[CR]BESPOKE Time-trial machine on Ebay

(Example: Component Manufacturers)

From: "Norris Lockley" <norris.lockley@talktalk.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:55:18 +0100
Subject: [CR]BESPOKE Time-trial machine on Ebay

A French Ebay seller whom I know has just sent me an email to say that there's a BESPOKE time-trial machine on UK Ebay. Item No 230166506032

Over the past year or so there have been a few false alarms..when is a b espoke frame not a Bespoke frame etc etc?

Well, I am pleased to say that this is the real deal ! And I'm proud to acknowledge the fact.

I'm pleased too that it turned up in a week when the List has been discu ssing the merits of the highly visible fluo-spotted Nervex Pro-lugged Brian Baylis frame, as this Bespoke time trial frame, built in 1982, is just the antithesis of Brian's frame.

Built from Columbus AIR teardrop-shaped tubing, the frame is bronze-weld ed throughout . The fork features the beautiful Columbus AIR aero internal crown, while all cables for the rear brake and the rear gear are carried in side the frame's top-tube and R/H chainstay. The gear lever boss is m ounted atop the down tube. All in all the frame has a very seamless sculptu red homogeneity about it . It is a remarkably light frame for its era.

Finished in pearl white with just a simple chrome highlight to the fork crown and the F and R drop-outs, the frame carries the BESPOKE decals in red on the down and seat tubes, with the crest on the head tube.

As the seller states, the frame's top-tube has just a ve ry slight slope from the seat cluster down the head-tube joint; wheels are 700c. I built the frame for a very fast 50-something Vet, Colin Radcl iffe, who performed a number of "Personal Bests" on the frame. Grossly unde rstated and minimalist in conception the frame, to my eye, is just poe try in motion even when it is standing still.

The photos do not do the frame real justice, but are good enough t o display the style of many of the time-trial frames that I made in the 70s and 80s - just about all of them lugless...and seamless..and ca bleless.

Thanks for letting an old man indulge himself for a few minutes...and si ncere apologies to those Listers who dont see what I see in it. Maybe I'm j ust nostalgic for the days when lugless frames didn't have TIG-welded beads that you can strike matches on!

Norris Lockley, Settle UK

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