Re: [CR] Possible Reg Harris Frame on eBay advertised as unknown

(Example: Framebuilders:Norman Taylor)

Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:38:58 -0500
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Larry Osborn" <losborn2@wvu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <DBENLJHHJHIHCFKPAFLKKEINDDAA.dkernan@mindspring.com>
References: <mailman.12238.1259028470.72377.classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] Possible Reg Harris Frame on eBay advertised as unknown


At 10:07 PM 11/23/2009, you wrote:
>All,
>
>I was intrigued by this frame:
>http://ebay.com/<blah>
>mZ130346750728QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e59459308
>Ebay item 130346750728
>
>Pictures are fairly awful, but seems his reasoning seems to be plausible.
>
>Seller notes "head tube and seat tube are not parallel" and concludes it's
>a prototype (?!)
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Cheers,
>Dean Kernan
>Pomona, New York USA

Greetings campers and frame detectives

I would agree with Don Gillies' comments that the frame appears to be a Carlton Flyer. Frame details and serial number (K 6987) make sense for a Carlton. As the owner of a couple 60s vintage Flyers, and the referenced early 60s Reg Harris Professional (not the Lambert built bike also mentioned) the frame details are very different, and the Reg serial number is just a 4-digit number stamped on the left rear dropout and fork steerer tube. No letter prefix as there is for the Carlton serials. I've only seen 5 or 6 confirmed Reg Harris bikes, but none of them had any chrome, and no chrome mentioned in what little catalog and sales info I have seen.

Interesting frame. I didn't follow the seller's reasoning at all, but I have no financial interest in the frame being anything other than the Carlton it appears to be.

Believe what you want to believe. Larry Osborn Bruceton Mills, West Virginia - USA

"No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated."

-- Crabtree's Bludgeon (one of the various invalidations of Occam's Razor)