G'day, cobbah,
Where the seat stays join the seat cluster,
-- are the stays bolted onto the sides of the seat lug, and then simply capped off, or
-- does the seat cluster have integral sockets which receive the seat stays, making caps unecessary?
The first style is early 70's, the first ALANs with which I am familar. They were most commonly gold. I don't think there were earlier ones, but I might not know about them. The second style is ~1976-on, and went for a long time relatively unchanged, into the 90's.
There were a number of models. The later, higher end models rode very nicely -- I raced on one for a year. The lesser models were a bit soggy. If your frame says "Super" on it, I'm going to hazard a guess that it's a top-of-the-line frame (ignoring the carbon variants, which were seriously soft). I think that the lesser models also lacked the wreath engraving.
I hope this helps a bit.
Cheers,
Peter Bridge sdcausa (ex-QLD)
In a message dated 8/10/2005 7:08:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time, footscray1@optusnet.com.au writes:
Gentlemen,
I need help as I have acquired an aluminium frame of unknown age. Beautifully made lugged frame, has Fangio decals, except for the top tube which has Alan decals. Steering head lugs have engraved vine leaves top and bottom, Alan engraved on both the fork shoulders, Campy bottom bracket, and checkouts on most of the lugs, and on the top of the seat tube is stamped Super 485. There is also an Alan decal(world map) on the front of the steering tube. If anyone can help identify age etc of this frame I would be most obliged.
Best wishes,
Alan Kearsley
Melbourne
Australia.