pohlf

I'm not finding much info on these. A few owners said they were putting a web page w/ SNs, models, etc. together, but my search is not turning up anything. Dave Moulton's blog was helpful: https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/20...ke-melton.html, but left me wanting to know more.

Why do I care? A friend in SoCal has a lead on one that a co-worker bought in the 80's and never built up(!). About all I know is it's got an RD drop. I'm having them verify a size and requesting some pics.

Anway, a pointer to, or knowledge of, models/years/types or any info on quality, gotchas, whatever.. would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Oh, and a real newb question: What sort of BB threading does a smaller manufacturer, US-made, bike have? I'm guessing either English or SAE(?), and not French, or DIN(?), or..?

Ride on

masi61

Hi, I am familiar with Mike Melton frames, having seen them during my club rides in and around Dayton, Ohio back in the 1980's. I think that the Huffy corporation was subsidizing him to build them for the US Olympic teams back around the 1980 Moscow games and Pan American games (I really guessing at a lot of this, please forgive me if I'm way off base). I want to say that some of the frames said "Huffy" on them, some of them said "Raleigh USA" or something like that. Somewhere else on the frame they would have said "Melton". The few that I saw belonged to a former USA team mechanic from my area and they were "aero" in execution one I think was for road, another more of a time trial bike. I think they used braze ons for the front derailleur due to elliptical tubing. The forks were pre carbon fiber but were aero so they were probably threaded, with steel, aero blades.
Wish I had some pictures. I wonder if you researched Huffy or Raleigh being bought by Huffy this might give you a few links to Melton projects.

Sirrus Rider

Well I know around 87 or 88 Serrotta was doing the 7 Eleven Frames and marked them Huffy.. I had a friend who had one of them. Just a data point..

pohlf

Masi61, Sirrus Rider - thanks for the suggestions/info.

I got a cruddy cell phone pic and a couple of addl. pieces of info today. The frame tubing is not aero-shaped and, in fact, looks identical to that on the bike depicted in Dave Moulton's blog. I guess Dave's musings: "Mike was an established and well-respected American framebuilder [..]" and "[..] owners treasure the fine crafted frames he built." should be an adequate quality recommendation(!).

The size is 55/56cm, which should be about right for me (5'10", 31" inseam).

If anyone else has addl. info on Melton, please do share. Unless I get some cautionary tales, I may just pull the trigger. I will also search out the Huffy/80's Olympics references and see if I can scrape anything else up.

Ride on

MKahrl

I see lots of Melton's in the central Ohio area. (Relatively speaking. I don't see as many as I did 12 years ago, but that is true of all older bikes.) They had Melton written in a Circus Block style, red letters outlined in gold. Very well made frames with carefully thinned pointed lugs that were the style back then. I considered buying one recently from Baer Wheels in Columbus that was built as a touring model with a Campy NR triple, Campy Rally RD, with both the fenders and Silca Impero pump painted to match in metallic brown. A little too small for me but rode very nice.

imapls

Check out my previous posts (imapls) for what information I know about Melton frames and Mike himself. I designed the decals (circus block style) for him when he was in Columbia, SC, in the late 70s. Send me a PM if you want your frame to be entered in my database.