Speedwell wheel size / rough date of manufacture?

General Help
1

I bought this fixed-wheel bike a couple of days ago for $5 and was wondering if 700c size wheels would fit on it (is there a way that I can check?), the bike is very light, still has a leather seat as you can see in the pic, any ideas on when it would have been made?

Cheers

2

wow, good bargain. i guess late 60’s-early 70’s, see what others say though.

3

That is a nice find indeed,
I will post it on a forum over here

and will see if anyone there can help, they have a few switched on retro heads as well.

Was also goin to say that small bar thing running from the nose of the saddle back to the post would normally run back tp the
top tube and this adds as a support to the tip of the nose so it doest move when sprinting, follow this thread for an example.
See the yello mustard bike.
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3922

Cheers
SP

4

thanks for the info guys :wink:

5

yeah, sorry, it will take 700c wheels.
i’d recommend you don’t paint it, or drill the fork, that kind of thing is frowned upon :wink:
does it have nervex lugs?, i thought it might from the picture.] but i can’t really tell. they look like this
if it does then you can roughly tell if it was pre or post 1955 depending on the shape of the headtube lug detailing,detail here
here’s a page about speedwell http://canberrabicyclemuseum.com.au/Speedwell/Speedwell.htm

here’s a 1950’s speedwell

your’s looks more recent then this but the company was sold to the owners of malvern star in 1965, at which stage i would assume they stopped making bikes under that name.

6

i’d recommend you don’t paint it, or drill the fork, that kind of thing is frowned upon :wink:

yeah, i wont be modifying the frame in any way apart from a bit of polish :wink: i have other frames which i can butcher hehe

thanks for the info LAM, it does have nervex lugs so i guess that its post 1955.

i’ll see if the rims and spokes can be saved with some oxalic acid and polish, if not ill replace them with similar styled rims & new spokes. ill post pics after its fixed up :wink:

7

No, my speedwell is a 1977. It also has the same decal on the downtube as that one.

Is there a serial number on the bottom bracket