Does anyone on the List really believe in coincidence? I really think that I must start reconsidering my opinion of it.
Tuesday afternoon I was just going through the tight door into Chris Marshall's frameworksop in Keighley, only to be met by a stunning Pennine-framed bike being pushed out by an elderly but very fit-looking and incredibly bronzed cyclist.
The frame, Nervex-lugged , had been beautifully sprayed up in three colours of pearlescent paint including violet, Bianchi green and, I think, blue. It was a 19 one..to match the equally small frame of the rider...and had the old rapid-taper round-to-round chainstays
I automatically guessed the age of the frame as a 1950s/60s..thinking that it was another great renovation by Chris.
Keep guessing, replied the cyclist. I transpired that the frame was built in 2007,by the rider, none other than Graham Saunders, the foreman builder for as long as anyone can remember at Pennine's..and still, at the age of 68 still doing a few.
Although I have lived for seventy plus years within an hour's ride of the Pennine shop..and have visited very often, I had not, until Tuesday, met Graham..although I have seen lots of his work and own quite a few.
The Pennine frame - Ebay 190312368960 - outed by Kevin is definitely from the early 50s, probably around 53/54 - and therefore too early to be one of Graham's..so it must have been made by Johnny Mapplebeck himself, the owner of the shop.
Returning to the coincidence theme...the Oscar Egg Super Champion lugs are the same model as those on the J F Wilson that Kevin outed early this week, but they have been tweaked and scalloped out a bit more. This reworking of standard Super Champion lugs was a feature of the work of the Leeds and Bradford frame-builders such as Bob Jackson, Pennine, Whitaker and Mapplebeck, but Ellis-Briggs never copied the style, nor dis Geoff Clark another Bradford builder. There is an excellent article about the Bradford builders in the Reminiscences pages of Peter Underwood's Classic Lightweight Cycles website.
The mysterious fork crown is a very much reworked, chopped, and added- onto Wagner, the one with the chevron milled across the top flat faces. the frame is no doubt the top-of-the range model which would be Scelta dei Campione or possibly Rei della Corsa. In each case the frame would have had a multi-panelled finish
The seller says the frame might actually be an original Whitaker and Mapplebeck..and I must admit that it does look very much like one that I have in stock..so i must check it out. If it is a Pennine, Nick Tithecott now has the original script transfers and head/seat ones. I have a set of original Whitaker and Mapplebeck ones and could supply a scan if anyone on the List buys the frame.
Apart from the lugwork, the other nice touch is the CO2 pump bracket behind the seat tube. This would take the Pennine brand CO2 inflator - a gadget invented by Bevis Wood, who road in the 50s as an Independent - a bit like a part-time Pto rider - for Pennine.
With a Chris Marshall renovation back to original livery, the frame would look startling.
Norris Lockley, Settle UK