Datapoint and/or unsubstantiated claim: I had, and now Robert St. Cyr has, a Witcomb frame built in 1972. The drops are SunTour, horizontal road configuration in the rear. Barrie Witcomb assured me these were original to the frame.
Barrie said Ernie Witcomb had been to Japan in late 1971 or early 1972. He came back to South London with a suitcase of SunTour frame bits, which the Witcomb shop was assured were the first ones exported. The Witcombs translate that as: We built the first European frames with Asian frame components.
Naturally, that wouldn't do for sales in the British/European market at the time, so the ones built up with Japanese bits were shipped to the US, one per Witcomb dealer. From the Witcomb books, looks like the one in Robert's hands went through Riverside Cyclery.
For your purposes, Mark, this may mean the track drops are a refit. (Or, it may mean the Witcombs weren't the first with Japanese bits-n-bobs.)
Dan Kehew Davis, California, USA
On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Mark Fulton <markfulton5@mac.com> wrote:
> I need help with this. Please. I've finished stripping the paint from
> my '70 Paris-Sport Limongi track frame. I was surprised to find the
> entire frame was chrome plated. But the big surprise is that the
> drive-side track end, just below where the seat stay joins, is
> clearly stamped with the "Suntour" logotype. Okay, not so clearly,
> it's filled with black stuff that the paint stripper didn't cut, and
> the "ur" is brazed over. Oh yeah, and the ends were brazed in after
> the frame was plated, and they are not plated. I have a couple of
> questions. Why would the Suntour ends have been swapped in? And how
> do I know that I've really got a Limongi-built frame? The only other
> markings are "HB" stamped on the bottom of the drive side of the
> bottom bracket housing, with the 'H" next to the edge. As I said the
> frame is totally chrome plated. The bottom bracket, seat and chain
> stays, all the lugs, seat cluster, and head tube are polished. Only
> the head tube and its lugs and the seat cluster and seat stay caps
> were left unpainted. Obviously all of the original paint had been
> stripped before repainting. The HB on the bottom bracket was filled
> with Bondo or something before painting. The Jasco did clean that out.
>
> It's a puzzelment, and I'd appreciate any enlightenment you'll can
> provide.
>
> Mark Fulton
> I'll be right back after my ride in
> Redwood City
> California
>
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