To anyone who may be interested in the history of the Gillott, according to the seller, the frame have only a 3 digit serial number on the BB. This does not sound like a real thing to me, anyone have a guess of who made it?
Michael Chan - Lytham UK
>From: "Mark Stevens" <mark@lentran.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]Gillott issues
>Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:06:20 +0100
>
>Regarding Gillotts and Edwardes. Harry Carrington sold out to Edwardes in
>February 1963 but Ron Cooper carried on building top quality Gillotts at
>the old Southampton Way shop. Harry, meanwhile left in 1966. He had stayed
>on to support Ron. Harry was disgusted at some of the junk that was coming
>into Edwardes, either bought in or P/ex, and then being resprayed and
>badged as a Gillott. He also fell out with them over the 1964 catalogue.
>Ron continued until he left in 1967, later to set up as Ron Cooper Cycles
>in Honor Oak. Ron was still building the occasional Gillott to special
>order. The numbering system was now different from the old year prefix
>system used since 1945. So far 7100, 7304 and 7309 are known. All seem to
>date from the early 1970's so there is a pattern here perhaps. Only Time or
>Ron will tell. Ron is renowned for his build quality so these rare
>'genuine' Gillotts from that period are fine bikes. I put the word Genuine
>in inverted commas because Harry once said to me that the last genuine
>Gillott was built in February 1963. I could hear the anger in his voice.
> As for the 'Edwardes' Gillotts. They seem to fall into 3 categories as
>far as I can tell. .
>1. Frames rebadged as Gillotts by Edwardes after being acquired by sale or
>part exchange. This could feasibly be any type of frame.
>2. A batch of unknown quantity - several hundred perhaps, made at
>Raleighs. Either using up stocks of obsolete frames from Carlton, Sun or
>whatever (all Raleigh). These are the frames seen by Dave Marsh.
>3. A batch of Holdsworth Mistrals bought in the early 1970's.
>Edwardes had a large stock of Gillott badges and transfers left over form
>the buyout. They also had some new designs made including the block
>lettering I believe.
> It is a great shame that the reputation of one of the finest British
>frame builders should have ended on this note. The fact that these fakes
>keep surfacing on ebay means that you need to be on the ball when dealing
>with them. The one currently on ebay is an absolute horror. No relation to
>seller...
> Mark Stevens in balmy Evanton in the Highlands of Scotland.