Can you help to identify these frames, bikes or parts?

I had a conversation with the Grubb marquee enthusiast of the VCC and, albeit not 100% sure, he think it may not be a Grubb.
If it was, it would be one of those build in a "dark period" of the Grubb bicycles, where nothing is yet known. The period of 1952 and 1953 as soon as the brand went under Holdsworth. Which would be a rare find. Still, it would be a frame with some peculiarities.
One is the straight brake bridge. All the ones that came from under Holdsworth have a curved bridge.
The other is represented by the seat stays eyes. Here are double fluted, which is not like anything he's seen on a Grubb.

I do agree with him as in my little research I also noticed those discrepancies.
Would be nice to know something about that fork crown and the tubing of this frame (plain or double butted 531)

At first glance this 'looks' Italian. But the forks don't match, like Anidel probably replacements. The wrapover and the lugs suggest to me a late 60/70s frame likely British and if I was pushed I'd say Rourke/Mercian/small builder. Almost certainly 531. Nice frame though.

The derailleur clamp is likely an addition when it was repainted. I'd still say 70s, even late 60s build.

It's nice enough to be a late 70s Holdsworth too, as they used the Prugnat lugset. Are there any long serials or just the 188 under the bb shell?

one of my holdsworths has a 5 digit number, the other 6 digits but that began with a zero. if it's got a transfer badge on the headtube then i think these appeared from the 80's onwards.
incidentally i didn;t know that norman kilgariff who gathered loads of info on grubb and holdsworths passed away last year. thats a loss to the cycling world.
i would prob say that earlier holdsworths would have 4 digit number and i believe that it was always stamped on the fork steerer too.

Mystery frame, 4 digit frame number under BB, the newish looking paint hides an old frame, built for 27" wheels and came with a 4 speed block, rear is 120mm spaced, nearly all band-on cable guides, very light considering it must be 50s/60s, I was thinking it could be an early Mercian but don't want to be foolish

Curved rear bridge, british threads but a Raccord Gargette BB shell with oil port hole. Distinguishing feature is the lugwork, I haven't seen anything like it before, Johnny Berry perhaps ?

It wasn't built in nottingham or ilkeston so I'm out of my depth, hoping some of the forum experts can help @HillyBen @midlife

3 Attachments

Hey.
Anyone know what bit should go here, or what it's called?
Basically stops the cable from pulling through the hole.

A "cable stop".

It likely has a flat on one side: look through the hole to see what I mean. It also has a cam to fit in the groove on the hanger.

I doubt FSA sell them as spares, but you should be able to pick something up and wrangle it to fit.

Try SJS Cycles or eBay.

Tar

I've just bought my first Mercian from ebay, and I'm pretty bloody excited. However, I'm struggling to identify the crankset. The pictures are quite limited, but I can see that it says 'Strada 170' on the inside of the non-drive side. Initially I assumed Campagnolo, but they don't look exactly like any I can find online, and in addition they have some panto that appears to say 'AB'. Only thing I can think of is Ambrosio perhaps?

The bike is supposedly from 1984, some pics below. Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

Looks like modified Gipiemme Special.

Everyone made a copy of SR cranks.

Some were better than others in terms of the alloy used and therefore how likely they are to crack.

I'd think the engraving is aftermarket and represents the bike manufacturer, or perhaps a vain owner, rather than the manufacturer of the cranks.

What's the PCD? They look to be in great condition and I wonder if they could be a modern remake.

Thanks both. Don't have the bike yet, just working from limited ebay pictures so don't know PCD. I think (hope) that the rest of the group is C-Record but it's hard to tell. Might be Chorus according to Velobase, I'm totally uneducated in these things but bought on impulse. Probably paid too much, oh well. Guess I could always change my name to Adam Brown or something.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-MERCIAN-531-ROAD-BIKE-EROCIA-CAMPAGNOLO-/292057927631?

I feel like I saw hundreds of these in the early 2000s. Is that an R headtube logo for Raleigh or Ridgeback? But I have a feeling it's some other now-dead UK brand.

It's a nice bike but I think none of the parts are c-record. Rear mech looks like nuovo record, hubs & brakes are nuovo/super record era. Shifters & front mech are c-record era but not neccessarily c-record (could be athena for example).
Regarding the crankset, it may be an ofmega sr copy judging by the dust caps? While everyone made copies of the SR crankset, quite a lot of these copies are actually superior to the original, especially as regards the finish. The edges at the intersection between the crank arm and the spider are rather sharp on the original campa cranks that's why they are very prone to hairline fractures in this area. Imho it's a flawed design: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13219300/ . The sugino mighty, which is also a campa SR copy more or less, has a finish which is miles better with rounded edges at the crank arm-spider intersection which has the effect that stress is distributed more evenly. I wouldn't be surprised if your bike originally came with campa cranks which were replaced after they failed... but that's just a guess.

too slow on this one - as @Sig_Arlecchino say, dustcaps are the giveaway

80's ofmega competizione had plastic dustcap and an easily removable printed logo
http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=5a280653-1950-417f-9bef-b9e97f00792b&Enum=115
144mm PCD -this is a decent chainset - I had a similar (slightly older) version on one of my recent builds and was pretty happy with it

uhm, no?

http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=F2A4867F-3D75-4EAE-B6E8-EE5DCA18DEC6&Enum=115&AbsPos=10

vs.

http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=5a280653-1950-417f-9bef-b9e97f00792b&Enum=115

Take a look at the arm profile near the bolts.
Dustcaps can be easily switched.

1 Attachment

@kenzo
Fair point - Gipiemme it is

I tend to take a risk with random named auctions so got myself unknown frameset in Columbus SL tubing. It has Columbus dropouts, italian bottom bracket, colour not original. There is a serial number 1610 or 0191, threaded eyelets, top tube has no holes at joining points with head tube and seat tube. I was trying to look for bottom bracket shell design to narrow search but without much of the luck.
Top tube is 57, seat tube 55, total weight comes to 2.7kg.

Any ideas?

More photos https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4janvlncmhf87bn/AAAVpaKpKfPUrygs-2lteTlRa

2 Attachments

Yep, agree about the C-Record thing now I've properly done some research, seems to be Nuovo perhaps as you say.

Google images tells me Kenzo is closest so far with the crankset, but I am yet to find anything with the same fluting pattern.

Thanks all for your input, looking forward to riding it!

Finding the exact same pattern can be quite hard as the in-house fluting and milling components was a very common practice back then. Not only the big names as DeRosa or Colnago did it, but smaller brands like Stelbel or even small shops did it as well.

For a moment there I thought AD.. Austro Daimler! A eureka moment passes. Puch Austro Daimler did panto quite a lot of parts right enough.

The fork crown looks a lot like an old 70s Benotto I've been painting. I'd say more Italian than anything else.

Can anyone help me identify this Campagnolo front derailleur?
Any ideas on the year / era and model?

Thanks.

2 Attachments

It looks like 980 http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=39E6D8DA-1581-4BF9-AE9A-E1BC93C071F5&Enum=113&AbsPos=9

Thanks, fork details definitely looks like Benotto. It's probably just random italian, I will try to sandblast it at some stage and look for any other signs.