Hey all,

After pursuing through some online classifieds, I came across the following frame, with practically no details. I have requested further information, but I was hoping that the eagle-eyed of you might be able to hypothesise an ID for this frame?

I thought it could possibly be a Hobbs, but that could be wishful thinking. Apologies for the photos, theory are the only ones that the seller has posted.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

perhaps i am missing something but i cannot see anything there to suggest a particular identity. no visible uniqueness to the eye.

was there something about it which said "hobbs" to you?

its poor blades have sagged quite a bit...

will look forward to reading what others have to say.

Hmmm, is it the lack of a chainstay bridge that suggests Hobbs of Barbican to you? (Took me a couple of looks to realise, before that I thought it might be a Herciles, from the way the mudguard thread is incorporated in the rear drop-out!). You might well be right. I don't think the fork blades have sagged - if it is a 1940's model Hobbs, that was the type of curve common back then. My 1935 Claud Butler has a similar curve to the blades - makes a smooth ride.

I'll go along with that. I don't see any signs of anything special. The photos are not great, but I can see enough to get the feeling it's a plain factory made frame. A good English frame from the 40s-50s, such as a Hobbs, might have an oiler on the BB, pump pegs, sharper edges on the fork crown, and tabs brazed to the seat stays and fork blades for mudguard stays. I would also expect a light boss on the right fork blade. So much for what I don't see.

The fact that there's one eyelet on the rear dropout, but two on the front, suggests the builder meant it to carry a rack or basket over the front wheel. That's unusual for an English frame, so I'm thinking it's French. But what do I know.

Curve of the fork suggests French to me... but who's to say that the fork is original. A set of calipers and some measurements would tell us an awful lot.

wrt blades -

see the axle slot. it is pointing at a forward angle even with the top tube sloping downward. imagine how far forward it will be angled with the top tube horizontal. it is an almost universal convention to have the axle slots in the fork tips vertical on an assembled machine.

Interesting observation! But I'm not sure it's significant. Did they make front dropouts with a variety of different slot angles? The "Dukie" frame I had in my possession recently, dating to ca1934, had a similar fork bend, and the slots were angled similarly. So... I dunno. You may be right, of course, I'm just not sure yet.

You beat me to it.

We need: seat tube outer diameter (28.0mm French vs. 28.6mm English
Bottom bracket cup threads (35x1 French vs. 1.375x24 English vs. 36mmx24TPI Italian).
Seat tube inner diameter, from which we can compute frame tubing wall thickness and guess at frame composition

I was looking at the 'dimples' along the bottoms of the rear triangle (near the bottom bracket), combined with the suspected manufacturing date of the the 1940's-1950's. Those were the only details that suggested that it might be a Hobbs. I am not yet familiar enough with frame design to be able to critically look at and identify mystery frames. Looks like I might be guilty of wishful thinking.

The seller seems to have no idea what s/he is selling, and apparently no interest in supplying any measurements. The reply I received consisted of a single sentence stating that they are not sure which manufacturer it was, and it would make a great fixie project. Not the most useful . . . Probably a no-go as a purchase for me, as a result.

A strange seller and a strange frame.

With those photos you can't really see any of the details that could help identify it. "It's old" is about all you can say for sure.