ID this bike please

[dsbb]

121mm rear spacing and no serial number anywhere. Rear dropouts look like campag 1010 but I'm not sure. A real Holdsworth or not? Thanks

 

[bikeworkshop]

The lug detail looks a lot older than the fork crown, the dropout looks 90s, but the spacing...?
I think the back end has been crushed in (from 126) by a hipster riding a 120 fixed hub.
The stays look a little pulled in to me.
Used to see loads of this in the fixie boom of 2006

 

[Jesper]

Details of the brake bridge and chainstay bridge might help to thin out the options. I am not familiar with Holdsworth's frame details of any era. What @bikeworkshop says makes sense, but seeing 2 sets of bottle cage mounts, bottom of BB cable routing keeps it more 80s era and later except for the Nervex lugs (did Holdsworth use them that late in time?). I cannot discern if stays were "coldset" or just bent in, but I would expect a 125/126mm rear spacing for the assumed era it was built.

 

[dsbb]

Thanks, a very weird build it was. 9 speed campagnolo shifters with a 7 speed block at the back

 

[bikeworkshop]

Commonly called "a lash up"

Often a sign of a bike that's been short on love, long parted from its original well- intentioned buyer.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Those full length rear brake cable guides are a feature of the late 80s.

I'd have thought that Holdsworth always stamped frame numbers, bb iirc, so have a close look that's not been filled in, or ground off.

No number, no holdsworth imo

 

[Jesper]

Another feature that sticks out to me compared to frames I have is that of the very pronounced cage mounts. They are twice the normal offset from the tube's surface than what I am accustomed to seeing; but I only have one English frame that is not a Raleigh. None of my Italian frames display that feature.

 

[Jonny69]

As @bikeworkshop says, that fork doesn’t look like it belongs with the frame. It’s much later. The frame is 1950s or 1960s and I’m basing that on the Nervex lugs. The 120 rear spacing is also consistent with that age. To my eye, they look like the shorter Nervex lugs, so better quality and that probably points to a better quality frame.

I’d wager it lost its original fork at some point (or might have been crashed) and it was replaced by a bike shop in the 80s or 90s who refinished it and added some later frame fitments at the same time, including the rear dropouts. Neon fades were late 80s / early 90s, which would tie up with the shape of that fork IMO. It could well have been done at Holdsworth, but who knows?

The original frame might be difficult to ID because a lot of builders turned out basic frames with unmodified Nervex lugs. With no distinguishing marks, stamps or lug filing, it becomes difficult to narrow it down to a particular builder

 

[dirttorpedo]

As @bikeworkshop says, that fork doesn’t look like it belongs with the frame. It’s much later. The frame is 1950s or 1960s and I’m basing that on the Nervex lugs. The 120 rear spacing is also consistent with that age. To my eye, they look like the shorter Nervex lugs, so better quality and that probably points to a better quality frame.

I’d wager it lost its original fork at some point (or might have been crashed) and it was replaced by a bike shop in the 80s or 90s who refinished it and added some later frame fitments at the same time, including the rear dropouts. Neon fades were late 80s / early 90s, which would tie up with the shape of that fork IMO. It could well have been done at Holdsworth, but who knows?

The original frame might be difficult to ID because a lot of builders turned out basic frames with unmodified Nervex lugs. With no distinguishing marks, stamps or lug filing, it becomes difficult to narrow it down to a particular builder

I had similar thoughts about a possible 80's respray considering the conflict between the lugs and the frame colourway