This nicely-put- together lady's twin-lat frame owes nothing to the skill of "Pongo" Braithewaite of "AENDE" fame. Pongo would have chopped at least four and a half inches off that wheelbase. As I recall he wouldn't get out of bed to build anything with more than 37" centre to centre, front-to-back. Although he was best known for his extreme time-trial frames with fag-paper clearances between tyres and frame tubes ,,and plenty of "drillium", I nhave seen a number of his more normal bikes..but they were always built with speed in mind whether that was racing , touring., or pottering. He might have been related to the Braithewaite brothers of Kendal...that is a possibility but as he was last heard of living in a sort of self-imposed exile somewhere like Thailand..it might be difficult to find him.
I have lived close..about 30 miles from Kendal...for 37 years..and used to sponsor, in the halcyon days of the 80s, the local bike club, the Kent Valley Road Club. Before that I had visited Kendal and the beautiful countryside about it over a period of 18 years. I still have friends up there and know the owners of a couple of bike shops..and have taken many trade-in machines from Kendal townsfolk..but have never either seen or heard speak of the Braithewaite Bros shop.
Clearly the shop existed, much like Shuttleworth Bros, about 55 miles south in Keighley. The frame on Ebay is a business like functional machine, I reckon, rather than an exotic creation..but it has a certain purity of construction about it, thanks to its Oscar Egg "Super Champion" lugs, Cyclo drop-outs etc...both items redolent of the early 50s..
If anyone on the List is seriously interested I would be willing to collect the bike and send it over to wherever needs. In fact I could combine two good deeds in on day...collect the bike..and take my wife out for the day, as she seldom grumbles too much when looking, buying, collecting bikes is combined with a drive in the country..although Tebay, where this bike is, is a God-Forsaken small town sitting up on an exposed corner of the notorious Shap Fell. It's quite desolate and wind-raked up there1
Norrsi Lockley,... Settle UK