Need help identifying frame please.

[davide4]

Hi guys,
I have just aquired a bike which I would like to restore.
Unfortunately I can't identify the frame and would appreciate some help if poss.
size 23" seat angle 73 head angle 71.
built with Campag dropouts, the offside rear having derailleur hanger with spring hole (1950's? or using up old stock?)
seat pillar measures 27mm dia.
Frame number 53020 stamped on nearside rear dropout and steerer tube.
Lugs not fancy but wraparound seat stays.
Fitted out with quality components from various periods, Campag Gran Sport 10 speed, Regina block, Campag chainset, Mavic bars, later Weinman brakes,
Ambrosio Montreal sprints on Campag Q/R hubs. Brookes saddle.
It had been stickered up "Hobbs" but I am pretty sure its not.
First time I have ever posted so hopr I have done it ok.
Any help would be most useful.
Dave

 

[keithglos]

The head lugs look like castings, is it 73 head and 71 seat angle. I can't remember seeing that type of wrapover before very late 50s, but the rest of the frame looks a bit earlier. Not much help. Looks later than the "53" in the frame number might suggest.
Keith

 

[davide4]

Hi Keith,
Thank you for your interest. The angles are actually 73 seat and 71 head.
I am so out of touch, my last road bike was 72 parallel, 60 yrs ago!
Dave

 

[keithglos]

Dave, thats odd because most of the cast lugs used on lightweight frames at that time were made 71 seat and 73 head. You could pull them about a degree, so could make them into 72 x 72, but 73 seat and 71 head would be very unusual.

Keith

 

[davide4]

Keith, thank you so much for trying to help me. I have just been out to my workshop and checked again with my vernier protractor and they are definitely 73 seat 71 head.
I doubt I will find out who made it, so I will paint it and not put a name on it except maybe my own on the front end of the top tube.
Cheers,
Dave

 

[sludgegulper]

Could it be 58020 not 53020? Would make more sense. Hard to see from the photos. Hobbs were selling frames through their Manor Park shop in the late 50s and early 60s badged up as theirs with similar frame number style but under B/B, despite what you read elsewhere about them finishing circa 1953. Was it a "Blue Riband" originally, or did it just have Hobbs crests?

 

[Nob]

Looks similar to a Major Nichols frameset but cast type lugs skew my train of thought…..

 

[sludgegulper]

Looks similar to a Major Nichols frameset but cast type lugs skew my train of thought…..

Major was using only semi-wrap-over top eyes in the late 50s. His brake bridges were either straight or much more pronouncedly curved.