Norris -
Your insight into this topic is amazing - thanks for trying to help solve my mystery and thanks for your input to the list.
Brad Potter Augusta, GA
On Jun 16, 2004, at 8:03 PM, Norris Lockley wrote:
> In an email off-List Brad Potter asked me if I knew which company
> might have built his 70s Witcomb. That is a puzzler! In a recent entry
> on-List Richard Sachs has also stated that cheaper end Witcomb USA
> frames were built in Wales. So the mystery deepens.
>
> In Wales at that timethe only company with any capacity was the firm
> knocking out very basic sports machines for the multiple retailer
> Halfords.. It is possible they did produce something better but it';s
> unlikely In the extrem west Midlans not too far from the Welsh border
> there was Comrade cycle co that produced excusively OEM frames..
> better, lighter sports.. now there would be a possibility.
>
> I remember having a Witcomb traded into my shop in the early 80s that
> I thought was a very average frame bearing Witcomb's transfers, and I
> recall that Witcomb at Tanner's Yard in London did havea wholesale
> off-shoot called Witcomb Trading. That was a good standard "Comrade
> type" I think Comrade also did work for Dawes and Viscount but at what
> level I'm not certain.
>
> A long shot is that it could have been some part of the Falcon empire.
> Had these Witcomb USA frames been in the 80s/early 90s I would have
> said with some certainty that they would be Falcon produced frames,
> from their Newtown factory. It is possible that that factory had been
> there for some years. In the 70s and 80s I used to visit the Falcon
> "factory" at Brigg in Lincolnshire a couple of times a month and there
> was little evidence of frame-building activity there. A spray plant
> yes, building, no.. or at least I didn't see it.
> In the late 80s /early 90s Falcon won some large contracts to supply
> quality " series" frames to the States. At that time I was very
> friendly with Wes Mason (ex MKM) who was trying to earn a living
> making frames in his own name in the 16'x 8' asbestos sheet garage in
> his garden. He produced about three a week but really needed 4.5 to
> ,make a reasonable living.
>
> I remember him becoming very excited at have been "head-hunted" by
> Falcon with a view to heading up their fork production plant, for the
> American contract. At the interview he was asked if he could set up
> such a production line and how many forks he was currently making each
> day.Knowing that his best day produced about eight forks, he blustered
> his way through, got the job and was faced with a project requiring
> several hundred per day, of a good quality using the well-known
> Cinelli "aero" road crown - the one with the internal "legs"
>
> I understand that there are quite a few frame-builders on this List
> and I assume that you have too have had some difficulties brazing
> these things up, ie getting enough braze material into the joint.
> Around the time Wes started up his Falcon unit Cinelli had produced
> quantities of these crowns that had the fault of air-hardening after
> brazing. Every UK builder seemed to have bought a batch of them.. I
> got over the problem by letting them cool really slowly covered by
> lime. Wes wasn't so lucky. Having produced his first large batch he
> then attempted to drill them...but of course the brake hole just
> couldn't be drilled due to the hardening. He 'phoned me for my ideas
> which I passed on readily.. but Wes' forks were already made.. Reheat
> them?
>
> Fears of fork crowns failing from brittle fracture haunted the Falcon
> hierarchy... expensive litigation suits in the USA.... the contract
> wasn't worth a candle, Can't actually recall the sequel to the story,
> but I remember Wes selling MTBs off a market stall not long
> afterwards.
>
> Then of course there is the tale of the Lancashire frame-builder in
> the 90s - quite a big set-up with 7 staff, the chief having built only
> one frame in his life.No.. this IS TRUE. Having spent a small fortune
> on the best Italian jigs and machinery, the firm set about producing
> frames. a batch of 100 was decided upon.. and a 100 main triangles
> brazed up. Then 100 forks were built using straight blades onto the
> infamous Cinelli Aero crown. When they attempted to bend the forks on
> one of the Bike Machinery jigs, the majority of the fork crowns and
> columns parted company from the blades and drop-outs.. a lack of
> brazing material in the fork crown to blade loint being to blame. The
> 100main triangles hung from racks for months and were sand-blasted
> three times before they managed to hire an experienced frame-builder
> who knew how to braxe on the rear triangles. Fortunately for you folks
> in the States, none of these frames were exported BUT they were
> eventually sold in the UK.
>
> Norris Lockley.. Scouts' honour.. settle UK