Hi All,
Picked this one up today at a garage sale for $120 (was meant to be $80 but the seller clued on due to interest). I’m looking at doing some resto work on it, how do I determine if it’s a Kev Wigham frame or one that supposedly came out of Adelaide?
Also, what’s it worth?
Erle tip you off to this?
Call into mascot cycles and ask.
Not me, but Chris (not slinky) tipped me off. FOA is all over everything.
I just got off the phone from Ron Mitten and have some info on Michalo.
The story goes that Ron had a tool making business in Airport West and was at that time making trays for the biscuit industry and when things started to slow down, rather than put workers off, he turned his hand to frame building after talking with his friend Ken Evans. Between 1979 and 1994 somewhere between 200 and 250 frames were built, the last of which was made of Reynolds 753 and is still in the Mitten family, he also built a frame for Kathy Watt. Ron told me all Michalos were silver brazed and tubes were mitred on his mill. He mostly built road frames and built for veterans and raced as a veteran himself but also built some track frames (I know of 4 personally) and a handfull of touring frames that were produced for a fellow by the name of Ian (unsure of last name). The frames were painted at Mascot Cycles when they were located in Carlton. Some frames were also built for Vern Smith Cycles in Footscray.
Ron said he had to stop building when he broke his back in an accident and could no longer stand for the time needed to build frames and after doing some repair work here and there sold all his equippment to Cecil Walker. He also said that he was not a person to do things by halves and that if he couldn’t do it properly then he didn’t do it at all.
He sounded like a nice bloke and was happy to talk about his frame building days. I’m glad I pulled my finger out and called him!
^ Thanks for posting that up, Erle.
No probs, I’m stoked I got a chance to talk to him!
He also said that most of the frames he built were around the 56cm mark. So far i’m yet to find one.
new thread. pics galore, get it high on the google results!
cross-posting from spirito, cos michalo…
