rootbeer 

So I recently purchased this track bike. Not much information at this time is known. The previous owner said it was purchased from a dealer who mainly sells vintage Europe frames. Red paint is seen inside fork tubes and BB shell, so it's possible the red is the original color, but it could possibly be a repaint, considering Crescent is known for there orange color.

The previous owner/seller claimed it was possibly a Monark/Crescent track frame. The BB has the numbers (59) maybe indicating the size, as it is a 59, and the other number 267.

However I have contacted Kjell at cykelhobby who is rather knowledgeable in the areas of vintage Swedish bicycles, specifically Crescent/Monark. To the best of his knowledge not a single track bike was ever made in the country of Sweden. The crown engravement on the fork head does not look familiar to any Swedish manufactured brand he knows of. He even went so far as to say the quality and lugs on the bike were in fact better than anything he's seen on a Crescent/Monark bicycle. It is possible this could have been some one off track frame made by Crescent or such, but it seems highly unlikely.

So that leads me back to the mystery. What possible frame could this be? All I have so far is the BB# 59, and 267 and the crown on engravement on the fork. Any idea's at all? The only other information is that the BB and headset are english threaded.

unworthy1

Nope, not a Crescent/Monark...we saw this very crown-in-a-crown come up for ID before a couple years back. I'll dig up the old thread and edit this when I find it.
Edit: The fork at least is probably from a Giovanni Losa. Search that name and you'll see a couple others with the same crown (crown) and little teardrops in the side of the head lugs...Losa's signatures. Since your frame doesn't have his distinctive teardrops, it could be a Losa fork on another frame, but he did contract-building, too, so it may be one he didn't apply his own name to...the BSC threading in BB throws a curve.

Drillium Dude 

Didn't Mercier do a similar crown engraving?

But the frame is English threaded...hmmm....

DD

rootbeer 

It does not have the tears, but the lugs do resemble his style from the pictures others have posted...

The lugwork on the fork is the same style on the frame, so I want to assume that this is not a mix-matched bike, but then again I could be wrong.

Consider me intrigued, I like a good mystery. Is there any Giovanni Losa aficionado on these forums...I could perhaps provide some way more detailed pictures.

rootbeer 

Possible, but that crown resembles the Losa crown to a T.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...Identification

The question now is the lugwork, and the English threading. However the lugwork on the fork resembles the rest of the frame. So I don't think this is just a Losa fork on a different frame. Maybe possibly a one off trainer track bike for a customer?

unworthy1

Do the trackends have teardrop cutouts? Hard to make it out at this resolution...Losa did a lot of building for many makes based around Milano, including Guerciotti and later Cinelli Super Corsas. Good chance that this might have been something custom or one-off.

JohnDThompson 

Looks like Zeus Pista dropouts:



Not that it helps identify the frame any better...

unworthy1

they sure do (and JDT has the best dropout/ends reference pix...amazing!) and if this frame has Spanish trackends and a BSC BB...all bets are off!

rootbeer 

Here's some more pictures!:





And yeah JDT those looks exactly like the drop-outs on my frame. Wow, what a mystery frame we have here lol

JohnDThompson 

If the frame is BSC thread, I'd suspect an American custom builder.

rootbeer 

Here's a better picture of the dropouts. The dropouts don't have the "zeus pista" ect stamp mark. Is this normal?


Also it takes a 26.2 seatpost. Not always the case, but isn't a smaller seatpost usually a indication of a heavier gauge tubing?

I'm guessing maybe a Giovanni Losa fork, with a custom frame to match the fork? Or maybe he got the engraved fork crown and made his own custom?

Suspicious, suspicious! Thanks for all your help.

unworthy1

measure the outside diameter of the 3 main tubes...chance that it's metric tubing, therefore a chance that it's not Italian (or would be an extremely weird Italian).

JohnDThompson 

Not unheard of, anyway:

rootbeer 

I believe the mystery has been solved...for any that cared

It's quite possibly a norwegian brand called Den Beste Cykel or DBC. Apparently Zeus made some bike frames for them.

https://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5006/dsc01215tm9.jpg