identifying Old pros bikes.

[David B]

Not that it matters but nobody had a 753 cert at Orbit.

As well I remember - until 853 came along 653 was the best on offer from Orbit. Test-rode a very early 853 frame at Orbit one Saturday in 1995 and was very impressed with it!
When did you work there, Andy? Dad and I both had frame restorations done at the Peartree Lane workshops circa 1998; it's possible that our bikes may have passed though your hands at some point?

David

 

[AndyPA]

Not that it matters but nobody had a 753 cert at Orbit.

As well I remember - until 853 came along 653 was the best on offer from Orbit. Test-rode a very early 853 frame at Orbit one Saturday in 1995 and was very impressed with it!
When did you work there, Andy? Dad and I both had frame restorations done at the Peartree Lane workshops circa 1998; it's possible that our bikes may have passed though your hands at some point?

David

Hi David I had my own frame building business by then,I went to work at Autostrada after Orbit which is where I really got into frame building properly

 

[pigman]

The ANC-Halfords "Peugeots" at the '87 TdF were apparently built by Brian Rourke; there are no doubt countless other examples out there both at home and abroad.

David

you may be right. I remember a clubmate using malc elliots anc bike as a winterbike well into the 90's and we were amazed that a 753 chromed-stay bike lasted so well. However, I distinctly remember the lug & dropout styling being reminiscent of peugeots, so they must have insisted on it looking like a pukka pug.

 

[David B]

Not that it matters but nobody had a 753 cert at Orbit.

As well I remember - until 853 came along 653 was the best on offer from Orbit. Test-rode a very early 853 frame at Orbit one Saturday in 1995 and was very impressed with it!
When did you work there, Andy? Dad and I both had frame restorations done at the Peartree Lane workshops circa 1998; it's possible that our bikes may have passed though your hands at some point?

David

Hi David I had my own frame building business by then,I went to work at Autostrada after Orbit which is where I really got into frame building properly

Thanks for clarifying that, Andy. Actually, have just seen a link to your Flickr page in a more recent post and the penny dropped upon seeing your surname - I recall seeing Perks steel frames out on the local roads back then, as well as examples still popping up in CW and Express & Star small ads to this day (am assuming your handiwork, unless there were other Midlands builders of the same surname operating around that time).

David

 

[pathman1915@aol.com]

Re:Zeus Euskaltel C1996

Hi ,
I have a pro edition Zeus Euskaltel with A.Lopez de M(Munier) on a brass plaque on the top tube if anyone is interested.
He was by accounts a pro in the late nineties and mid 200's and won the midi libre prologue I think,he also suffered a bad crash in the Giro.
I use it a bit unfairly as a commeter bike which is very unfair really.I would like to date it properly ,it also has a brazed on number fitting.
The down tube split and the paint was faded so I sent it to Bob Jacksons for renovation.The colour looked red to me but Jacksons sprayed it team orange although I seem to remember the Euskaltel team in red jerseys early on. but I may be mistaken.The groupset is mainly campagnolo record chainset brakes gears shifters 8 speed ensemble with a replacement carbon token bottom bracket in place of the chorus.The hubs have no markings and I wonder if they could be a zeus drivative in cassette form.The allen key screw keeps working loose and the cassette has a lot of play and movement at the moment.Tubing is columbus genius and like tinfoil when the tube split.THe bike is close clearance and very twichy in the wet.You have to be very careful in the wet as it just slides away at the back but in the dry it is very responsive.
If you were riding this in the Giro heaven help you in the wet..
If anyone is interested I will post some photos.
My mum and Dad also knew Ken Janes quite well the Hetchins lugcutter,who sold me a frame I remember he claimed belonged to former pro champ Ron Coe which he claimed was a bianchi.
From what I remember it had chrome front and rear forks and head lugs .The frame was a bit of a sloper but had campag ends with prugnat lugs and full soping crown.He did tell a few porkies though.
I won the Peter Moore Memorial Trophy on it and bought a Hetchins Magnum Opus 1971 featured on the Hetchins website.

 

[Woz]

The ANC-Halfords "Peugeots" at the '87 TdF were apparently built by Brian Rourke; there are no doubt countless other examples out there both at home and abroad.

David

you may be right. I remember a clubmate using malc elliots anc bike as a winterbike well into the 90's and we were amazed that a 753 chromed-stay bike lasted so well. However, I distinctly remember the lug & dropout styling being reminiscent of peugeots, so they must have insisted on it looking like a pukka pug.

Yep. I can confirm BR built the ANC team bikes. From memory, there was the BR head-tube logo at the rear of the seat-tube hidden behind the stays and they had the distinctive wrap over stays. Same goes for the Moducel team; Potteries based like ANC was,.

 

[Old Ned]

Moducel also rode Pennines at one time (1982?).

According to Adrian Timmis on a thread on here recently about him 'doing-up' his old team bike, his frame was not a Rourke it was a genuine Peugeot, as were others. Possibly Malcolm Elliott's was a Rourke and maybe Joey McCloughlin's was a Cougar.

 

[Herbivore]

An old mate of mine rode for Patrick Schils in the 80s. He was measured up and had a Merckx built for him but he never got on with it: Not really suitable for Kellogg's City Centre stuff. So he had a Rourke built and sprayed and stickered out of his own pocket to look like his Merckx. Pretty small scale but another example nonetheless.

 

[stedlocks]

I have a lo-pro gazelle in TVM colours and with the TVM panto on the BB.. I have it on good authority, that it was ridden in the 93 or 94 Tour de France, by hendrick redant. It doesn't have a serial number, just a 7 stamped underneath. One or two people don't believe this was his bike, as it only has his name written on the TT in black fine marker, like a sharpie!
The chap I got it from has a habit of coming up with Ittle gems though for me....I have no doubt :0)

 

[grubb1937]

I can confirm that any of the continental made pro frames I have handled, did not have any frame numbers. Some of the 1960s TDF Lejeune frames were actually quite crudely finished by UK standards but importantly rode very well. The paint, in all cases I have seen, was never laquered. The expectation being that the frame would be crashed and scrapped. TI-Raleigh made 6 x 753 frames for each pro rider and were then replaced on a one for one basis. This also applied to the Irish National team it sponsored in 1980.