they're not real bareknuckles. The shop that sells them in long beach Jones Bicycles tried to sell me one too in december for like $350 claiming that they just wanted to get rid of them. I was totally stoked to be getting a BK for $350, but decided that I wanted to go home and do some research and try to figure out what size i would need. After lookng at every single bareknuckle frame online and not finding any mention or picture of cable guides on the frames i started to realize that there was no way they really bareknuckle frames.
Jones Bicycles was also the shop that was selling those "area 51" track frames on ebay a while back too. When i was at the shop i saw one of the area 51 frames and asked about them and they said that the owner of the shop knew the guy who made them and that they were just trying to sell them as a favor. I thought it was a little odd that the store carried these area 51 frames that were not drilled for a front brake but had cable guides for a rear brake and the frame that they call a bareknuckle also have the same rear brake cable guides. Seems like maybe the work of the same builder?
It all reaked of bulls*** to me. The frame is probably fine, but i wouldn't but it expecting it to be a bareknuckle. The whole experience at the shop just left a bad taste in my mouth, i mean cmon a fake bareknuckle? What the ****...