[CR]What is that Frame?

(Example: Framebuilding:Paint)

From: "Norris Lockley" <Norris.Lockley@btopenworld.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 01:25:15 +0100
Subject: [CR]What is that Frame?

The frame at Ebay item 7100886075 caused us to scratch our heads a little, with makers such as Follis and Bertin being favoured as the builder.

i know the Follis set-up quite well and they produce very well crafted frames that show a lot of attention to finishing the lugs, like those on the Ebay frame. However I cannot recall Follis using that short plated top-eye design frequently, but he might have done. Certainly the frame is too good for Bertin, but there are quite a few artisan builders in France who might have produced it. My opinion, unles I have missed something such as a French threaded bracket is that the frame is English.. and probably made by MKM... yes here we go again. In the 70s and early 80s MKM shipped out quite a lot of frames to the States, made to order for other shops' transfers. The frame on Ebay has identical lugs and fork crown to a touring model in an MKM catalogue of that era. A second frame in the brochure also uses the same components. Maybe some of the builders on the list can through some light on the matter. In decades of frame-building I have never come across that particular crown. Cinelli did one not to disimilar.. but like it. I reckon that MKM builders.. or a builder in the company filed up some other shape crown to that minimalist design.. It's a theory any how.

Norris Lockley.. still scratching away in Settle, UK