In an email off-List Brad Potter asked me if I knew which company might have built his 70s Witcomb. That is a puzzler! In a recent entry on-List Richard Sachs has also stated that cheaper end Witcomb USA frames were built in Wales. So the mystery deepens.
In Wales at that timethe only company with any capacity was the firm knocking out very basic sports machines for the multiple retailer Halfords.. It is possible they did produce something better but it';s unlikely In the extrem west Midlans not too far from the Welsh border there was Comrade cycle co that produced excusively OEM frames.. better, lighter sports.. now there would be a possibility.
I remember having a Witcomb traded into my shop in the early 80s that I thought was a very average frame bearing Witcomb's transfers, and I recall that Witcomb at Tanner's Yard in London did havea wholesale off-shoot called Witcomb Trading. That was a good standard "Comrade type" I think Comrade also did work for Dawes and Viscount but at what level I'm not certain.
A long shot is that it could have been some part of the Falcon empire. Had these Witcomb USA frames been in the 80s/early 90s I would have said with some certainty that they would be Falcon produced frames, from their Newtown factory. It is possible that that factory had been there for some years. In the 70s and 80s I used to visit the Falcon "factory" at Brigg in Lincolnshire a couple of times a month and there was little evidence of frame-building activity there. A spray plant yes, building, no.. or at least I didn't see it. In the late 80s /early 90s Falcon won some large contracts to supply quality " series" frames to the States. At that time I was very friendly with Wes Mason (ex MKM) who was trying to earn a living making frames in his own name in the 16'x 8' asbestos sheet garage in his garden. He produced about three a week but really needed 4.5 to ,make a reasonable living.
I remember him becoming very excited at have been "head-hunted" by Falcon with a view to heading up their fork production plant, for the American contract. At the interview he was asked if he could set up such a production line and how many forks he was currently making each day.Knowing that his best day produced about eight forks, he blustered his way through, got the job and was faced with a project requiring several hundred per day, of a good quality using the well-known Cinelli "aero" road crown - the one with the internal "legs"
I understand that there are quite a few frame-builders on this List and I assume that you have too have had some difficulties brazing these things up, ie getting enough braze material into the joint. Around the time Wes started up his Falcon unit Cinelli had produced quantities of these crowns that had the fault of air-hardening after brazing. Every UK builder seemed to have bought a batch of them.. I got over the problem by letting them cool really slowly covered by lime. Wes wasn't so lucky. Having produced his first large batch he then attempted to drill them...but of course the brake hole just couldn't be drilled due to the hardening. He 'phoned me for my ideas which I passed on readily.. but Wes' forks were already made.. Reheat them?
Fears of fork crowns failing from brittle fracture haunted the Falcon hierarchy... expensive litigation suits in the USA.... the contract wasn't worth a candle, Can't actually recall the sequel to the story, but I remember Wes selling MTBs off a market stall not long afterwards.
Then of course there is the tale of the Lancashire frame-builder in the 90s - quite a big set-up with 7 staff, the chief having built only one frame in his life.No.. this IS TRUE. Having spent a small fortune on the best Italian jigs and machinery, the firm set about producing frames. a batch of 100 was decided upon.. and a 100 main triangles brazed up. Then 100 forks were built using straight blades onto the infamous Cinelli Aero crown. When they attempted to bend the forks on one of the Bike Machinery jigs, the majority of the fork crowns and columns parted company from the blades and drop-outs.. a lack of brazing material in the fork crown to blade loint being to blame. The 100main triangles hung from racks for months and were sand-blasted three times before they managed to hire an experienced frame-builder who knew how to braxe on the rear triangles. Fortunately for you folks in the States, none of these frames were exported BUT they were eventually sold in the UK.
Norris Lockley.. Scouts' honour.. settle UK