The Roberts Cycles Handbuilt Bicycle Owners Club

Long history of Roberts posted on the LCC website !{}http://lcc.org.uk/articles/roberts-cycles - based on article in the Boneshaker (VCC magazine)

I have a Roberts 653 f+f size 55cm ish square I'm selling, thought I'd give you a heads up here before listing on classifieds.
Bought earlier this year from Hilary but other projects have taken precedence.

Paint is fairly tatty close up but it's solid.

Paid 175, looking for 150.

Pics tomorrow.

Thinking of buying this:
BB is stamped NR 85 326

Buyer claims its a 1985 Roberts.

What do you think, genuine?

http://imgur.com/a/xtuyu

That would make it the 26th frame built in March 1985 by my reckoning.

Paint & forks (not original are they?) look awful IMO but the frame has some nice touches and the fluting on the seat stays looks 'robertsesque' to me, I am by no means an expert on Roberts frames though.

If it's cheap, I say buy it, re paint and enjoy!

Ask for a photo of the rear brake bridge. If it's a Roberts then it will have a little "R" embossed into the rear brake bridge:

Never seen one from the 80's without that.

Usually they'd have something stamped on the fork crown too but, as Ecobeard says, I suspect the forks aren't original. You'd need to ask the seller for the serial number from the forks to check that.

Either way, the paint job and decals are not original.

Hmmmm, bb/ frame no seems to fit with Roberts numbering system and sellers story.
It doesn't have any pantoing on rear brake bridge however.

Geoff Roberts is building again, plus he runs the frame building courses at Enigma.

Many of Chas Roberts later frames were actually built by Mario's brother from Vaz apparently he is building frames in the workshop below Mario's spray shop in Hither Green

He certainly is... he made @veLLo 's bike, iirc

edit... yeeeea: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/255909/

Winston and a few others built almost all of the Robert's floating around. Winston is almost certainly the most experienced frame builder in London.

Thought this cheekily named MTB should be in the list.

http://www.robertscycles.com/Resources/roberts1040pxmtb.png

Anyone have contact deets for Geoff Roberts?
Also what are Winstons prices like?
Cheers

http://www.varonha.co.uk/
http://www.geoffrobertsframes.co.uk/

Cheers Gaz!

Re frame number NR 85 326. This isn't typical Roberts . They did not use letters unless requested by the customer eg. a post code. If it's a Roberts perhaps it could be the owners initials. The frame number indicates 1985 March frame number 26. Winston Vaz (now at Vaz workshop) would have been working there at the time so he may know . Most Roberts fork crowns at the time would have had an R on them and same goes for the bridge as noted above.

Hi guys,

Anyone like to help on identifying the date this frame was built and perhaps who actually built it, either one of the Roberts family members or one of their employees.

It first came into my procession around the very late 70's or early 80's, picked it up in a shop in Bournemouth @£175 for frame (dark blue with 'Roberts' in golden letters) and chromed forks with the 'R' stamped in black. I've no pics of it back then.
Its been rubbed down.
I went over it with a magnifying glass and the only number I found was either 9680 or 0896 on the Bottom Bracket. I'm leaning towards 0896 as this 4 digit numbering system was used back then, looked at a few web sites, this system went up to 1372 before the they stamped the year/month etc, but below 1000 it was just a 3 digit number stamped, mine is clearly a 4 digit unless that is not the Frame No.
No markings of the Forks themselves, and I believe Charlie Roberts also stamped a number there.
The number is throwing me, there is no 'R' on the brake bridge, but not all Roberts had these until the later 80's. The rear stays are thin and fluted at the seat post which makes me believe its late 70's, as a trend further down the line was to make these more sturdy with sometimes the 'R' stamped there also.

Any help would be appreciated.
Pics to follow..

Andy

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call winston and ask nicely

Winston Vaz
ph: 07840672646
He is based in Hither Green.

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Laverly

That's was an extremely quick response...

Thanks for posting, Amey :)

Did he work there around the late 70's then, perhaps he is the man that made this frame.
Charlie put number on the Bottom Bracket + the Steerer and I believe he made the early numbered frames.
Nothing on the forks on mine, this number just confuses me to hell LOL

Anyways, thanks for the input. Appreciated.

Andy

Did he work there around the late 70's then, perhaps he is the man that made this frame.

He might have. If not he will have more info anyway.

I've got some other pics in the Current Build Project thread.
Its painted now with the running gear going on.

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/280480/#comment12735019

I'll update it shortly.

Had an accident with the gear bosses, kind of got one knocked off, so decided to knock the other off and replacing with a Campagnolo Band Lever

Pretty sure I've never put my Roberts up here, so thought I might remedy the situation:

Light blue, with full Chorus:

Grey and pink, with CdA:

Roughstuff, currently frame-only, soon to become a project: