Roy Thame with Columbus tubing

[Thame Game]

Hi there, new member here. I'm just working on a complete restoration of a Roy Thame frame. It's a bit of a novelty because I cant find any info on RT producing a frame using Columbus.
It is a superb quality build with his Colnago type cutouts in the lugs and BB. It appears to be a dedicated road race frame.
The only stamping I can find is a tiny 'W 86' (or is it 98 M?) on the underside of the BB.
Any info or ideas of a groupset would be most welcome.

 

[Midlife]

Very smart, what sort of columbus is it? More pics would be nice . Builders at Roy Thame loved a cloverleaf or two lol

 

[Thame Game]

 

[kermisking]

This Roy Thame frame looks definitely to be made by Ciocc in their Cannonica D'Adda factory near Bergamo Italy . It has the distinctive Ciocc cut out in the bottom bracket shell . If you put your fingers inside the bottom bracket shell and into the chain stay ports I bet you will be able to feel the pins that held the frame together for brazing. A rare frame Italian made for a British company, enjoy !.

 

[Thame Game]

You are dead right about the pins inside the frame kermisking. That is amazing info about CIOCC! That's going to take me down another route.
The frame is now bare metal stripped. Hopefully I can get a sympathetic rechroming service that wont cost too much.
Thanks so much for the help already on the forum.

 

[Thame Game]

This Roy Thame frame looks definitely to be made by Ciocc in their Cannonica D'Adda factory near Bergamo Italy . It has the distinctive Ciocc cut out in the bottom bracket shell . If you put your fingers inside the bottom bracket shell and into the chain stay ports I bet you will be able to feel the pins that held the frame together for brazing. A rare frame Italian made for a British company, enjoy !.

Thanks again for the heads up. I've been looking at some CIOCC frames and found some good clips on YouTube. They are virtually identical frames! Fantastic.
Do you suppose the BB is an Italian thread?

 

[kermisking]

If I was a gambling man I would say the Roy Thame frame would be Italian threaded . If you have and English and Italian bottom bracket cup to try its easy to find out . A very popular builder of quality road frames for many top brands as well as Ciocc.

 

[Tommy27]

Always interested in Roy Thame's since my Dad being a long term Holdsworth customer had one, which I later used as a cycle courier for a while.

Unfortunately while quite capable when it the saddle, it was very springy when out of it. This was weird since I believe he had previously had a frame from them and it was his LBS and he had great faith in them. I'll have to check whether it was off the peg or made to fit. I seem to remember he was given store credit or something, but he didn't risk having them build another. I think a clubmate sold him a 531 pro Peugeot and the RT became his trainer.

 

[pigman]

If I was a gambling man I would say the Roy Thame frame would be Italian threaded . If you have and English and Italian bottom bracket cup to try its easy to find out . A very popular builder of quality road frames for many top brands as well as Ciocc.

Sorry for my confusion. I wouldn't have guessed a global builder like ciocc would have ties with a British frame shop.
The question is ... this quoted post reads as tho RT built for ciocc, your previous post suggests ciocc built for RT. Which is correct?

 

[Thame Game]

I've just read elsewhere that when ciocc changed ownership 1980, some frames made it to the UK to Tom Crowther and Roy Thame. They are identical except for their respective names cut into the bb and seat stays. Here is a quote:
I had some very interesting information off an ex Belgian pro team mechanic. One of their team sponsors was a shop who was a CIOCC agent. When the CIOCC factory closed several blanks were delivered to the shop and 'distributed'. It seems these were bought by Tom and also Roy Thame, possibly some others. They are all panotographed with either Crowther or Thames names in an identical way. I can only assume they were all done together by the same person.