Nice frame, Peter. That it is an early 50s frame just shouts at you from the pictures! The double-fluted top-eyes were a feature on so very many frames of that era, including several thousand Hetchins!
Again in my wayword youth, when visiting London for events such as the Festival of Britain - was it really 55 years ago - if I wasn't rooting through the plise of S/H goodies at Jack Baguley's tiny cycle emporium, or pressing my nose to the window of Harry Rensch's "Paris" showroom just around the corner from Jack's, then the likeliohood wa sthat i would be doing the pressing thing at the Islington premises of Maclean.
Maclean always seemed " a cut apart" from the rest of the London builders..possibly there was an assumption that there frames were in some way better..possibly it was the fact that the showroom/shop was in a better part of London..possibly it was because unlike Hetchins, Bates, Paris, Gillott, Holdsworth, the ubiquitous Claud Butler...Maclean frames never seem to appear outside a small radius around London.. The northern riders knew of them but never saw any.
Any way enough of reminiscence! Maclean did cut fany lugs but I think that the real fretwork was restricted to the "Gothic arches" of the Apollo model. After years of seraching fro one of these I have just managed to get one on Ebay from a seller who underpriced it and sold it as a"Claud Butler???". I've been fascinated by the lugwork for a long number of years anfd am now trying to work out whehther the lugs were fretted from a blank, or from a Davis "chopped" out lug, or fly-pressed..with bits added on. Any body got any ideas?
Peter's frame is made from a selection of frame parts that were coming available to builders at the time. The bracket appears to be a Gargatte, the fork crown looks like a very nicely reworked Ekla..maybe Wagner (but I dont recall Wagner being available then)..to take on the air of a two-plate that were beginning to be difficult to find. The lugs are almost definitely Oscar Egg Super Champion ones..not reworked Nervex. There is a distinct difference between the shape of the cut-outs on the pipes on the three main tubes bewteen Eggs and Nervex. Nervex did three head-tube lug patterns that look vaguely like this Oscar Egg one - the 85ter, the 106ter, and the 110, but each of these had a "window" in the bottom and upper corners.
As Peter remarks about the light weight of the frame, Maclean boasted quite a lot about this feature. The 22.5" Apollo that I have, although it has a heavy bracket shell, is remarkably light. Of course in those days Reynolds 531 was available in different wall/butt thicknesses, and was chosen with regard to the purpose for which the frame was built...but the transfer was always the same..no "SL" or "Pro" suffixes.
I will try to sort out the model for you Peter..somewhere I have a catalogue that I picked up at the Angel Islington shop all those 50+ years ago...knowing that at some time in my uncertain future..it would come in useful.
Norris Lockley...Reminiscence Lane (Yes!!Yet again ) Settle UK