Risking the wrath of all...here's where all of my money has been going this winter. I have ridden this, twice, and it, well, it rides better than anything that I have ever had. With all of that old plastic campy crap on it, it still weighs 15.8 lb.

It is a Spectrum Custom Super, and I have asked Tom Kellogg for input concerning the serial number...but busy men...well, he hasn't gotten back to me. So do we have a Spectrum expert? The serial number looks really low to me, if what I'm looking at is a serial number (rear dropout). The number is "TS028"...so, does this bike qualify as C&V in spite of me?

well, let's attach some pic's, huh?

Tom has not been very forthcoming with information about a Spectrum I recently purchased as well. I have spoken to a few other people and their experience has been the same. Shame really. I was thinking about having Tom make me a couple of new frames but if he is not willing to help me with geometry of a bike he has already fabricated, then I am not willing to give him my money. I have sent him several emails and his first excuse was he was sending a bunch of bikes to paint and would get back to me soon, no answer, then 2 more emails from me 3 weeks apart and no response what so ever to either. His loss, some other builders gain.

John

Luker, that is a helluva thing. I don't think it'll qualify as C+V until the year 2035, but I'm guessing that you're prepared to live with that. I hope this bike doesn't start a C+V carbon/Ti frenzy... though if it'll get me a 54cm Masi GC on the cheap...mwuhahahaha

I hope you'll be able to get some info from TK as to the provenance of the frame. Perhaps his inbox is stuffed with messages from tire kickers, discount seekers and the like, and he's just too busy to deal with them all. Maybe try over at Serotta forums or frameforums (if it ever rises from the dead).

Enjoy that ride.

moki, its frameforum.org now.

FWIW, Tom was very good about providing info on an older Spectrum I bought. Mine was a 1985, and he said that info on older frames is kept at the shop, not on his laptop, so if he is traveling, it may take a while to get the information.

Thanks! I'll try to be persistent. It would be interesting to try to build his serial number database on, um, say, ah, cuda's website, or something.

Moki, the parts are newer but I think that the frame may be old. The parts aren't even that new, but they are in the modern venue. I had to do extensive restoration to the shifters and derailleurs before I could stand to use 'em. Weird how thrashed they were, considering that they are about five years old. Maybe they came off of a cross bike or something. But they met the key criteria...they were within my budget.

I'm sure when Tom is busy he's really busy. He paints for a bunch of other folks, not just Spectrum. Keep in mind, too, that while we all agree that helping folks with their old frames and bikes may to some extent help sell new ones, it would be easy to get bogged down in that stuff and wind up spending hours a week on it - hours of shop time that could be dedicated to something else. Spectrum is a really small operation. I can only relate my own experience dealing with Tom, when my brother took him a bike to be painted, and also had him build a new fork for a frame he'd just bought. Tom gave us a tour of the entire shop, then sat and shot the breeze with us for far longer than we had any right to expect. We felt far from rushed. He was willing to talk about the Ross Signature project at length, and also give us some cool inside info on Ross in general. Maybe it was a slow week or month for him, but IMO he went way above and beyond. Of course, my brother was dropping some serious money on his projects. But I'd expect to get really good treatment when buying from Spectrum, regardless of whether Tom has been as forthcoming regarding bikes he's frankly not making a cent on anymore. I'd buy a bike from the guy in a heartbeat.

Yes. I agree. If you didn't give him any money, don't expect any service. Framebuilders don't care if you have an old frame. The name of the game is money. You get what you pay for. And if it's an old frame you got a question for. Tough. You'll have to find your answer through the internet.

wow. I am pretty sure that I included no disparaging remarks toward Mr. Kellogg, or anyone else for that matter. I'd really just like to know if that is, in fact, a low serial number or there is some other encoding used. And, um, this is the internet, and this is one of the most knowledgeable forums, and I am seeking the answer on the internet.

So...it has straight chainstays, it has shifter bosses, it has beautifully filed welds. Does anyone know about Spectrum serial numbers?

OK sorry. Is it ok to talk about serial #s on the internet? I guess a person could get any old titanium frame and with the info obtained about serial #s, they could conceivably try to pass off their titanium frame as a Spectrum. Not trying to thwart your efforts of getting the info you need, but I do hope you are able to get this info. Anyway, why is it so important to know serial # information? And in the 1st place, why don't you just contact Mr Kellogg or someone else at Specturm?

Reread the original post, Luker did ask (email I presume) Mr. Kellogg, and has heard nothing back,
thus his asking here if anyone knows about the serial numbers.
Why is it important to know serial number information? when was the bike built, if Luker is going to
do a period correct rebuild/restore that would be important.
The number looks to be low, if so the bike possibly is worth more than the same bike built within
the last 5 years.
And lastly, this is Classic&Vintage forum (see I didn't even say Cranky&Vintage my favourite name for us)
and these things ARE important to us.

Marty

We're a friendly, helpful forum here, and mostly very interested in the history of our bikes. Luker is quite legitimately trying to find out information about a bike he owns, and doing so in a respectful way to all concerned. I suppose someone could use serial number information to pass of a frame, but it seems mightly unlikely to me. There's info out there on lots of older brands, and I've never heard of it. If you aren't able, or don't feel inclined to help, that's fine, but the tone of your posts isn't really in keeping with the way we do things here. I'm sure that wasn't your intention, but I'd hate to see this forum descend into the sort of ****ing contests that go on elsewhere on BF.

ain't gonna happen.

For the record, my post was by way of providing a contrasting view of Kellogg to that I believe was reflected in curtisvill's post, and not to the OP. My bad for not using the "quote" button.

Uh oh, better get the mods to cancel these threads:

Fuji serial number database

Nishiki serial number database

Centurion serial number database

Many thanks to the obsessive and always very helpful T-Mar for the above threads by the way, as he deserves the credit for spawning those out of his quality control pickled mind.

Wait, yes a bit of a customer service flub, but I bet if you tell him, just like frame #XXX, hnd here's a deposit...you would get some attention. He just has not gone the Waterford route of asking for $100 to searchout your bike. Time is money guys.

Luker, looks nice, but we know you still lust for a Masi with a twin plate fork crown.

OK sorry. I reread the post and it seems like the original poster (Luker) did make quite an effort to ask Spectrum some basic info about his bike. And he tried 3 separate times. I'm changing my stance. At first, I gave the benefit of the doubt to Mr Kellogg. After all, anyone can miss 1 email, or even that email in the "do later" pile. But 3 unanswered emails?! I feel bad for the original poster. It's obvious that Spectrum is ignoring Luker. That's bad business.

If Spectrum continues to ignore Luker, then he should contact maybe Merlin. I think Kellogg and Vandermaark (?) started Merlin before Kellogg went his own way with Spectrum.

yeah. just curious whether it qualifies as a classic and vintage. it ***doesn't***matter at all, as most of this stuff doesn't, really.

Did you see what the sammo frame went for? but I still think that was a really cool frame, no matter what.

Classic, yes. Vintage? No, but the frame is not plastic either.

Yes, the Masi "sammo" drew quite a bit of monetary attention, over $1,300 if I remember, happy I got my two for considerably less each. But no yellow. During shakey economic times no less.