I do know of a Reg Harris Professional frame that is finished in translucent color over chrome, so it is not impossible that a chrome plated frame is a Reg Harris, but this one certainly is not. The lugs are all wrong for a start and there are too many other anomalies for this to be anything like a prototype. Calling something a prototype is an easy (devious) way to explain differences from a production model, but there is a limit beyond which it becomes totally incredible. Digressing a bit, the reason that Reg-Harris-manufactured (as opposed to branded) bikes are relatively rare is that the business was ill-conceived and did not last very long, and the best that can be said about the product is that it was ok. Hugh Thornton Cheshire, England
From: Larry Osborn <losborn2@wvu.edu> Subject: Re: [CR] Possible Reg Harris Frame on eBay advertised as unknown To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Tuesday, 24 November, 2009, 19:38
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)