Saracen road bike info needed

[bearpark]

I have recently been in touch with Madison Distribution (the current owner of Saracen Cycles) to try and get some info about an old Saracen road bike frame and they don't keep records going back to the early/mid 1980s so they suggested I come here.

My bike started life as a Denton branded Saracen frame with 531st tubing. Its kitted out with Suntour ARX derailleurs, Stronglight chainset and Weinmann brake levers and calipers. The Stronglight BB is about 120mm, the bars and stem are made by GB and the seatpost is SR Laprade. Overall, not a bad bike although I suspect it was on the low-mid range end of the scale when new. Newcastle based Denton cycles unfortunately went out of business a few years ago, leaving no inroads to the original manufacturer.

What I really want to know is the date of the frame (I'll post the frame number later) and whether anyone else has something similar.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Old Ned]

There was a connection with Knight frames of Wolverhampton and this article on Classic Lightweights may go some way to explaining.

http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/bu ... lders.html

 

[bearpark]

Cheers Ned. Quite an interesting article, it seems that the Knight Saracen eventually became Saracen Cycles.

Still wondering how Saracen Cycles began distributing frames or branded Reynolds tubing to shops like Denton, and approximately when.

 

[Old Ned]

Cheers Ned. Quite an interesting article, it seems that the Knight Saracen eventually became Saracen Cycles.

Still wondering how Saracen Cycles began distributing frames or branded Reynolds tubing to shops like Denton, and approximately when.

I think Knight built a lot for 'the trade' and possibly carried this through in the early Saracen days. Sourcing frames from trade builders and fitting your own shop's decals was a very common practice.

 

[Simon Daw]

I think Knight built a lot for 'the trade' and possibly carried this through in the early Saracen days. Sourcing frames from trade builders and fitting your own shop's decals was a very common practice.

We (Buckley-Saxon Cycles of Castle Hedingham that once was) used to do the same thing with Saracen frames. I'm having to stretch my memory a bit, but I reckon it must have been around 1986-88.