A.S. Gillott owners & appreciation club

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falconvitesse
So this frame has been hanging around for a while now it was on the Gillott Facebook page and on Ebay but went unsold.
Why?
1. Well for one it was expensive.
2. All the paint had been stripped off. Suggesting damage or repairs.
3. The forks were oval to round (unusual for a bike with horizontal rear dropouts), coupled with this. was the fact that, there was no frame number in evidence on the steerer.
4. There were stories that the original owner had crashed it. (His name is printed on the rear dropouts). The frame came with lots of paperwork, magazine cutouts and race cards from the days of yore, but nothing specific, linking the bike with the paperwork or the cyclist.
5. The front nearside dropout had a crack in it.
Erh..! apart from that a great bike.!
I spoke to the eBay seller and told him there was a crack in the dropout, as it wasnt mentioned in the description.
He discontinued the auction and I would have left it at that, however inspired by a frame I had bought for a friend recently, which also had oval to round forks on a track/path frame and matching frame numbers I bought the Gillott.

A.S Gillott Spearpoint 946171
So built in 1946 and the 171st frame made by them since they opened in 1945

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anidel in reply to @falconvitesse

Bill Phillbrook built. Right?

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falconvitesse in reply to @anidel

yes it sure is those tangs on the seat lug give it away, according to Mark Stevens. I love the fuss free clean and straightforward design of the spearlugs.
So it arrived on Monday and I was very keen to see what I had bought.
Had it originally been a road frame, what was the story with the forks?
First up geometry, which was definitely track orientated, however the angles were not quite so acute and the slender chainstays and seat stays definitely suggest road racing, probably TT.
Huge rear dropouts and very tight clearances So much so that 27" rims wouldn't fit at all which is unusual for a bike of this age, so it's tubs all the way.
There were no sign of any braze ons either so although I'm no expert I was pretty sure it had been built specifically with horizontal dropouts in mind but was designed for road racing.
As for the forks I was sure they were also part of the original frame so started cleaning the steerer with polish etc looking for any sign of a frame number.

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