Through the 1930's Macleans located their frame numbers on the seat lug
on the chain side. Post war when they started using the letter "K"
prefix they
relocated the number to underside of the bottom bracket shell.
>From approximately 1958 onwards things got pretty lean for Macleans no
pun intended. They kept going by selling equipment and clothing but they
hardly made any frames, although frame repairing and re-enamelling was
still quite busy right through to the end in late 1962. Their closing
down sale seemed to go on for ever and in the final month it was just a
bare empty shop.
British lightweight frame manufacturing is obviously intertwined to the
economy and fashion. Post war their was an enormous cycling boom in the
UK but
when the economy grew rapidly in the 1950's and car and motorcycle
ownership became more prevalent it started to wane dramatically. The
junior and schoolboy cyclists of the early 60's mostly became mods and
sold their bikes for scooter's, incidentally most of these fashion
crazed young cyclists rode Vespa GS scooters with hardly any junk on
them. The other mods from non cycling backgrounds rode the ones with all
the lights, crash bars fitted (junked-up)
Also the various lightweight makers were always linked to specific clubs so if the cycling club prospered through the lean years the maker tended to survive. All the clubs that you would automatically associate with Macleans folded quite early on and had vanished into obscurity by 1958. PS Hebden Cord might well be finished tried the phone and Fax number without success.
Croeso Cymru Joe King Nr. Maenaddwyn Ynys Mon Wales