Well Non-Fixie, I was ready to add a comments on the bottom bracket numbers. Here are the photos of the head tube and the bottom bracket. I must confess I did not look at the bottom bracket of this RIH until I got the red 79-125 out of my shed a few years ago. When we communicated via private message we both hoped to get some answers from others on the YY-### bottom bracket mystery.
Here is what I know:
I was in the workshop when Wim Bustraan jr. stamped the head lug numbers 9606 in the frame. I also saw him do it on some other frames. And as you see in the shop pictures there were various cardboard boxes that held BB shells, lugs etc. The BB that RIH used came from Davis Components Ltd, in Four Oaks in the Midlands, UK. Among other products, Davis manufactured many elements used in bicycle frame manufacturing, including sand casted Cinelli style fork crowns. The company was formed in 1928 and dissolved in 2009 after 80 years in business. Their bottom brackets were stamped with their company name, the angle of the seat tube (60) and down tube (62) and a serial number.
Not until I came to work in the Andrew Hague factory in Wales as assistant manager and visited various custom bike builders in their workshop in the UK, Belgium, Northern France and The Netherlands did I understand that most frame builders filed off the Davis serial number. The Andrew Hague ltd company produced braze-on bits for custom frame builder. From brake bridges, ferrules, cable guides, shifter bosses etc. We also sold lugs and tubes (Vitus). We also started a sewing floor and produced pannier bags and undersea pouches etc.
As I might have told you, I got to spend some time with frame builders both in Europe and North America and I found that most of them (not all of them) where not very social, easy to get along people. Some where gruff and with a temper. What I learned though is that most frame builders speak with the flame of their torch, they communicate with steel,. They are masters of frame building, not bookkeepers of records. SO here goes the journey of discovery.
I don't know if others have found themselves with a RIH frame where there are numbers on the head lug and on the bottom bracket, or have frame numbers like 79-125. We love to hear from you or from anyone who has information.
