Free: 1969 Witcomb (frame only, Bristol) GONE

A lovely 55cm square race frame made in Deptford in 1969 that sadly had a head-on collision with a recklessly-driven taxi. The fork is toast, but the frame still seems solid and I can’t detect any rippling on the downtube or top tube. Headset cups fit very loosely, but I can’t remember if it was like that before anyway. I’ll happily hang it on my wall, but if anyone thinks they can extract more value from it, it’s free to collect in Bristol BS5.

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Ah what a shame you had a smash. Glad to see the frame had some life though after hanging in basement for a couple of years!

Actually a good friend of mine who loves Witcombs is in BS6 and would probably love this - can I dibs this for him?

I put plenty of miles on it over the summer and it became maybe my favourite bike so it’s extremely gutting what happened to it. I’ll be happy to see it go to a good home so if your friend wants it then they’re very welcome to it.

Sorry about your crash!

Seeing this frame reminded me of a posting on flickr by the legendary framebuilder JP Weigle. Sure enough, the two Whitcombs look very similar except for the seat cluster. Both Richard Sachs and Weigle learnt framebuilding at Whitcomb in London and Weigle states: "I built this frame in 1973 (with some help) at the Witcomb shop in Deptford England. David Cotton was looking over my shoulder when I needed help or encouragement. "

I wonder who built your frame? Would be interesting to know. Anyway, the links are below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49353569@N00/34203064503/
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/05/nyregion/shops-6-miles-apart-build-custom-bikes.html

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Headset cups fit very loosely

1" ≠ 1"

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-headsets.html

2nd Dibs please - I'll be down just before Xmas if that's ok !?