Howdy,
I posted this in the C&V section and I'm not really getting anywhere with trying to figure out who made it.
The bottom bracket is 68mm and the droputs are 120mm apart. I was told it may be English and appears to be made of Reynolds. Any clues? One of you guys perhaps?

Thanks,
Kelly D

Everything looks very standard except 2 things.

What looks like stamped lugs, their cutouts, the fork blade inner stiffeners, were rather common on 80's racing bikes, as was the semi-sloping Columbus fork crown. I'd hedge my bets on Columbus tubing. If inside your steering column there are helicoidal reinforcements, it's Columbus period, no one could argue that, it would be Columbus SL. If it is a large frame (24"+), it could be Columbus SP (commonly used for larger frames, has NO helicoidal reinforcements as the tubing is already thicker-walled).

What is rathe rare, is the location of the seat lug tightening bolt, right through the seat stays, and the way they are attached to this lug.

Another thing is the builder's identifying stamp on the bottom bracket shell.

May I suggest you search in Google for... um... I don't know... maybe framebuilders lugs stamps, or framebuilder repertoire, or in images bicycle seat lugs, or whatever you can think of... LOL I wouldn't know where to start... you'll have to figure it out.

Did this come in chrome, or did you sandblast and polish it for painting?

Good luck!

Thanks for the advise.......The person I bought it from had it chromed but said it had no markings or decals on it.

That's a Gargette (RGF) BB shell. It has been confirmed by a number of people on the C&V forum. Another guy took pics of his Proteus and while it's a bit newer it's nearly identical except the Pd cut out under the bottom bracket shell. So.......Pd for Proteus designs, identical lugs to many of the Proteus frames I've found and several pics had the same seat cluster design which is also outlined in their framebuilding book which I have.
So ya! I'm almost 100% sure it's a Proteus. If only I could find a pic with a bottom bracket cut out like mine or maybe a first hand account by one of the many frame builders that worked there in the early to mid 70's.

Definitely a Jeffrey Hall Proteus. He was our best builder. He loved doing fancy work. The seat cluster was his idea, although he might not have been the first to conceive of it. We originally imported Cinelli crowns, but they required an ungodly amount of work to get a good fit with the fork blades. Later, we had our own very, investment cast that worked much better. However, they were exactly the same in appearance, so I really can't tell which it is.

Thanks so much! It's nice to finally be able to identify it...

You sure about that?

Tange and Vitus also used helical rifling in their steer tubes. Columbus steer tubes have 5 ridges; Tange has 6. I don't recall what Vitus has, but I'm thinking 6.

And we made plenty of SP forks at Trek that had the reinforced steer tubes.

The OP may find a Columbus stamp on the steer tube, but these were sometimes lost when the tube was trimmed:

I stand corrected. I hadn't thought of the japanese (or the french) when I wrote that... that was all along time ago!

Now that my memory is returning, I do think that the designation was "SLX" and not "SL" in Columbus' case, for the tubing with the helicoïdal reinforcements... if my memory serves me well... (now you got me doubting myself! LOL).

In the Proteus shop we used mainly Reynolds, some Columbus, some 4130 for extra large frames, and I do remember having a few Tange sets around. I don't recall if we ever built a frame from Tange. Anyway, as distributors of frame building materials, we order by individual pieces not sets. After years of building, experiementing and become familiar with the characteristics of the different manufacuterers and gauges of tubing, we would often mix components to get the best results for the customer. Some customers would be specific about everything, others would give us the top and seat tube length plus frame angles. Others would visit the shop to get measured, and we could see their body strength and riding style. As a result, we might use a light gauge set with a heavier gauge down tube. In some caes for large strong riders, we might substitute Reynolds track blades for the regular chain stays. Also, their were narrow and wide ovall forks to choose from. And as we ordered all our fork blades straight, we had four different radii we could use to get to whatever rake you wanted. So to conclude, in 80% of the cases, if the frame had a Reynolds sticker on it, it probably was all Reynolds. However, substitutions were made to benefit the customer.