Re: [CR]Vintage Chrome Roadbike - what is it?

(Example: Production Builders)

Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:21:22 -0500
From: <oroboyz@aol.com>
References: <200603270819.AAA19953@cascade.cs.ubc.ca>
In-Reply-To: <200603270819.AAA19953@cascade.cs.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: [CR]Vintage Chrome Roadbike - what is it?
To: gillies@cs.ubc.ca, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


Hey Don and Dave:

Don wrote: << think Dale is probably pulling your leg ?>>

No, I was not joking..

IMO those lugs are not something Carlton would have used. These are stock lugs, not feature cut, but straight out of the bin. But exactly the model that many Dawes had...

The seat stay top eye treatment again is typical of Dawes, cut and squished, shaped and brazed up... versus the Carlton method of using a separate plate and cut chamfer..

Sure there were many chrome Carltons but many other makes as well, so that's a stretch.

The seat stay center pull brake bridge is a generic stamped steel piece used by many builders.

It still could be something else but I think fer sure it's not a Carlton and just maybe it's a Dawes....

IIRC, both marques had distinctive serial numbers, so maybe that's a clue someone who knew about those could respond to?

Ah, the mysteries of life!

Dale Brown Greensboro, NC USA

-----Original Message----- From: Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Cc: oroboyz@aol.com; whiteknight@adelphia.net Sent: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:19:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: [CR]Vintage Chrome Roadbike - what is it?

In article Dale Brown Wrote :
> I am betting it's a Dawes....

I think Dale is probably pulling your leg ?? In the Carlton factory in the early 1960's you couldn't SPIT without hitting a chromed bike - they were everywhere. I would venture a guess that more Carltons have been chromed (many for the so-called polychromatic paint job) than all other bikes combined.

Your bike has the telltale "V" centerpull cable stop on the rear. My Raleigh/Carlton competition (1967/8 i cannot remember) has the same cable stop. This stop is a variant of the semicircular stop that takes a normal sidepull cable stop and normal sidepull barrel adjuster - much more practical than the raleigh stops (which require cannibalizing a simplex prestige shift lever if you lose the barrel adjuster ...)

The window cutouts on the top head lug are a puzzler but in other cases the lugs look a lot like Carlton lugs from the 1950's and 1960's:

http://www.mortij.demon.co.uk/carlton/lugwork.htm

Good luck !!

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA