I think that ALAN's ALWAYS came with decals. My ALAN has some 1973/4 componentry ~ but late 70's stuff (gransport) and I got it in 2003 with no decals. But I think that once upon a time, it had the decals ( or a factory-supplied decalset ).
I think it was very common to remove (or not install) the ALAN decals since they engraved the head-tubes from inception (1971) up through much of the mid-80's. Some guides with top-tube guides lack the head-tube engravings. Mel Pinto (USA Importer for almost the whole history of ALAN) would know for certain; I'm cc'ing him on this email.
This is one of the coolest things about ALAN bikes. They have such beautiful laurel wreaths carved into the lugs, which polish up like mirros, and the name [A] [L] [a] [N] is carved right into the (lower I think) head lug!!
The bikes are so beautiful that I think many people stripped the decals, which have a robotic look to me.
Somewhere there is an ALAN Super Record 1977 bicycling magazine advertisement ; here is something similar, showing the decals :
http://www.bulgier.net/
- Don (58cm gold ALAN) Gillies
San Diego, CA