It's official. My bike budget is shot for a while.

I've been seriously contemplating buying a new "off the peg" Bob Jackson touring frame. It's affordable, even with shipping from the UK. Then over the weekend a new wrinkle: I tried to resist, but a vintage-ish Bob Jackson threw itself at me ...and I had to capitulate. Sadly, it's probably too small (57-ish and I prefer 59 to 60-ish) and a racing frame instead of a touring frame. I may wind up posting to the frame trade forum and hopefully find a BJ that fits my needs. Until that time, here are some uncleaned up shots of some details. I'll post an overall once she's cleaned up.


Love the head badge graphic!


Nicely outlined lugwork.


531 throughout.


Campy dropouts.

Mixed bag of Shimano 600 and 105 components, tightly grouped 8-speed cluster, need to pull the bar wrap to see what the anatomic handlebar is. 57 c-c seat tube; 56.5 c-c top tube.

It's been a long time since I've had a nice blue bike!

Love to see a full shot.

I have a mid-1970s Bob Jackson that won an award in the Lightweight category at the recent ABCE event in New Brighton.

We don't see that many here in the Twin Cities.

They really are very nice riders, that's for certain.

In for when the real show begins...

I'm going to do a little clean up on her when I get finished teaching today and get some decent documentation shots. There's a spot on the down tube where it looks like the residue of (WTH???) duct tape. All that remains is dried adhesive; I let a little Bestine saturate the crud and found I could, with a little elbow grease, use a plastic edged scraper to remove it without harming the underlying paint. Otherwise, the bike is in moderately clean condition... it would just drive me apes**t to photograph her with that stuff visible. Maybe I'm OCD.

Understood.

I put some pics up on my Flickr the other day, and two friends emailed me about the "cleanliness" of the bicycle.

It tried to explain I had only purchased it an hour before the pics.

I have never seen one in the flesh, but if one "threw itself at me" - I can comprehend how it could be hard to resist - and so I empathize with you. Totally.

I was hoping Bob Jackson Cycles could help me to date the frame by referencing the serial number. I just read an email respons from BJC. For a mere twenty pounds sterling, they "can seek out the original build card and offer you a laser cut copy, this will give you all the geometry of the frame, the date it was manufactured the model name, a description of the original paint job and the name of the purchaser." £20 is a bit rich just to satisfy my curiosity, so I believe I shall instead happily live on in blissful ignorance as to the exact vintage! (For what it's worth, it appears to be a Grand Prix from the early 80's.)

That's actually a pretty cool service for someone who was going to keep and use the frame. but if it's too small, and you're going to trade or sell it, you should definitely pass that email to the next owner. I know I'd love to that info!

Mercian will do the same research into their older frames (also for a nominal fee), but they only started keeping records sometime around 1971. I wonder how far back BJ has records? Regardless, I would agree that's a stiff fee just to satisfy curiosity. Besides, a protractor and measuring tape can tell you all you need to know about the geometry.

Nice find, AZORCH! Can't wait to see the "after" pics.

That's strange, they didn't offer me that. They just sent me an email with the year. Hmm. Mine's a 64 so maybe they don't have detailed records that far back.

Upon doing a little research, I've found several others who've been quoted between ten and twenty pounds for the "look up" also, plus a few others who've been fortunate enough to get the info for no charge. Oh well, I can live without it!

Here is an overall shot, with a quick dustoff and and almost unforgivable mixed bag of parts (105, 600, Campy, CTA, Avocet, etc... plus those tires!)

Now that's a good looking bicycle.

That frameset is a gem.

My size too!

This bike, my wife's mixte (though the frame on that is nowhere near so clean as this one), a couple other recent pics...makes me think I need to find a Bob Jackson myself. There has to be a 52cm one out there at a reasonable price...

I was told by Paul at BJ a couple years ago that they no longer offer to reproduce the original frame "job ticket." If they've told you otherwise recently, I'd like to know with whom you corresponded. He told me the year, and what type of frame it was, but couldn't give any more info (but I didn't really need or want more, either -- mine's not a "special" model or anything like that.

The email was signed by "Daryl", no last name indicated.

Clearly, this one has turned out to be a keeper. I took her out for a metric century this morning and she treated me well. Here she is with new bar wrap and a replacement saddle. I also found a nail polish that matches both the color and the metallic shimmer perfectly, which made the touchup bearable.

That shows a a great version of Yellow bar tape, most of the stuff I have located has too much orange in it. This appears very close to a true hue. Is is a "find" or currently available?

I really thought it was going to be too small for me so I got it thinking it would be trade bait for a larger BJC. However, it turns out that it rides very nicely, tho I will probably replace the stem with something longer. It leaves me with a different dilemma tho, which is that I now need to re-evaluate which of my other bikes will stay and which will go. Urgh.

i have a bob jackson frame and its cerial number is #13674 i would like to know what year model it is.pls help

This is my Bob Jackson bike, looks good and rides well.
Show frame from the 1987 New York InterBike show, it has gold plated lugs.

More photos can be seen on my Flickr site at this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/moonm/...57665965005312

Moonm

Very nice! I've had my 2016 Audax End-End out a few times, mostly just been on the trainer since it's still very cold here.

Mine is off-the-peg, and wish I had sized it just a bit larger.