Mystery (Ribble) Reynolds 531??

[jaykemun]

Hi,

I've been a frequenter and admirer of this site for sometime but have never posted anything so please let me know if I haven't followed procedure here. I was hoping that someone on here might be able to help identify a recent purchase of mine.

Bought on gumtree, it was advertised as being a Ribble made with Reynolds 531 and after stripping the paint there are some very faint but legible 'Reynolds 531 Butted' stamps at the intersection of some of the tubes. The forks and stays are chrome with campagnolo dropouts. However I have not been able to find a legible serial no. anywhere at all. It looks to me like a frame worth restoring but was hoping to get some advice as to what it might actually be assuming it is not a Ribble?

EDIT: Oops I forgot the specs!
It came wearing Raleigh branded Weinmman 610 brakes front and rear.
Raleigh branded Suntour rear mec.
Solida Crankset 48 -38 chainrings.
Sachs Huret clamp on front mech.
and mismatched wheels.

I can add more pics if anything would be useful to see.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Jake

 

[Nob]

No stamping on the bottom bracket & no stamping on the fork steerer tube?

 

[jaykemun]

Re:

Neither unfortunately :/

 

[Old Ned]

The 'dished' tops to the seatstays are often the mark of an 'Italian Job'. Could it be a 'trade' build from Italy for the early days of Ribble?

 

[droppedout]

Ned my British Eagle Touristique and my Mercian built Revell Romany both have that fluted / dished top to the seat stay. Maybe it was a popular flourish in the mid / late 80s

 

[droppedout]

The fork crown looks very similar to the one on my Romany, which may be made by Haden, and the dropouts are identical. But these parts were very popular and my frame is not chromed as yours appears to be.

 

[jaykemun]

Re:

Thanks for replies so far! Hmm i had hoped those seat stay caps might be a significant clue as i've not seen them quite this shape before.

It seems the fork crown, lugs and dropouts are fairly common though so not much help there i guess... Im curious as to whether the Raleigh brakes and rear mech might point to it's origin but i'm not sure? the chrome forks and stays seems to correlate to their 531 offerings of a similar age.??

 

[bowser]

Re:

I wouldn’t think ribble would be using campag dropouts
Interesting that they have mudguard eyes though
They did build early frames before importing them
Wouldn’t think they would custom build though