What the chuff have I bought?

[Pierre]

So I won this eBay auction:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170911600262
...although to be honest I was the only bidder. I'd messaged the seller and asked for more photos and it looked interesting - at that price, splitting it for parts wouldn't be beyond consideration if it turned out to be a dog.

The seller bought it as part of a job lot of bikes at an auction, a bike shop's old stock and he was more interested in a couple of other bikes in the lot so eBayed this one. I picked it up last night and it's actually pretty lovely.

My question: what on earth is it?

The triple triangle made me think GT, an Edge or a Forte seem to be the names I've found, but all the photos I can find of those show they have a pierced top tube. As my photos below show, this definitely doesn't have a pierced top tube, it even appears to have a bottle cage mount on the back of the seat tube (I've waved a bottle cage at it, it would fit quite tidily just above the brakes).

I'm not sure what material it is - it's NOT magnetic but the tubes 'ping' when flicked, and those welds look very nice and tidy: might it be polished titanium? I'm not an expert on tubing so I haven't ruled out some steel alloy I'm unaware of. The forks are carbon and USA-made; the frame has no head badge, BB stamp or decal residues, the only marking I can find on the frame is on the outside of the rear driveside dropout, which has an odd shape a bit like a tall "A" lightly stamped then the numbers "729".

The seat tube bottle cage mount, the 650c wheel size and the small race-number-mount braze-on on the top tube a couple of inches back from the headtube (just about visible in my first pic, above the shifters) all make me think it was built as a time trial bike, and of course it's been built up as one, but beyond that, my limited knowledge fails me. Does anyone have any ideas?

Oh, and I'd describe the ride as "surprisingly not uncomfortable" from a quick spin around the block, I'll either adjust the base bar and ride it with these bars or change things so that I can have bar-end mounted shifters, although is there a way to do that while staying period-correct-ish?

Photos below...

 

[was8v]

Cripes that looks awesome!

To my eyes the welds look like its plasma arc welded titanium, although the tubes are kinda fat.

Royce chainring / chainset?

 

[Pierre]

Yes, I wondered about the tube - around the seat clamp area the external diameter of the seat tube is 31.9mm (27.2mm seat post so that's a 4.7mm thickness) but the welds don't look like aluminium.

It's one Royce chainring on a Mavic chainset, not a Royce chainset, but the Mavic chainset looks pretty nice. Actually the whole bike looks pretty nice, it's very clean and shiny!

 

[gregs656]

It feels like ti to me, I'm not sure the welds are quite what you would expect on a new ti frame but it's not a new ti frame.

It's lovely. Just my size too.

 

[tiermat]

Could be a GT copy, in the late '90's a number of manufacturers copied the style before GT got wise to it and slapped Cease and desist orders on them.

Either that or one of the Far East Ti or alloy copies, from the likes of XKD.

It looks nice.

You say the ride is uncomfy? That and the OD of the tubes would say Alloy to me, not Ti.

There's more than £350 of parts on that bike, IMHO, so if you don't want to ride it (which it sounds like to me) then strip it, sell all the parts (I wouldn't normally recommend that, but there is nothing that screams "I have to have these parts on me" on that bike) and keep the frame, mount it on the wall or build it into something else that you like, maybe with 700 wheels (if it will take them) and a modern groupset.

 

[john]

Interesting! Quite an eclectic bike and build.

From the pics it looks like ti FWIW. The assmption is GT but as you mention they nearly always have a pierced TT, went through all the 90s catalogues and don't see a ti road frame like this one. Otherwise could be something more generic although colnago did a titanium hellenic frame, think 700c only though > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300764896128? ... 276wt_1344

 

[Pierre]

thanks - tiermat, no it's surprisingly comfortable! I was expecting it to feel harsh, but it was quite smooth. It definitely won't fit 700c wheels, I think I'm just going to ride it as it is (and see how fast I can go : )

Interesting Colnago link, John, thanks - It's about the only other titanium triple triangle frame I've seen, although the Colnago has that distinctive tube profile.

It feels like titanium to me, the tight neat welds and that small rear derailleur cable stop looks like it wouldn't be strong enough if aluminium. I wasn't very aware of far east Ti bikes, maybe it's one of those...

 

[tiermat]

The funny A on the rear drop out makes me also think it might be one of the Russian Ti bikes that are floating about. Once the USSR fell apart the need for Ti for arms was removed, so the Russian market was flooded with it, which sort of leads us to where we are now on the world stage with Ti, but the former USSR also had a large number of people who know how to handle and weld Ti, so shops making copy frames but in Ti cropped up everywhere, some known outside of their home country, some not.

 

[Old Ned]

With 650 wheels probably designed as a triathlon bike rather than TT. I don't know any TT'er who would ride 650 in preference to 700 except for a small front wheel design frame.

Leave it outside for a month or two. If it rusts it's steel, if not it's Ti.

Whatever, nice looking bike.

 

[Grannygrinder]

.

Oh good you won it
Certainly looks like ti to me.
Looking at the welds i'd be amazed if its aluminium.
So the magnet test will tell you if its ti or steel.
Lovely looking frame either way, i can't imagine it was made by anybody other than GT

The big ring looks huge, do triatheltes run very big gearing like that? I'd have thought it was a timetrial bike?