Anthony wrote:
> I had my good friend John Pergolizzi look it over who referred me to
> Dale Brown who suggested posting it here.
>
> The details:
> -It is Italian threaded
> -If you cant tell by the pictures it has extremely thinned lugs
> -It has a braze on front derailleur which looks original to the frame
> -The previous owner annoyingly lost the fork before handing it over so I
> never got to see it
> -The frame is extremely light
> -The paint has been stripped but due to moisture collecting under the
> decals you can see remnants of what used to be there. I, personally, can
> faintly make out "APP" being the last letters of the decal.
>
> If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.
>
> Here are the pictures:
> http://s305.photobucket.com/
Nice frame! Perhaps Mike Appel's work?
http://velospace.org/
Although the seat cluster treatment looks very similar to the T.S. Isaac frames I have here.
http://os2.dhs.org/
Mike Appel was one of the first brazers hired by Trek. He left Trek in 1979 to build frames under his own name in Madison, WI, but retained connections with Trek over the years. In fact, he is once again working for Trek as a painter, hving retired from frame building.
Tim Isaac was a framebuilder in Boulder CO prior to coming to Trek in 1978 or 79, where he worked as the lead frame designer. Most of Trek's steel frame production from the late 70s to mid 80s was designed by him.
So, how might an Appel frame from Wisconsin, with T.S. Isaac-like features end up in San Diego? Well, David Tesch worked for Trek in the early 80s and frequently used Mike's shop for his own work. Perhaps Tesch had one of Mike's frames and brought it with him to San Diego when he signed on with Masi? The "Mystery Frame" looks to be in the size range I recall Dave as riding.
A lot of speculation, I know, but nobody else seems to have any ideas...
--
John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA