What brand is this logo?
- Thread starter StradaBianche
- Start date
I'm going to guess it's the world-famous "n_" brand, launched in 1979 by Nigel Partridge (the inspiration behind the XTC song "Making Plans for Nigel", the lyrics of which outline the business plan concocted with his parents to launch a premium steel bike empire). Nigel's surname is never revealed in the song and the "_" gives the logo a sense of mystery. The lower case "n" accentuates his general modesty.
Sadly only one bike was made before Nigel's pocket money savings ran out (having invested heavily in the production of the fine decals in your photo) and he was forced into a life of petty crime interspersed with the occasional appearance in pantomime. All of this makes your bike highly collectable - similar in many ways to a Cinelli Laser of around the same period.
*I was never entirely convinced by the "If you have nothing to say, say nothing" maxim.
Sadly only one bike was made before Nigel's pocket money savings ran out (having invested heavily in the production of the fine decals in your photo) and he was forced into a life of petty crime interspersed with the occasional appearance in pantomime. All of this makes your bike highly collectable - similar in many ways to a Cinelli Laser of around the same period.
*I was never entirely convinced by the "If you have nothing to say, say nothing" maxim.
StradaBianche
Dirt Disciple
Re:
Brilliant Dirtbag. Brought a smile to my day
Brilliant Dirtbag. Brought a smile to my day
StradaBianche
Dirt Disciple
fattiman":2mk8a76m said:
Thanks Retro Guru. How sure are you in that? Have looked it up and seems like they mostly did MTB and not quite with a bike decal like this. Could be?
531Man
Dirt Disciple
Re. ZG866 you missed the further elusive arty nature of the logo is compounded with the ambiguity introduced by the questions raised, "is that an 'n' overlying a hidden 'p' representing the full Nigel Partridge name, or a question mark '?' to draw attention to the ' - ' mystery interpretation" ?
Nigel needs to do some explaining.
That's some top arty advertising agency metaphysical input paid for there.
Or it could of course, by googling some images be an early steel Parkpre.
(From another one prone to over verbalise)
Regards
Robin.
Nigel needs to do some explaining.
That's some top arty advertising agency metaphysical input paid for there.
Or it could of course, by googling some images be an early steel Parkpre.
(From another one prone to over verbalise)
Regards
Robin.
...and indeed this is why Nigel's business plan was doomed to fail; after spending so much with the design agency and decal tooling, little money was left to invest in the frame development and the dreams of a launch at the top of Alp d'Huez were scuppered once it was found that only 47p remained for the air fare. In a last-ditch effort to cut costs, the intended 753 Dynaflite was swapped for some scaffold tubing salvaged from a local skip and the original custom titanium lug order cancelled in favour of a batch of stamped steel items that had been rejected by one of the well-known Sunday paper colour supplement catalogue brands. The result? A pretty average steel sports bike in a crowded market - albeit one which revolutionised head tube branding.531Man":1eeqm566 said:
It would, of course, be a schoolboy error to take this obvious course of action. Original Nigel Partridge frames (manufactured under licence by Acme Corp) are sometimes missed by the experts at Sotheby's and change hands for pennies, never attaining their true worth. Not something that would have made young Nigel say he was happy...531Man":1eeqm566 said:
