You are reading a single comment by @jeff80 and its replies. Click here to read the full conversation.
  • I don't know this as fact, but I thought a lot of that stuff hadn't been standardised by the late 20's - which includes the bottom bracket, headset and lugs which all look like standard parts on your frame.

    I believe the frame parts you mention are all Chater Lea on this frame, which I guess is what Charlie meant by 'Chater lightweight'. I don't know when the practice began, but I've seen references to BSA or Chater components frames earlier than 1929.

    Incidentally, I had a number of little mods done before I painted the frame. These included mudguard eyes on the rear fork ends (for a rack), Sturmey control cable stop on the top tube and a new seatstay bridge. Unfortunately (as mentioned elsewhere) I failed to remove the lamp boss on the front forks. In fact the front forks seem to be non original since the numbers don't correspond - something I only noticed yesterday - it's only too easy to come to false conclusions with something as old as this and which has seen a lot of use.

    The weight of the main frame, excluding bearings, is about 4lbs 12 ozs, around 8ozs more than a classic butted 531 frame of this size.

    As for Earlsfield, there was a strong frame building tradition in South London and I guess that any Norwood Paragonian going north of the river for a new frame would have been seen as a traitor!

  • could it be Reynolds High Manganese tubing? I had an EF Russ that was apparently this (the tubing sticker said it was, but I think it may have been repainted so couldn't say for sure). From what I remember the weight was slightly heavier than a 531 frame of it's size, so that would seem to match yours frames weight

  • I guess it must have been whatever was good quality tubing at the time - it had been repainted before I first saw it, and as far as I can remember there was no indication under the paint.

About

Avatar for jeff80 @jeff80 started