After keeping quiet all last week about this Ebay discovery, I was lucky enough to win this Dennis Sparrow road frame. After local pickup on Friday morning it sat in the trunk of my car until Saturday night while I traipsed around Seattle with my sister and nephew, visiting for a band concert from Austin. I took photos this morning and posted to the "Winter Project" thread with a short plea for more info, but so far nothing.
So, I decided to open it's own thread.
The only specifics I have right now is that the fork steerer has an older Columbus dove stamping and rifling at the bottom quarter. I can't place the type or manufacturer of the lugs or the fork crown, but the small logo in an oval on the top of the BB shell on the non-drive side (half-hidden by the cable guide) is something I've seen before. I just can't remember where. The serial number, stamped roughly in the center of the BB shell, is 79090. DOs are Campy 1010Bs, and the driveside rear DO has the additional buttress points for the Campy Portacatena drillings/tappings. The finish is obviously original, so I have to assume all the braze-ons are original as well. A nice touch is the 11 o'clock offset (to the non-drive side) of the brake cable guides on the top tube. Lugs are beautifully finished with lots of thinning and clean, consistent shorelines. From what I can see in the BB shell, this frame was put together without using pinning in it's construction. The chainstays are pretty much round vice oval which gives the impression that they're nearly the same diameter as the down tube.
I'm guessing 1979 judging by the first two digits of the SN and the Portacatena-ready dropouts.
Does anyone have any info on Sparrow's frames? Any idea whether he is still around, how long he produced frames and what kind of numbers were produced?
BTW, one of the neatest headbadges I've ever seen; I'd really like to know the significance of it's various parts! Unicorns, even
Enjoy these few pics. This will be the wintertime rollers bike, and since I will leave it as-is with the exception of some small paint touching-up, will also end up my crap-weather training bike.
Thanks in advance for any help with my research.
Cheers,
DD