I recently acquired a mid- to late-1980's Alpine Cycles bicycle built by Fred Kelley and that has an interesting fork crown that I've not seen before. I assumed the crown was modified when the bike was assembled, but someone informed me that they have seen identical crowns on other bicycles.

Would anyone here have an idea what crown this might be? Thanks for any insight you might be able to offer.


Alpine Cycles - Mid- to Late-80's - 4 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr

Don't have an identity on the crown, but I'll corroborate what the others have said -- I've seen it on other bikes, too.

Yes, I know exactly what crown that is. It was a model designed and marketed by Cinelli. I used it on a frame I made for my wife about 1985. I don't remember it being around as an option too long. A matching asymmetrical design could also be cut out of Henry James lugs because they had approximately the same shape as the crown tang.

Thanks Doug. That's great information to know. The date on the crown helps considerably with tightening up the date on the bike.

Agreed; real familar a while back. Brazed up a few of them.

Several from here look close if someone wants to point a torch that way

https://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle-...g/FORK-CROWNS/

On the sidebar; What I originally saw there which drew my notice is the extra heavy duty classic plate style crown (not yet 1.25" steerer ...however) and two different heavy duty types of fork blades (one type is actually heavy tandem chainstays) all found here:

https://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle-...m-steerer.html