierarchy of Ken ‘models’, often featured on the top tube near the headtube?

eg.
sport
competition
professional etc?

10

After reading this thread I also started to wonder if the ‘kenevans’ roadie I recently purchased really was. As it has been rather heavily resprayed I can’t make out a serial number, but I can see it is in the same place as both those photos /. There are no decals or pantos, so the only evidence I could tell that is was a ken, was the sellers word (he seemed legit). So I took P!n20’s advice and asked the man himself:

So there ya go. The seller told me it cost $3k back in 1989. I suppose this would have been the cheaper model.