Classic & Vintage - Trying to identify an early 90's carbon frame.

In the early 90's I worked at a bike shop and someone brought in a georgous bike. I *think* it was Italian, and had a carbon butted frame. The butted areas were polished aluminum and the tubes were carbon. Kinda like the old Treks that had the lime green butted areas (same time frame). But the weave of the carbon tubes wasn't straight. The pattern was all over the place, like someone wrapped it by hand (which they probably did). Like the Treks (and bikes now) have the pattern run parallel to the tube, and the other direction is perpendicular. This thing had almost a snakeskin look, kinda wavy, imagine the sheet of carbon wrapped and the first few inches of the tube it was twisted one way, then the other, with no real rhyme or reason, but it did look like one sheet of carbon, thought the clearcoat over the tubes was smooth.

Anyone know what it may have been? I'd love to get my hands on one of those frames....

If you believe 1/2 of the posts you read, it will be impossible to find that frame. All carbon frames self-destruct after 5 years, like the message at the beginning of Mission Impossible :)

as you noted there were treks like this with polished lugs, there was also the specialized allez... did alan make a lugged carbon?

I had and sold a Specialized Allez Epic that fits that exact description. The frame was made in Taiwan. The are on ebay pretty regularly. Do a quick ebay search to see if you find one that is similar.

Yes, if was Italian, the most likely candidate is an Alan.

Yes, if was Italian, the most likely candidate is an Alan.


http://picasaweb.google.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/ScansOfVintageBicycleAdvertisements/photo#5075214119871145426 Alan 1985 ad.

If you see a red x, click HERE (http://picasaweb.google.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/ScansOfVintageBicycleAdvertisements/photo#5075214119871145426)

We sold Specialized too, so it wasn't one of those. If my mind serves me correctly it had Campy and downtube shifters, and tubulars. Wasn't super light either, but it was good looking!

DiabloScott, thats the one!

And one for sale...

http://www.bike123.com/used_bikes/used_bikesview.php?ID=1447

DiabloScott, thats the one!



Well, I'm glad all that late night scanning wasn't for naught!

And here's what I found right here on the forum...

http://picasaweb.google.com/vxprorider/ALANProject

check out the carbon work...awesome.

heres a pic of my 90's carbon epic

Maybe it was an old exxon graftek?

In the early 90's I worked at a bike shop and someone brought in a georgous bike. I *think* it was Italian, and had a carbon butted frame. The butted areas were polished aluminum and the tubes were carbon. Kinda like the old Treks that had the lime green butted areas (same time frame). But the weave of the carbon tubes wasn't straight. The pattern was all over the place, like someone wrapped it by hand (which they probably did). Like the Treks (and bikes now) have the pattern run parallel to the tube, and the other direction is perpendicular. This thing had almost a snakeskin look, kinda wavy, imagine the sheet of carbon wrapped and the first few inches of the tube it was twisted one way, then the other, with no real rhyme or reason, but it did look like one sheet of carbon, thought the clearcoat over the tubes was smooth.

Anyone know what it may have been? I'd love to get my hands on one of those frames....

most all CF bikes are laid up by hand today. What you see is a pretty (and expensive) carbon cloth top layer, that is mostly cosmetic. The actual assembly is a patchwork of smaller pieces, cut and applied according to an engineering assembly sheet. Look at a naked Trek sometime...very labor intensive. Kind of makes sense that the Asians have a stranglehold on the carbon frame market, huh?

You see CF Alans every now and again on d'Bay. They seem to command a pretty steep price, compared to the aluminum ones.