Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.B17
04-23-06, 08:48 AM
I got a lugged vintage-y CX frame on ebay two weeks ago, and would like to know, just out of curiosity, what the make is.
The seller advertised it as having been made in 1987.
Frame: I'll call it a CX frame rather than a touring frame because the chainstays aren't really long enough for touring (probably won't take anything larger than a 32 with fenders), and it has only one set of eyelets on the dropouts. Nothing expensive or fancy, just a simple lugged frame. The frame was a dark metallic silver/grey, and there was a red Tange 2 sticker on the seat tube near the BB. I don't know if this was the original finish (I say "was" because, concerned about rust, I stripped the paint. My fears were confirmed, but only slightly, and the rust wasn't as bad as it could have been). The frame has old and new characteristics. Shifter-accepting bosses on the downtube rather than cable guides. Three cable guides on the top tube, housing goes uncut from lever to hanger. Vertical Shimano dropouts and two sets of bottle bosses, more or less equidistant from the BB shell. It has the simpler canti bosses, stamped R7 with only one hole for the end of the spring. Instead of the usual plastic derailleur cable guide, it has two tiny tubes brazed beneath the BB shell. There is no cable hanger brazed onto the seatstays, but instead a v-shaped piece of chromed steel stamped "Dia-Compe" that fits between the binder bolt edges and the outside of the clamp "ears". There are no screwholes in the headtube, so there must have been a decal there at some point rather than a badge. The seatstay and chainstay bridges have threaded holes for fenders, and there is a mysterious threaded reinforced hole on the inside of the left seatstay about 1.5" below the canti boss. The hole faces inward toward the wheel.
Fork: Made from Tange ("Tange 8D" stamped on the steerer tube). Painted to match the frame, so I think the paint was factory. The big thing (which I'll be having altered) is that the fork, while appearing to match the frame lugwise, has the canti bosses brazed too high on the blades for cantis. IOW, the fork requires a different kind of brake than the frame. May be a different fork, or a mistake in manufacturing, but the bosses (fork bosses stamped F 10) match those on the frame. The frame has definitely been ridden, so someone had a brake that fit the fork. Came with an older steel headset that appears to be original, IMO. The headset spacer has a sawtooth pattern on the bottom that fits into a matching pattern on the part that goes over the bearings. It also has a Dia-Compe hanger that had its own QR built in.
26.8mm seatpost size, 68mm BB shell, 128mm rear spacing (I know it should be 126 or 130, but it is 128). The serial number is TCExxxx.
That's all I have- thanks for any help I can get.
The seller advertised it as having been made in 1987.
Frame: I'll call it a CX frame rather than a touring frame because the chainstays aren't really long enough for touring (probably won't take anything larger than a 32 with fenders), and it has only one set of eyelets on the dropouts. Nothing expensive or fancy, just a simple lugged frame. The frame was a dark metallic silver/grey, and there was a red Tange 2 sticker on the seat tube near the BB. I don't know if this was the original finish (I say "was" because, concerned about rust, I stripped the paint. My fears were confirmed, but only slightly, and the rust wasn't as bad as it could have been). The frame has old and new characteristics. Shifter-accepting bosses on the downtube rather than cable guides. Three cable guides on the top tube, housing goes uncut from lever to hanger. Vertical Shimano dropouts and two sets of bottle bosses, more or less equidistant from the BB shell. It has the simpler canti bosses, stamped R7 with only one hole for the end of the spring. Instead of the usual plastic derailleur cable guide, it has two tiny tubes brazed beneath the BB shell. There is no cable hanger brazed onto the seatstays, but instead a v-shaped piece of chromed steel stamped "Dia-Compe" that fits between the binder bolt edges and the outside of the clamp "ears". There are no screwholes in the headtube, so there must have been a decal there at some point rather than a badge. The seatstay and chainstay bridges have threaded holes for fenders, and there is a mysterious threaded reinforced hole on the inside of the left seatstay about 1.5" below the canti boss. The hole faces inward toward the wheel.
Fork: Made from Tange ("Tange 8D" stamped on the steerer tube). Painted to match the frame, so I think the paint was factory. The big thing (which I'll be having altered) is that the fork, while appearing to match the frame lugwise, has the canti bosses brazed too high on the blades for cantis. IOW, the fork requires a different kind of brake than the frame. May be a different fork, or a mistake in manufacturing, but the bosses (fork bosses stamped F 10) match those on the frame. The frame has definitely been ridden, so someone had a brake that fit the fork. Came with an older steel headset that appears to be original, IMO. The headset spacer has a sawtooth pattern on the bottom that fits into a matching pattern on the part that goes over the bearings. It also has a Dia-Compe hanger that had its own QR built in.
26.8mm seatpost size, 68mm BB shell, 128mm rear spacing (I know it should be 126 or 130, but it is 128). The serial number is TCExxxx.
That's all I have- thanks for any help I can get.