Clipped:
<<The pioneering use of Reynolds 753 begin, I think, in late 1974, early '75. It's been my understanding that henceforth only 753 was used for Ilkeston-made frames and that this was a frame only production either for the Team or special orders. I've also been told that "real" team bikes often lacked the Reynolds frame transfers. All Ilkeston-made frames had "SB" prefixed serial numbers and that true team bikes made for specific riders were also so indicated on the bottom bracket.>>
Peter,
Actually, I have a 531SL special order frameset from Ilkeston - it pretty much has the Pro features and no serial number whatsoever. Came to me unpainted! As I posted when I joined the list, this had been a special order through a family friend who was a Personnel Director at TI. From the responses I got at the time, there seems to have been only a small number (maybe a dozen) of frames built with the 531SL tubing.
Cheers,
Paul
Paul Williams,
Ottawa, ON, Canada