I was doing some winter tuning on "the fleet" (ie. puttering around cleaning and lubing), working on the 1956 Standard Model K which I got a few months back. Under grime and old grease I found that the headset was a "floating" model from Brampton, and the bottom bracket (or at least the cups) were also Brampton.

Can anyone tell me about this vendor?

Also, the bike has a Coventry chain - is that a decent quality item?

BTW: no matter how hard you try, 1/8" bearings are *really* hard to not lose!

Mark

Brampton Fittings was an English manufacturer of frame fittings (i.e lugs and fork crowns) and bicycle movements (i.e pedals, cranksets, hubs, headsets). They were eventually taken over by Tube Investments, gaining better access to the major non-Raleigh manufacturers. They reportedly went out of business at the end of 1961, shortly after the merger between Raleigh and Tube Investments.

Coventry was a major manufacturer and innovator in the early development of chains, second only to Renolds, whom they merged with in 1930, creating the Renold and Coventry Chain Co. Ltd.. Coventry was dropped from the company name in 1954.

Thanks T-Mar....exactly the kind of information I was after!