there is something familiar about the fork crown, I've seen that pattern before
but just can't remember where.

Marty

Thanks for the replies.I still have not found out who the made the frame despite a fair bit of research. I have sold most of the components of the bike for a total of £300 (still have the chainset) so it owes me nothing.I agree the frame is very well made.I only noticed the other day that the decals on the downtube have been sprayed on.ie the downtube must have been sprayed yellow transfers fitted and the red applied and transfers removed.
For now I have applied a coat of polish and it is hanging in the garage,my eldest son is growing fast so maybe he will take a shine to it,I hope so...

I appreciate this is a very old thread. However, should there be any interest out there, I can shed further light on the origins of the Proteus bicycle frame in this forum. It is a British built frame and not from the American company as seems to be indicated by some of the posts. Let me know if more information is required.

I think Richard still uses them. Brian Baylis was fond of them too but he reworked the windows to sharpen up the club and heart, and maybe the other suits too.

A Cinelli item. Not 100% sure but Cinelli used it on the Centurion Cinelli project frames if I recall, or some of them anyway, and one of the subordinate Cinelli models got them too, one that always seems to show up in blue opaque.

Ben- Check in on your thread.
-John

Hi bikeriley,

If you have any information it would be great to hear. The furthest I got was information about a small, independent frame builder displaying frames at York Rally on one occasion. When asked why he called them Proteus he said " I just liked the name" I still have the frame and it is likely to be built for my son. Please get in touch, I am very interested to hear what you have to say.
Ben

Thanks John,

Ben

Hello Ben,

It was interesting to come across this frame and the pictures in this forum. From time to time, I see a piece of my work and it's interesting to see where the frames have got to and what condition they are in. I imagine a lot of them have been crashed or rusted away by now. I started building frames in a bicycle factory in the 1980's where I learned so much of the process by which steel lugged frames are produced. After a spell with a smaller firm, I worked for myself under the Proteus marque. I should point out that I was 21 years old and had no idea that there was a prestigious American firm of the same name. In the days before the internet, America was not so close as it is now. I set up the business just outside of Warrington with some money that came to me after my fathers untimely death. It wasn't a great amount but enough to buy a Cobra tool set and some oxy acetylene equipment. The name Proteus refers to the "Old man of the sea", the ancient Greek god. My father was a fisherman and took me to sea for many years when I was younger. He always ensured we came home and there were some times when I though we might not. That is where the name originated from. I did have a stand at the York Rally in 1990.

Your frame was built for a gentleman by the name of Jim Cosgrove in November 1992. He liked the Prugnat S4 lugset that I used a lot of and he wanted to further enhance them in some way. I often welded points and curls to lugs (I still do) and the use of the four ace fork blade liner was by way of something a little unobtrusive on the underside of the tubes. It was produced with a Columbus SL B sized set and used a C69 cast bracket shell, a Cinelli MCA fork crown and an early version of the cast brake bridges. I always fillet braze the bridges to the stays which is not only aesthetically pleasing, but further resists the bridge twisting under heavy braking. The internal brake cable conduit was fitted to accommodate his left hand lever providing the cable to his rear brake, hence the entry and exit on different sides of the tube. It was originally painted by C&G Finishes at their old premises on Back Faulkner Street in Liverpool. It was a flamboyant blue and was lug lined by the old master himself, Gus, who has since passed away. C&G's are still very much in business and can now be found on Smithdown Road in Liverpool. Your frame has since been resprayed and who knows how many times. The decals are not my original vinyl ones, in fact they probably look a lot better. You can see some other Proteus frames that I built between 89 and 93 on my Flickr page amongst the albums of bike related pictures. https://www.flickr.com/photos/90286293@N06/

I would imagine the frame was built to a 126mm rear end spacing so it might be worth having somebody track that to the slightly wider 130mm of the modern hubs. (I believe they are getting wider with Shimano introducing a 131.somthing over locknut dimension). I hope your son enjoys using the bike. As long as it is still straight and true, it should give him that quality of ride that is sadly missing from some of today's bicycles (Warning. steel frame bias). However, don't be surprised if he thinks its a bit uncool. They don't really look as 21st century as the carbon fibre offerings in the shop today. If you do ever wish to sell the frame on, let me know. I have a bit of a collection from that era and it's always nice to add some more junk to the loft (I call it my museum but my wife would argue differently.....hoarder!).

Thanks to the Bike Forum.

Chris Riley.

Chris, THANK YOU for dropping in and giving us a history lesson.

It's interesting that the American Proteus Design firm also used Prugnat S/4 lugs; I imagine they were quite popular.

Here is a page from the Proteus Design catalog.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps870c878b.jpg

Chris, Thanks for checking in and sharing the history of Proteus in the UK. Beautiful workmanship, too! :thumb:

Just for grins, here is the stock geometry and the standard frame specs from the U.S. Proteus Design catalog.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps6abe581b.jpg

Welcome, [MENTION=371647]bikeriley[/MENTION]! Thanks for sharing the story and the pics, I enjoyed them.

The photo of the Proteus founders holding ice hockey helmets brought back geek memories for me. It's what we wore for head protection bbb(before Bell Biker's)

Chris,

Wow, I genuinely didn't expect to learn so much about this frame from the creator himself. I must compliment on your craftsmanship. There is no rust on the frame or dents. The guy who I bought it off said that it had not been ridden for around 10 years when I bought it. I would imagine that the frame had a respray and then was little used. It had Mavic ma40s on from the mid nineties which had hardly any wear to the sidewalls.
I actually like the brake bridge, and the fork crown is a lovely touch.
It is a real pity it is not my size or I would be riding on it, I have still have my track bike from the 80's which is a Paramount built by Pongo in Staffordshire. I raced on a MKM dominator at this time which was also a lovely bike and incidentally re sprayed by C&G but was sadly stolen from a bike shop.
As far as my son is concerned he is currently riding a Peugeot PX10 which I did my first ever race on, he is only coming up 10 but is very tall, it is 22" frame !! and yes there is seat post showing so there certainly won't be a problem with your frame, he just likes to get out and ride with his dad and long may that continue.
If I ever wish to part with the frame you will be my first port of call, it owes me nothing. Every so often I just get it down and admire it, I hope I don't change in that way either.
Thanks again for getting in touch, I have been round the houses to find out it was only built a few miles down the M6 !

PS A pic of me on the MKM in 82 aged 13, no helmet with all that hair !


http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=377556

The internet is an amazing pathway in which information eventually flows back and forth. It has really stirred up some memories from that time which has somehow become twenty two years.

Lovely picture of yourself and the MKM. You look like a proper bike rider. Were you any good? I love the Benotto bar covering. It reminded of upsetting my superiors in 1987 at the bicycle factory and being relegated to spending the rest of the week on the handlebar bench. I wrapped hundreds of bars in Benotto tape which came in such a huge array of colours. The youngster who spent all of his time on the handlebars was a school leaver and was paid only 50p per hour. He could push that up to 75p during overtime.

This seems like a great site with a worldwide audience. I have, through posting some pics on Flickr, made contact with bike people in the US and other countries. I will keep my eyes peeled and hopefully find a thread or two of interest.

Chris Riley.

I did ok as a schoolboy and junior but looking back I over trained in a big way, I lived in Barrow at the time and followed the example of a few road lads who ended up in France, however they were much older than me. As you will probably remember there as not a lot of guidance back then, it was just " get the miles in lad" Ended up having a love hate relationship with racing but always loved riding my bike. I broke the hour on that MKM aged 16 in the pre tri bar days which put a grin on my face.

I do remember seeing Atom frames about, do you still build frames ?

There are some great pics on your Flickr account such as the Three Peaks, you have competed in a wide range of events from the Peaks to 24 hour. Looks like you love riding your bike.:)

Going under the hour was dammed respectable back then. I could never manage it on a solo. I did some quick rides on tandems but I didn't do that much time trialling, I preferred road racing. I raced BC and LVRC events until fairly recently but spend more time riding a tandem with my wife these days. I still make the annual pilgrimage to the Dales to ride the Three Peaks which is by far the best event I have ever ridden. I can recommend that if you haven't done it before.

I took the place of Andy Thompson at Atom in 98 after he left the firm to live in Brighton and become a landscape gardener. The Atom name of course being made up from Andy's own name. I worked there until a fire destroyed the premises in 2002 when the owner of both a gearbox re-conditioners and Atom Cycle Frames closed down and moved away to live abroad. I am still in contact with him and we occasionally meet up and ride our bikes together.

I build frames here at home but not on a commercial basis. I keep myself in touring, racing, tandem and cyclo cross bikes and build for one or two friends. It's very time consuming and whilst I like to keep my hand in, I don't think I will build commercially again. As long as I can throw my leg over an 853 frame and knock out a comfortable 100 miles, I am quite happy.

I've ridden bikes all of my life and it's been a constant source of enjoyment. I like riding hard with the boys or visiting a cafe on the banks of the Dordogne with my wife and the tandem. It's become a way of life and whilst I never made a million from the building of bicycle frames, I haven't any regrets.

I take quite an interest in the retro bicycles today and can still build a lugged frame along the lines of the older models we used to ride. It's all the rage now and I am a bit of a collector of the older Campagnolo stuff which I like to build into a replica retro bicycle from time to time. I always thought I would hate being this close to fifty but it's great and I am still enjoying bicycles and cycling as much as I ever did. I am leading our clubs ride to Southport this weekend which is a ride I have done with them for a number of years now. It's just over 150 miles and covers a route that takes us back to where I was born. Lets hope the fitness is good.

Rock on veteran cycling. CR.

Great thread :thumb:

Hi Chris, great to see a picture of my old man in his prime! Stumbled across this forum doing a few searches for pics of his old jigs!

I remember meeting you a few times and I know he thought highly of you and your frame-craft!

Also great to know that lots of his old jigs are still going strong out there. There's still a lot of his old jig bits in the garage back at my Mum's, if you're ever in the Bolton area give me a shout through here and I'll send you some details.

All the best chap!

Matt Rudd

^ This is why I like bikeforums c&v.

Yep; when you think about it, it's quite remarkable that you can search the web for something as esoteric as an Ellis Rudd frame jig built by your dad and find a thread like this.

Greetings all



I am hoping that Chris Riley (bikeriley); “ethebull” and a couple of the other Proteus fans are still linked to this thread after no posts for over a decade.

I am looking to establish if this Proteus Century model was produced in the US or in the UK and establish an age from the serial number.

The bike was purchased for the parts and is unfortunately too big for me. I am located in Johannesburg South Africa.

Here goes:

Constructed with Reynolds 531 butted tubes, stays and fork

Prugnat S/4 professional cut out lugs

RGF English thread bottom bracket

Campagnolo dropouts with eyelets and adjusters

27mm seat pin, removed a 3ttt post

Measures 58.5cm centre to top (57cm centre to centre) with 56cm top tube

Frame serial number CT673

The frame was found with Sugino Mighty BB and crank, Campagnolo NR brakes, Suntour bar-end shifters, 3ttt seat pin (saddle later junk), Tange Falcon headset and nice Japanese bar and stem.



Many thanks
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8c82f34040.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...45760ab9a1.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...07c2a59421.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cddf2486fe.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9d9887aff5.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2fdc6df27a.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3454cd1014.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a9836626c4.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0a3213a686.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...11affead70.jpg

It appears the Century model makes it a US built frame!