Hello Everyblubby,
I think that I can perhaps shed some light on this one.
Anquetil frames were quite a common sight in the North of England during the late 1960s into the early 1970s, particularly being used by Time Triallists who like the 'JA' pedigree and presumably believed some of the ace tester's abilities would rub off on them if they bought one of "his" frames... (NOT)
Sadly, Anquetils were (as far as I know) actually as British as fish & chips. The famed Harrogate-based cycle wholsesaler and importer, Ron Kitching (well known Lancastrian, who became adopted as a Yorkshireman), obtained the rights to use the JA name on his own brand of bikes - and sprayed up and decalled bunches of 531-tubed frames brazed up by stock UK builders (but I don't know who - sorry, but there were loads of very good builders with empty order books around in the UK at that time - and Ron was the very best at driving a hard bargain apparently!).
I was not aware of all this at the time - and like everyone else (I was based near Harrogate in the Army, and raced in the area for a while), lusted after what we thought was French exotica!
Never did get one - and never saw a track version and not seen any JA for years now. I do with hindsight now recall that although the build quality of the frames was excellent, I thought at the time that the paint jobs looked a bit iffy and the decals were really quite cheesy stick-on vinyls. This when all bespoke builders (and some of the mass producers) were routinely using varnish fixing decals. I thought it just was a "continental" thing!
I would think a track frame is really quite rare - and as Ron was apparently in the habit of sponsoring favoured amateur riders by 'placing' his products with them as a tempter to the less talented amongst us (though he did also have version Pro Teams / Individuals in the UK pelotons for years) - it is possible that this frame may have been in the care of a top ranking amateur trackie in its first existence.
That's all I've got sorry!
Love to all.
Ian (I got my bum kicked by Hard Northern Roadies in the 1970s) Briggs -
Luton England.
>
>
> >Can anyone help me shed some light on a track frame I've had in my
> >possession since 1976. It's a "Jacques Anquetil" with the frame no
> >JA1774 stamped on the bottom bracket and the word "Jacques" positioned
> >on one side of the down tube and "Anquetil" on the other. I can find no
> >reference to these frames on the web or any where else for that matter
> >and wondered if anyone out there could help.
> >
>
> I have seen a few Anquetil frames, but not recently. There was a shop in the
>
> Marina district of San Francisco that imported them in the 1960s. The only
> ones I saw were well made, professional quality framesets of 531. Anquetil
> is one
> of the few 5 times TDF winners, so it would make sense that he would have
> frames built with his name on them, during or after his active career. I
> never
> saw large numbers of them and I would guess they were not common, even in
> France. A nice track bike is a special rarity. What size and color is it?
> Have you
> posted pictures anywhere? A guess from looking at the serial number is that
> it
> was made in 1974. How did you come by the frame?
> Stevan Thomas
> Alameda, CA