With the mention of Colin Laing recently, I was finally prompted to contact him about the frame I have. After an exchange of email, and him looking at the pictures posted on the Wool Jersey site, he has confirmed that the frame I have was built in '73 or '74. (My original guess of early '70's way pretty good it seems). Not only is Colin a genuinely nice guy, he also seems to have a sly sense of humor which would pop up occasionally in correspondence. When referring to the hand painted "LAING" graphic on the down tube of my frame, he said "I used to hand letter the down tube name quite a lot, when I was even more nuts than I am now". When determining when the frame might have been built, he apologized for his sketchy memory and said he "forgot when I made my own latest and that was last year sometime". So he is also (apparently) still actively building. I didn't want to ask his age, but his website says he has been building for 50 years, starting in the UK. That would be since 1955. I appears that he built personally for "professionals and enthusiasts" and that he provided "(unpainted) frames for some of the most highly respected companies in cycling". Don't know any details of what that really means, but it's pretty interesting. There's never been a lot of discussion here about Laing frames, and he doesn't even get a mention on the CR web site. Does anyone know of - have pictures of - own any early Laing frames (I know Jeff Archer has a Laing, but I think it's later than mine)? Anyone have more info? My Colin Laing:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Colin Laing web site:
http://www.colinlaingbicycles.com/
Wayne Bingham
Lovettsville VA