LouDeeter@aol.com wrote:
> HARTRANFT, Dave: 236A Broadway, Cambridge MA 02139. Since 1973.
>
> I've got this listing in the Used Bike Buyers Guide. There was a frame on ebay this past week but the lister spelled the builder Hartnraft. Ebay #7104885962 - Dave Hartnraft Frameset. Anyone know the correct spelling? The pictures were not good as it was a black gloss frame with no decals. I tried unsuccessfully to work a deal with the seller after it didn't meet reserve. Does anyone know about this builder and was his work of a high quality--Keeper of the Flame? Lou Deeter, Orlando FL
Dave did some nice work. He partnered or shared space with Chris Chance for a while in Cambridge in the 1970s. But towards the end of his building career, his health wasn't so good, and he was winding things down. Sometime around 1982, he bought out the inventory of a framebuilding factory near Boston. I think it was called The Cycle Factory, or something similar. They had tried to build frames for other companies. Let's say I wanted to market PJW frames that I didn't actually build. I would go to a company like that and have them build the frames for me.
Well, it was a good idea. However, nobody there knew the first thing about building frames, and they turned out a lot of junk. After a few years they went belly-up and sold off their remaining stock of frames and tubing to Dave.
Dave then went and sold the frames under his own name. Most of the frames had serious problems, mostly poor alignment. They didn't even bother to get the rear dropout slots parallel, so as you moved the rear wheel front to back in the horizontal dropouts, the alignment of the wheel changed.
The frames are easy to spot, since they all used Vitus dropouts, and none of them had parallel slots.
I don't know how many frames Dave built himself before he started selling the Cycle Factory frames. But he had well over 100 frames from The Cycle Factory, so unfortunately there's a lot of junk out there with Dave's name on it.
I recommend avoiding this bike on Ebay.
--
Peter Jon White
Peter White Cycles
24 Hall Rd.
Hillsborough, NH 03244
603 478 0900 Phone
603 478 0902 Phax
http://www.PeterWhiteCycles.com