Help me ID this frame!
 

Impulse retail therapy purchase. Auction went high, $160 shipped. 👎🏾🤔

Serial number is 104.61.79.TA on fork and bottom bracket.

Unknown, possible custom according to the seller. Unknown tubing. Reynolds 531 steerer unsure about forks. 26.8 seatpost and 22.2 steerer and 26.4 headset race. Hacked in a previous life removing fender eyelets. Love/hate relationship with color. Brazing and paint/powder are tidy, lug lining not so much!

Not as light as my DB Reynolds 531 track frameset, but has more braze ons. Anyone have any input?

Plans to use parts I have on hand, likely buy a newer wheelset and ride until I love it or sell it.

Thanks all in advance.
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Wish I had something to offer other than, "Damn, that is some seriously thick powdercoating!"

Doesn't look like a bad frame or anything. Has some details also found on my Behringer, but doubt that's what it is..

Buhahaha! I just spit out my tea!

It's not that bad! Plus it's $125 for blast and coat, so of it ends up being something special I'll spring for a makeover. Otherwise it'll be something I set up and ride till it breaks or I get bored.

Don't believe it's a Behringer either, but am no means am expert. Thanks for the input ! 👍🏾

a few anomalies: two sets of water bottle bosses, the DOs might be Japanese, and have had eyelets shaved off. Pretty sure the over BB shell cable routing is original so guessing that the second WB bosses were added. So if you say there's some stamping on the steerer that confirms Reynolds 531 and has fork and frame numbers that match then this probably is 531 thruout, what size seat post? Does (or did) the fork ends have eyelets? Would be curious to have a brand for the DOs and forkends and does it take nutted brakes versus Allen head bolts? Is the pinchbolt metric or Imperial/SAE? My gut is leaning to "American" or "British" but jury is out.

I honestly think the bosses were added after, possible before powder. According to the seller he believed the serial to be # of frame built, size (61cm), year (79), and initials of customer TA. All speculation.

BB and steerer do share same serial. Reynolds 531 is clear for steerer, but fork blades could be a different tubing all together as far as I know. Takes 26.8 seatpost, so that could be a 531 variant or easily some Japanese sourced tubing. Collar area looks like it might be pinched slightly, so possibly 27.0? I'll update as I play around with the frame. Takes metric binder bolt and British threading.

Yes, eyelets have been shaved. Cleanly on forks, by my eyes and less so cleanly on the rear dropouts.

frame
 

I dont want to start any trouble now........but.......It looks exactly like an old Rivendell frame or by the same guys that made them......

I don't think so. This frame was originally fitted with 27" rims as it takes long reach to work with 700c. The reason I'm mentioning this is because I believe this to be from 1979 per the serial. Didn't Ruv start in the late 80s or early 90s?

Senrab,
If you are interested I have one set of matched 27" rims here, that I have no plans for. They are Weinman LP-18 one set of silver 32* . I bought them prior to the covid embargos (from JBI) my cost was $20 per rim. I will move them on to a BF member for my cost plus shipping. Let me know. Smiles, MH
If I don't hear from you I will put them on the C&V sales thread.
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youre right...Rivendell didnt start up until the 90s........but regardless......great frame.....I would build it and ride it with gusto

That's the plan. Decent components parts bin build and ride it like I stole it! Or as much as my rapidly aging body will allow me to approximate that.

Can't help with the ID, I'm afraid, but will be following proceedings wit interest because I have a similar color-induced challenge. Even after spending many, many evenings looking at yellow bikes on the web, I still haven't found the combination of parts and colors that I believe might make me like the result.

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The chrome socks on that are handsome! Much better overall than my banana yellow conundrum.

Keep me posted on what you plan to do. Unsure on components, but probably a mix of some sort. Keep it unique like the frame itself!

On topic: I believe that rear spacing is 120mm. Still know nothing. Likely American custom from later 1979 or early 1980.

I need to get it weighed. Just curious. It'll be beefy much like it's owner 🤣😂

Hmmm, those seat post sizes, if correct fit, point to something with "heavier walls" than regular 531 "C" and could be Tange or Ishiwata as you surmised. Which makes this being a "custom" more likely, some builder who mixed tubing, used some Asian-sourced frame bits as well as Euro, kind of more the "American" practice than British. Then you've got the metric pinch bolt and 27" wheels (but this is not a "touring" frame from the look, despite one set of eyelets). Strange bird, indeed!

yellow
 

Ive really been liking orange bikes lately and all the brightly colored ones.......yellow ,violet ,sky blue.lipstick crimson......I guess Ive had so many grey, black or burgundy or dark blue that my tastes have changed .........on a really bright and sunny day those yellow bikes are gonna gather crowds

Strange is the perfect word. Very unique.

Also, this is set up for nutted brakes, reinforcing the 1979 build year theory.

I agree, from what I know about seatpost sizing combined with Reynolds steerer and possibly forks as well, this is likely a handmade custom order from an American frame builder. I need to nail down that serial format though. Unfamiliar with it.


Thanks all for the input. Will continue to do my own research as well. 👍🏾
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Klein came out with a solid yellow in the late 90s and I’ve seen them built up with all black components—looks really sharp and helps the yellow look in balance. Might be a great option for you with the black graphics already on the bike?

Agree
 

I have a big variety of bikes and colors. While this color way is by no means a favorite, I think it will be fine for now.

Black, dark blue, grey, etc have been the norm for me. Have a pink, bright red, chrome, and this yellow in the queue now. Variety is the spice of life, right?!

Thanks, but no thanks. The number two super market brand in the Netherlands is JUMBO, and yellow & black is their calling card, together with their slogan "Hello, Jumbo!". Guess what people will be yelling at me when they see a middle-aged and slightly overweight man ride by on an ostentatiously yellow and black bike .... :notamused:

the 26.8 seatpost points to a Reynolds 531 straight gauge tubing

But if the correct post size is 27.0, then...

Correct. Or Tange #5, or some other CrMo tubing. Decent stuff in any event.

Too many variables
 

Tange#2 and Ishiwata 019/022 had 26.8 seatposts as well. I have no clue.

I'm going to try my 26.8 post after work and take a pic because it looks a little pinched in that area.

Definitely 26.8 LOL 🤣. Could be straight guage 531 or something else. Definitely heavier than a full DB 531 frame.

Kind of doubt a custom built frame and fork with forged DOs, forkends and the frame bits this has would use plain gauge 531 in 1979. Given the size and the fact it had eyelets and used 27" wheels it makes sense the tubing is beefier than "a road frame" would have but, if the serial number "104" does indicate the frames built (total so far or in the year '79) this was not a hobbyist. The selections made (like tubing best for the bicycle's job) would have been deliberate.

Senrab, I am an American frame builder that started in the mid 70's. I think you have an American built touring frame. The seat lug (as well as the head lugs) looks investment cast. I don't think the binder bolt was brazed on. The chain stay indents look like Columbus SP. That is the kind of tubing I would have used for a large touring bike. I recognize the barrel shaped rear brake bridge reinforcement as an item I could buy from frame materials suppliers in the late 70's. That is a higher grade item that is doubtful on a mid range frame. It takes extra steps to use. I also think the seat tube measurement should be 27.0. Both Columbus and Reynolds made single butted 1.0/0.7mm seat tubes commonly used in large or touring frames. Those seat tubes would have taken a 27.0 seat post. It is possible they used a straight gauge seat tube that requires a 26.8 seat post because it is a large or touring frame. That doesn't make it mid level.

It looks like the dropouts had the fender eyelets cut off - a further clue it was a touring or at least a not-racing frame. Touring was popular in the 70's as a result of bicentennial rides starting in 1976. 27 1/4" rims were popular for that kind of bike so tires could be bought locally at non bike stores. This is especially true for touring bikes. This is another indication it was American made. 700C clinchers were fairly new then and could only be bought at bike stores. Can you take a measurement from the center of a rear axle (or a 3/8" rod) to the center of the rear brake hole? That distance can tell me a lot.

Did you confirm the steerer had Reynold's markings? Columbus had the dove oval and spirit reinforcements on the lower inside of their steerers. There were a number of places that built more volume than single builders like myself for example Melton in Delaware Ohio.