thebulls

I'm trying to identify a mystery bike. The frame is lugged, all-Reynolds 531. The Reynolds sticker is near the top of the seat tube. No headbadge nor other identifying marks (i.e. no names stamped into the tops of the seatstays, top of crown, etc.) No braze-ons at all. No serial number on the bottom bracket, but it does have a S/N on the bottom of the left rear dropout that appears to read 1182263. Brazing work seems OK. The top of the lug between the top tube and head tube seems slightly "raised", though I wouldn't say buckled. The lugs themselves to not seem fancy. They certainly haven't been filed to taper them to the tubes. Campy dropouts. Paint looks pretty original.

Parts are somewhat of a hodge-podge. Stronglight headset and cranks. TTT stem and bars. Universal centerpull brakes. Campy front hub tied to a Mavic tubular rim. Sansin rear hub tied to a no-name tubular rim. Shimano shifters from early 80's to mid-90's.

Someone has put a non-metric allen bolt into the stem so I didn't have the right tool to pull the stem and partially disassemble the headset and check for French threading.

Owner got the bike from a friend who had it in his basement and has no idea what kind of bike it is.

Any guesses?

Thanks

Nick Bull

YoKev

I don't have my magnifying glass handy. Can you post larger pictures and more of them?

dbakl

Details can help identify a frame: headlugs used, seat stay cap treatment, fork crown, indents on chain stays, and special add ons at brake bridge, inside forks or holes in bottom bracket, style of braze ons, etc.

big chainring

Motobecane Le Champion?

Dyermaker

Yeah, coincidentally having just bought a Motobecane, I was going to say its got the lean of one.

No braze ons, leans toward French more.

If its got the wrap around seat stays, then IMO Le Champion.

JohnDThompson 

What threading does the BB use? Any brand markings on the dropouts?

I agree, it looks French, but more info is needed.

thebulls

No idea. This is someone else's bike.

Seat stays do not wrap all the way around, but they do wrap partly, stopping at about 1/2" apart. Fork crown is flat. Top of fork crown has a triangle shaped bit of decoration.

One thing that made me think it may not be French is that the 531 sticker is at the top of the seat tube. Many high-end French bikes seem to put the sticker near the down-tube shifters.

Nick

T-Mar

French bicycles typically have French language Reynolds 531 labels. However, given that all the other decals are gone and the notoriously fragile Reynolds decal remains, I would not assume it Reynolds without further proof. In addition to al the other questions, what is the seat post diameter and the outer diameter of the seat tube itself?

thebulls

Good point about the one sticker remaining being the 531 sticker. It looks pretty old, though. It's in English, not French.

Dropouts are Campy.

I would have thought that the single most unique feature is that the S/N is stamped on the lower half of the left rear dropout and there are no numbers whatsoever on the BB shell. I would have thought it was perhaps an early Trek if it weren't for the lack of an S/N on the BB shell.

This is a bike that was listed on Craigslist. I went and looked at it last night before I posted. But since the stem could not be removed and removing the fixed cup is a potentially major effort with potential for causing damage, that's not something I wanted to do. So it's impossible to say whether it is French threaded or not.

The lugs themselves are not high-end lugs. They are noticeably thicker and have a higher "wall" at the margin of the tube than the lugs on my 1984 Trek 400, which is not a high-end Trek. That somewhat-conflicts with the all-Reynolds labelling. But the Campy dropouts are consistent with a higher-end bike. The lugs are very much like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/makfrea...n/photostream/

The tops of the seat-stays are tapered gradually and flat up to the top of the top tube, but do not wrap around. The flat fork crown has a decorative triangle on each side on top of the crown--the base of the triangle is next to the head tube and is maybe 1/4" wide, with the point at the outside of the fork tube.

Charles Wahl

Verbal description is going to get you nowhere on this one. Need pics of all the details you're posting about.

thebulls

The lugs are very much like:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/makfrea...n/photostream/

Dyermaker

What I think he means is:

POST BETTER PICTURES.