[CR] Introduction

I thought I should introduce myself since I hope some people here know the answer to an enduring mystery about one of my bikes. All of my bikes are vintage mostly because I haven't bought any new ones since the late '70s. No real reason to replace them, is there? Actually, if I don't get a new paint job on my racing bike, the top tube might rust through. My main bikes are a late '70s Viner, and a touring bike I made myself. I'm getting ready to finish the first frame I ever built back in '76 as a 3 speed commuter. My kids have learned not to be surprised when they find out how old some of my projects are.

I worked at Trek in the "red barn" days in the '70s, and I've always considered myself to be a framebuilder, although there are only a few bikes out there that I built outside of Trek (If you find a Trek with "EK" or "EEK" on the bottom bracket, I'd like to hear about it). I decided to get more serious about it just as the steel frame market hits another speed bump. Who knows how that will work out... But I have a torch again, and I'm obsessing about the stainless steel tubes you can get nowadays.

Here is my mystery track bike on velospace: http://velospace.org/node/20421 I never really gave the frame the respect it deserves. I received it as a frame without any decals other than possibly tubing (pretty sure I know it's 531). I put a new Campy Pista group on it in '76. It has Campy dropouts, French threads on the BB and headset, and 26.4mm seatpost. I think I had it painted at Trek, IIRC that cost us $18 at the time (in this case you get what you pay for). The main idiosyncrasy is the dual seat post binder bolts. I think I have the other one, I just got tired of tightening it because it's very close to the other bolt. The builder also added points to the fork crown and bottom bracket shell. The thing that impresses me now is how clean the frame construction is in comparison to most of the French frames I'm used to seeing. If anyone can ID the frame, I'd be grateful.

Regards,
Eric Keller
Boalsburg, Pennsylvania