Hello I picked this up last November. I have several blue print drawings with the name Erick Chomski on them. The drawings list "531 frame and fork tubing" there is no mention of manufacture oh and 1977 date. I bought it used in Seattle from a guy who bought it from someone Livermore CA. It is well made with long point thinned luges, integrated seat cluster, and a very distinctive rear derailleur cable stop on the side of the chain stay instead of under or on top. The top tube cable guides two of the three are missing. The paint is a beautiful Imeron blue/purple. The bottom bracket is cut out and the only markings are a set of numbers but they look like a social security number xxx-xx-xxxx. I threw on what ever was in the parts bin. So for right now it is my 175.00 parts bin special that I commute on. I call it Che Cose which is Italian for "What is it" I am really enjoying the friction shift I forgot how fun it is to pull off a perfect clean shift. I am using a compact 34/46 so the 14-24 5 speed freewheel is just fine for my area. Even if I don't figure out who made I will just keep on enjoying it. Oh and I run 700 X 25 Veloflex tubulars the ride is sublime.
Thanks and have a great day.

This is the most intreging part. The cable stop is on the side.

Fast back seat cluster. Not fully in the picture but a painted to match Silca pump with Campy head.

Check out the thinned long point luges.

Peter Johnson? The seatstays, however, don't look like his work.

Seat cluster looks like Tim Isaac:

I had a long-mystery frame that (like this one) was certainly the work of some US Custom builder, and probably made in California.
It also has thinned lugs, a similar (but not exactly) fastback seat cluster with "frenched" Allen head pinch-bolt, but it does not have the long Campy DOs with drillium nor the RD cable stop placed "sideways" which for this example are distinctive.
Many of the same Cali-based (and out of State) builders who favored such seat treatments were guessed and rejected, but finally settled on the best guess being Chris Pauley (Santa Barbara and thereabouts).

I don't think this is a Pauley but will bet it is something made in Cali.

How about a shot of this BB cutout?
As well as some more details like (is there one) chainstay bridge?

Google shows an attorney Eric Chomsky in Marina del Rey who went to Stanford & Berkley mid-late 70's early 80's putting him in the right area and time frame

well those pix don't get me any closer to a solution, but thanks for posting them.
No idea why any lawyer would make mechanical drawings of the BB shell of this bicycle frame...and for that matter why any competent builder (as this one was) would ever need such drawings to build one.

I think this was just a drafting-class assignment. Hope "Eric Chomsky" passed, I think he would have in my High School!

That's a pretty long serial number on the shell, wonder if it rings any bells with the cognoscenti who know the numbers?

Nothing here looks either Tom R. or Peter J., but is the threading all BSC/ISO?

So you have the full set of nine drawings?

I would have thought '77 would have been too early for under BB cable routing? But maybe not.

I'm pretty confident that frame was custom made in middle CA. I remember visiting a couple of builders there in 1976 that did that style of seat stay attachment. I've forgotten their names. Often when mystery frames want to be identified, it is typical to think of the more well known names but even back then there were a number of smaller builders that eventually moved on and their legacy lost.

There is a lawyer who posts in another forum, who went to college to major in fine arts, and then join a professional symphony. Having measured the odds, he switched to a more practical calling.

I doubt they were an attorney at the time, likely a teen. I'm assuming they hadn't gotten their bachelors yet and who knows what a young person tries before finding their "career".

Serial number is by format obviously (likely?) a SS # which puts the holder in the age of 54-66 YO, 562 is a California issued number which also fits the bikes given provenance.

Looks similar to my bike.

Michael Johnson

I would probably wager some amount of greenbacks on it. There's a couple of MJ threads with information on him.

Ohhh now that Michael Johnson looks the closest to what this may be. To answer a few questions. Yes English bottom bracket, Yes I have all 9 drawings and they are very detailed, and very cool. The bolt for the integrated seat cluster is STD thread not meteric. Yes the serial number looks like a SS# odd. I hadn't thought that it could be a one off some one trying there hand at drafting and design then building it and stamping there own ss# on it. Re gardelees what it is I certinly enjoy riding it. I will eventually put some better or differant parts on it. I just through what ever I had on for now. I was thinking something different like Hurret jubilee derailleurs. Mavic hubs, modern silver Campy brakes Suntour Superbe levers (I do like modern brakes) custom stem to give a bit more rise. I wonder if I should try contacting Eric Chomsky the lawyer, I wouldn't want to bother him, it feels a little creppy.
Thank You for all your help so far. This is fun playing with old bikes instead of new fancy plastic bikes with electric shifting. Oh am I turning into a retrogrouch, ah so what just ride what makes you happy. And I think I am happy on old stuff um Classic I mean.

Maybe Chomsky owned the bike. Nothing creepy about sending him a pdf of your pics.

DOH! I didn't reco that as a SSN but yeah it's obvious now. Given that I also have a California-issued number (as do both my sisters) and we all got the same first 3 digits which for security purposes I will only say also begin "56X". Wonder if it's the owner's or the builder's SSN.

So despite the "bikini" fastback stay treatment did Michael Johnson (or any of the known builders who mimicked the style) even place a RD cable stop on the side of the chainstay or add drillings to the faces of the Campy DOs like this one?

I was brought to mind of the Italvega Superlights (Toressini/Torpedo products) when first saw that plus the loooong oval slots in the BB shell, but that's nothing more than visual detail relationship matching. Nothing that connects one to the other here, folks, except it might have been an "influence" for this builder.

EDIT: found this collection of pix of a number of Michael Johnson frames, there's nearly nothing I see that's a spot-on match, certainly he used a number of features that have no connection at all to the OP's frame (the ovalized seat tube base for example). There is ONE (the turquoise color) that has a cable stop that appears to be slightly placed at an angle on that chainstay, but...nothing else that popped out as very close.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/benson...7713312584502/

In this thread Michael Johnson replied and left contact info. Might still be a viable email.

Nice Campy Bits But Unknown Pedigree - Pls Help Me Identify This Frame!

If it was me, I'd be happy if someone had found something like this from my past and was appreciating it and whatever story was behind it.
I'd also want you to obliterate or modify the serial #.

Especially in these days of connecting dots via google.

My Scapin had cable routing under the BB shell and that was in 1974.

Back around 1978-1979 Bicycling magazine compiled a list of USA frame builders. IIRC, there was about 75 and California was the hotbed, comprising about 1/4 of the list. If the Johnson and Chomski leads fail, I'll dig out the list and post the Califormia based builders.

Going by nothing but the "quality" of the drawings and lettering, this is likely a HS drafting project (opinion of a former architectural/civil engineering draftsman with nearly 10 years of drawing experience in the field). Mr. Chomsky probably picked the right career path if indeed he became an Esquire.

DD

I deleted the picture of the bottom bracket shell. I didn't feel comfortable having someone's SS# shown. As someone mentioned we live in a crazy time I will disfigure the number from the frame as well.

^^^^^ Fuzz the number and re-post, just to memorialize the cut-outs.