MacLean. Genuine article or dodgy respray?
 

It was the seat stays that made me think it might be a nicely made frame.

Serial number 1810619. Stamped dropouts but still looks nice, and its my size!

I like that fluted Williams crank set. Check the Williams date code on the chain ring

Just my gut, but the shade of red looks a little too new for an old English bike with cottered cranks.

I am not familiar with the brand but that carriage bolt seatpost binder, and braced on 'ears' as well as the stamped dropouts have me wondering


Perhaps I was hasty in my judgement, I didn't realise this brand was so old. Perhaps that style if dropout was just they used.

This is a good read.

Macleans Featherweight Cycles

Looking at the articles (there is another MacLean, but I don't think it's relevant to this one) the serial number is not right. Not too worried, for £40 I'm going to have it anyway!

A 1953 Maclean frame and fork
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...003/McLean.jpg

I look forward to more and better photos!

There was a custom frame builder called McLean in the US in the 70's or so, nothing to do with the English marque, and spelled differently.

The English marque was, as I'm sure you know, eventually bought up by Holdsworth. There was a thread here on Bike Forums about a late MacLean, and I seem to remember the bike was well below the quality level you'd expect of a Holdsworth; it's unclear to me whether it was a low end Holdsworth product or perhaps they had sold the brand on to another manufacturer.

The dropouts on your bike look very much like dropouts used by Armstrong in the 50's; I'll be able to judge that better when we have better photos. I see a chainstay cable stop, so your bike was made for a derailleur. The seat stay caps seem unusual.

at 40 pounds sterling, that's a lot of bike

As long as I can get it to France free-ish, I think it's a winner :D

Hurry and get it done before Brexit, ;)

Even on some of the better frames, stamped dropouts were common through the 1950s and well into the 1960s.