The LBS owner I bought this from told me he believes it is an early Chris Chance frame. I haven't found too many photos of his road bikes, but those I've seen make it look likely. It has Campy dropouts and the seat tube is 26.8. The bottom bracket is 36x24f and for a 21" frame it feels light. Wheelbase is 38.25". The yellow paint is coming off in chips, exposing rust-colored primer. The only numbers Ive found are "52" on one side of the bottom of the bottom bracket and "53" on the other. All input is appreciated!

52 53 could potentially be the size (52 st, 53 tt or vice versa). Or it could be something different, a personal note or serial if the guy cared to record them.
26.8? Wouldn't that make it metric 531? Or some japanese tubing? Better sources will be able to chime in on that.
Other than the paint, it looks good. Have fun.
-Gene-

actually kind of looks like a Romet. obscure Polish company.

Romet Sport:

https://velospace.org/node/4932

the lug work looks similar, but what really makes me think its a romet is the seat tube area.

my Romet:




hope this helped.

It looks like a great frame! I really like the star cut outs.

RoboisGod: I'm having a hard time seeing the similarities, but thanks for the link. Wow, that fork is bent!

They aren't remotely similar.

Could be a custom builder's. The star cutouts should make it easy to identify; I know I've seen them somewhere but can't remember.

Nice lugwork, filed down nicely. I've seen a lot of Brian Bayliss' work have seatstay caps like that.

Those are some beefy seatstays.

The dropouts have holes for the porta catena do dad, so that might help narrow down the year.

The front derailleur looks like it got some blue spray paint on it, was the "USCF" spray painted on?

https://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA...nce_cycles.htm
Upper set of photos look a lot like my frame. The fork isn't bent and the seatstays are pretty much normal, although the recurved seatstay insets on the seat lug are unusually small. The photos and the ghastly paint distort reality. It is too nice to be a production bike. The lugwork is exceptionally fine- whoever made it was a master.

Guerciotti????

"The dropouts have holes for the porta catena do dad": I don't know what that is. The front derailleur is probably from another bike. "USCF" is a decal.

Porta catena was a failed Campagnolo system. It bolted on the inside of the driveside drop out and occupied a cog space. It was supposed to be for fast tire changes, you use the shift lever to move the chain off the freewheel and onto the porta catena to disengage the freewheel.

My 1978 Raleigh has the porta catena holes, so I am guessing your frame was built around then. I don't know how long these dropouts appeared though.

This Pogliaghi has a Porta catena installed, the RD is also marked 1978:


See the extra piece on the shift lever:

I see why you think it might be a Guerciotti. The pictures I've seen of their bike with star cut-outs in the lugs & fork crown have "Guerciotti" inscribed in the top of the seatstays & bottom bracket and a "G" in the stars on the fork crown.

"Porta catena was a failed Campagnolo system." Thanks for the info!
Does the Raleigh (or Pog) have a brazed-on front derailleur mount?

Well, it's definitely not a Raleigh.... your frame is WAY to nice to be one!

The drop-outs were used by tons and tons of builders so that's not much help in that regard. But to answer your question, The Raleigh does not, the Pogliaghi may but it's not mine so I don't know.

don't look like Guerciotti stars (too pointy) but you never know: variations are possible.Given the portacatena DOs and the top-of-BB-guides it's probably late '70s (1978 is "probably" the earliest date possible for the DOs). Italian BB shell is strong indication of an Italian bike, but I suppose a custom US (or Canadian) builder might have used one and 26.8 could be Aelle tubing, could also be Tange (many possibilities there). Looks like the re-spray painter got really good adhesion with the red primer, but crappy adhesion with the yellow top-coat...undoubtedly NOT original paint...looks like a nice frame!

You're exactly right about the adhesion, and the yellow paint must be a later respray. It is badly orange-peeled in spots. The primer probably isn't original either, since it would be impossible to remove the all the topcoat without removing the primer as well. I'm frankly guessing about 26.8 seat post: 27.0 fits in but it is very tight past the first 1.5". Could be a build up of crud instead of the smaller size. Regardless, some Reynolds 531 tube sets were 26.8. I can't believe anyone would use low-end tubing on a frame with such carefully shaped lugs. I am leaning heavily toward believing it is a pre-Fat City Chris Chance. I have yet to take off the fork to see what the steering tube has to tell me. The fork crown is unusual- it looks like an old-fashioned track fork crown made of stacked horizontal plates. I'll get a photo up later.

just to update this: I believe the mystery got solved by Dale Brown host and webmaster of CR, he said it's a Viner "Stella" (that's the model)...sounds good to me.

I was also going to suggest Viner. My Riggio, made by Viner, also has stars but only on the fork tangs. This frame looks strikingly similar to my frame with subtle differences.

I'm almost sure it is a Viner. Yuyax, do you have any pix of yours?

It has to be a Viner. I found a completed listing on Ebay which shows a Viner frame. It is clearly the same manufacturer, in spite of some small differences. Thanks all!

I agree with one of the other posters the star in the BB and the head/down lug make me think Geurciotti as well. is a 36x24F BB french? why would an American frame builder in the 1980s use a french threaded BB?

Hello Bianchigirll.
36x24 is Italian, and it is unlikely that an American trained by a Brit would use it. I think Ben Serotta and other Italian-trained frame builders have used Italian bottom brackets. The frame turns out to be a Viner which is, unsurprisingly, Italian.

AH the 'f' threw me off see what happens when you get out of the business for a few years

If I remember right, "F" is for Freni, meaning threads in Italian.