Denton Frame - Any Info?

[WilliamC]

I bought this frame on ebay last week and would be very grateful for any information regarding likely maker, year of manufacture etc. I know from other threads here and elsewhere that Dentons were a Newcastle bike shop and commissioned frames from a number of different makers including Mercian but I don't think this is so smart as that. The dropouts are marked "Dawes" and it does have some similarities to a mid seventies Galaxy I have so maybe they made it but there is also "Davis Components 60 62" stamped under the BB and a serial number: JM1615. It has a 531 sticker on but the lugs are not very fancy and the forks look distinctly ordinary - dropouts quite poorly brazed and rather plain crown (pressed rather than cast?). There are more photos on my flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27344909@N ... 252805292/

 

[Old Ned]

I would say that if the dropouts are marked Dawes then it's 99.9% certain that that's what it is. It looks like one too. The one I had in the 80's had seatstay tops like yours. Denton probably resprayed it.

 

[Piers]

A bit of a guess, but I think Denton were associated with Hardisty Cycles in some way (Denton is in Newcastle). The lettering looks similar to the Hardisty name too.

 

[Pendlington]

Denton cycle's had no connection with Hardisty Cycles

 

[Nob]

Dawes Galaxy

 

[originalshinkicker]

A bit of a guess, but I think Denton were associated with Hardisty Cycles in some way (Denton is in Newcastle). The lettering looks similar to the Hardisty name too.

I worked at Dentons for many years. Dentons and Hardisty were very separate and not associated at all. The 3 main shops in the area being Dentons Hardistys and M Steel. Dentons had many customers who shopped with us for decades and it wouldn't have been unknown for a customers own bike to have maybe been given a bit of a new lease of life and a set of Denton transfers if that is what they wanted. Dentons were also a Dawes stockist for many years.

 

[Jonny69]

I just checked a Dawes that someone keeps here as a backup bike. His is a lower-end 501 frame from the 1980s. The striping round the lugs is there and the scallop-shape cut out on the tops of the rear stays is the same shape with the same striping. I'd also say it's a Dawes Galaxy. It'll be 531 if the seatpost is 27 or 27.2mm, 501 if it's 26-ish and standard gaspipe grade if it's 25.4mm.

 

[WilliamC]

Thanks everyone, I love it when a dormant thread comes back to life. As the consensus seems to be that it is an old Galaxy frame that has already had one make over I don't feel bad about messing it about a bit more. I've already taken a modified g clamp to the chain stays to improve tyre clearance and in the new year it will be subjected to more of my novice brazing practice: bottle bosses, rack mounts, cable guides, etc and may be in line for my first dabble in the dark art of "Shimergo"!

 

[BobToo]

I just checked a Dawes that someone keeps here as a backup bike. His is a lower-end 501 frame from the 1980s. The striping round the lugs is there and the scallop-shape cut out on the tops of the rear stays is the same shape with the same striping. I'd also say it's a Dawes Galaxy. It'll be 531 if the seatpost is 27 or 27.2mm, 501 if it's 26-ish and standard gaspipe grade if it's 25.4mm.

When I was looking for information about my Dawes Fox I read somewhere that it was made of something called "Supertube", would that be 501 under a different name? The seatpost does measure 26.something.

 

[Jonny69]

That I don't know. The 501 out in the shed looks to be either 26.0 or 26.2 depending what way you measure it. Wikipedia says 501 came in two different thicknesses so it could well be the same stuff. Bike manufacturers used to like using the Reynolds name as a selling point though, so Supertube could have been their own spec and a way around having to buy tubing off Reynolds which was probably more expensive.