Carlton Frame ID Help Needed!

[MartyP]

Hi All,

Got given a well made but tatty Carlton frameset tonight and have a little difficulty identifying it... Frame/fork number is 128226 and had chrome lugs, half chrome stays and forks and looks like it was Green with possibly an Orange head-tube - any ideas? Will add a few more pics tomorrow... @Spokesmann any ideas?

Cheers, Marty

 

[Spokesmann]

Hi All,

Got given a well made but tatty Carlton frameset tonight and have a little difficulty identifying it... Frame/fork number is 128226 and had chrome lugs, half chrome stays and forks and looks like it was Green with possibly an Orange head-tube - any ideas? Will add a few more pics tomorrow... @Spokesmann any ideas?

Cheers, Marty

Says Flyer to me. Any numbers on the rear LHS drop out. Birds Mouth lugs and wrap over stays in the larger flattened design are all Flyer hallmarks.

 

[Spokesmann]

 

[otherself]

Hard to know what year from the serial. Raleigh took over Carlton in 1960 and all the serial numbers became alphabet soup.

 

[MartyP]

Says Flyer to me. Any numbers on the rear LHS drop out. Birds Mouth lugs and wrap over stays in the larger flattened design are all Flyer hallmarks.

Thanks Spokesmann - no numbers on the drop-outs - just the the Zeus stampings front and rear. Wow, that's pretty! Wish mine was like that buy one day possibly? Cheers, Marty.

 

[MartyP]

Hard to know what year from the serial. Raleigh took over Carlton in 1960 and all the serial numbers became alphabet soup.

Yes, I'm learning that - any idea what sort of year range these were made like this?? Not sure why there is a second set of numbers either? Cheers, Marty

 

[Spokesmann]

Carlton numbering can be a little misleading sometimes, the Flyer above is on an H prefix, 1960, so 61 - J, 62 - K, 63 - L and so on. They went up to Y in late 60s, then from about 1968 the letter/5 digit form was dropped for (iI think) just 7 digits, until... 1972 when the W prefix (for Worksop) and a 6 digit number format was introduced. Just to confuse it more around the early 70s high end bikes like the Professional etc used a letter prefix as they did in the old days - These had their number on the BB shell and not the rear LHS drop out.

 

[AndyMart]

You have a Z prefix there which I think dates it to around 68 or 69, I'd guess that's a flyer or grand prix as the road going version was known for a little while, its a lovely frame either way and a great project. BTW the second number denotes special order, carlton offered braze ons chrome etc as extras