Please help me identify this old girl! Think she's British?

[lunker]

Hi guys, I appreciate any help you can give me. I am in Australia and am restoring this old thing that I received off a friend. Nobody knows much about it.

It is light and has a 27.2mm seat post.

Came to me with GB Hiduminium stem and brake calipers, Maes Stratalite bars and first-gen Campy record derailleur with the round wheels. I know those are about 10-15 years apart, so am not sure what the original gear was!

She was a 5 speed I assume - braze ons for cable down the RHS, so I assume she came with a single bar end shifter?

The bottom bracket shell says "GR 23 V LS" and British Made. There is also a small stamp that says F54 just above that.

Frame serial number is hard to make out, on both fork and dropout. I've attached a pic of the fork serial (both match).

The interesting part is that the fork has a lamp mount on the left hand side! We also had them on the right in Australia. It came with an old Chater Lea bracket.

There's no pic of it, but the head tube also has two small holes for a headbadge. They are vertically stacked.

I have been searching all over for possible answers and have come up empty so far. I hope someone from a British forum may be able to help!

Thank you all!

 

[hamster]

Elswick Hopper used to put stamps like that on the dropout. They also used a single letter at the front as a date code if I remember right.

Nice lugs!

 

[531brazed]

I like it. Could well be British. Odd that the bottom bracket has fancy lugwork except to the chainstays which are left plain.

 

[Jonny69]

Looks mid 1950s British to me. There's a chance that 54 might be your year and F the month. Fancy hand cut lugs, early looking dropouts but has the later mudguard eyes unlike the 1930s ones. Love the offset rear pump mounts to allow a tight-fitting rear wheel. 27.2mm seatpost means later Reynolds 531 tubes.

I think the easiest way to identify the builder would be to trawl Classic Lightweights. The signature parts on your bike are the lug pattern, very distinctive on your frame, and the curved rear brake bridge.

http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/builders.html

 

[OldTel]

Re:

Hi, what about a 1947 Hobbs Superbe it seems to all match. Terry

 

[keithglos]

Re:

Looks British, early to mid 1950s. Lugs remind me (from memory?) of an early 1950s Ephgrave I had with an offset pump, but his seat cluster was always easily identified. Looks like cast lugs, but rear ends are individual, can't remember any like them.

I used Cyclo Benelux handlebar controls in 1950, fairly new then, but had to modify them to work.

Keith

 

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

I would agree with Terry, that looks very much like a Hobbs to me. Nice frame.

 

[Big Block]

The frame number does not appear to conform with the Hobbs system(s)
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/hobbs.html

Some notes on British frame numbers are at
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/fr ... ering.html

The cable guides may have been added later, even shortly after the frame was made.

I am working on a 1952 EA Boult, a British frame that was regularly repainted and the cable guides were added, along with a Pennine CO2 pump boss, Campagnolo compatible shifter boss, and downtube bottle cage mounts. The rear dropouts were also swapped over to Campagnolo. Fortunately it remained in the hands of the original owner until I acquired it late last year. He is guiding its restoration.
It was bought out to Australia when he migrated.

There are many British bikes in Australia, and also there are many quality Australian frames of the period that used the same castings and lugs as available in Britain.
I have another project, a 1950s Adelaide-built bike, an 'Ace Special' with fancy lugs and detailed lining, scrolls and feathers.
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... 23&t=88684
fortunately its paintwork was survived.

The left hand light mount was also in Britain, and could have been specifically requested by an owner on an Australian made frame.
An option is to also place it on the Australian BNA Retro forum to see if it recognised.
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewforum.php?f=23

 

[OldTel]

Re:

Hi, I would just like to question your statement about the serial number, as this may be used as a reference at some point, according to your reference URL, doesn't this make this frame, the 1671st frame built in April 1947 ?

In 1947 the system used until the end of production was introduced. Each four or five digit number was prefixed by a letter, referring to the month of build. The first digit indicates the year. Thus number A7151, a ‘Raceweight’ in lovely original paint and complete with original invoice, was built in January 1947. In 1950 the system simply used the prefix 0, 1, 2 or 3.

We are all just speculating when it comes to this sort of frame identification, and it does have numerous Hobbs Superbe lug characteristics, and as you indicated the were many fine Australian framebuilders who could of imported lugs, copied designs, or created similar answers, thats why it is always good having serial numbers lining up, and in the right places, below is a Hobbs RaceWeight dropout from 1946, they started using the 'letter' prefix after this. Just trying to clarify why I reached my conclusion, I hope this helps. Terry

 

[531brazed]

the Hobbs above has eyelet In the dropout, as my my '46 Hobbs. Of course could have been different a year later