Looking for a little help with this frame I snagged in the frenzied opening minutes of the Trexlertown swap on Saturday -- and yes, I've checked (and rechecked and triplechecked the archives). It's a gold Raleigh track frame with the oval Ilkeston chainstay decals, serial number SB3059. It came with a nuovo record headset and a nifty sandcast twinplate fork crown. Stopping by Tom Kellog's shop on the way home so that my brother Duncan could arrange for new paint for his Jack Taylor (and a new fork for the Teesdale frame he'd just purchased from Tom Adams), I showed the frame to Tom K., and he instantly recognized the fork and mentioned that he'd built his first two track bikes using the same crown - unfortunately, the name didn't stick with me, but I believe it began with an "H." It doesn't look like any of the Haden photos I've checked out, but I'm sure I haven't seen them all. It has holes either side of the steerer tube and looking in there, you can see the rough-surface evidence of (sand?) casting. Lugs are Bocama, BB is RGF. Front and rear dropouts are Campy. No chrome anywhere. Decals are mostly in very good shape, with plain, straight (i.e. not slanted) black, block-lettered "Raleigh" on top and down tubes. Oddly, the round "Ti" decals appear to have been removed from the forks and downtube, leaving faint black tracing. Headbadge is the metal heron and looks identical to the ones on my International and Super Course. Tubing is full 531, identified by the decal on the seat tube. Mike Kone's 7-year-old vintage bike guide as posted on Sheldon's site mentions 531 Raleigh Team track bikes having been built in the late-70s, and I'm guessing my frame is one of these. I haven't found any other specific references to these bikes. From the SN and some very limited archive info on Ilkeston SNs, I figure the bike dates from around '78-'79. Anything anyone can tell me about my new frame would be greatly appreciated: when it may have been built, who was racing these frames, how the bike may originally have been built up, etc. Hope this isn't a mundane query after VR4, where Confentes apparently fall from the sky like confetti.
Ed "Honey, I Bought A New Frame!" Granger Lancaster, PA, USA