Lobb track frames?

Bought a lovely (and very cheap) track bike at the Herne Hill jumble yesterday, the guy said he thought it was a Lobb frame... Never heard of Lobb, beautiful ornate lugwork, 531, he reckoned it was built in 1966...
Anyone got some info?
Will try and post a pic in a bit, don't seem to be able to get one uploaded right now...

Apologies for the crapness of this pic... I'll take some better ones tonight...

I've found riders named Lobb but so far no builders..

Think I'll have to take a closer look tonight, couldn't find a serial # on it last night... P*ssed tho'... :-S

If you get some closer shots of the lugs, some lug nerds on here might be able to ID it.

Will do... Such pretty lugs, shame the respray's a bit thick, they don't show up as well as they could...

Here are some close ups for the lug nazis, any help identifying the frame builder would be much appreciated...

those are some odd lugs, and the dropouts look kinda unusual as well.

yeah interresting

what did it cost???

wow that's nice. it's quite strange indeed, never seen a chainring like that... and really short track ends... the badge on the stem looks really nice as well...

i bet the amount of interest that it managed to stir up in me exposed my lack of information i can tell you. sorry...

The crankset is a Sugino Super Maxy crankset - they're a little odd and not the greatest things for skidding on because the spider is schwagged - ie press fitted onto the crank arms and obviously theres no way to change the chainring on this model.

The lugs are definitely indicative of the age of the frame and its a good looking machine. No idea on the builder but theres a bunch of geeks over on the bikeforums.net classic and vintage section, who may be able to help you out.

Dang thats nice!

Only realised it had a Sugino crankset once I got home, great bike for £80 plus £20 for a front wheel from the stall next door... Bike jumbles are great! Gonna give the Maillard hubs, cranks, stem and bars a good seeing to with the chrome paste and make it my beater... I'll ask the bikeforums.net bods today then... It's a bit big tho', the seat bolt must be imperial cuz I haven't got an Allen key that fits, once that's lowered I can take it out for a spin... Cheers for that! :-)

That's nice. Looks like it's been powdercoated which would explain why the lug shorelines aren't so sharp. The dropouts are interesting - they look like the typical really long dropouts of that era with some bits cut off. I wonder what the hell is going on there

Weight saving. You don't need long dropouts if you've sorted your gear for your track event? Although rear is drilled for brake..
Ends could have been bent in a crash and so they were cut off?

Love the red seat!

amazing stuff, especially for the price! And I agree it does look powdercoated :)

100 sheets for a complete bike - well done that man. it's a sweet looking ride too

jonnywilkinson 100 sheets for a complete bike - well done that man. it's a sweet looking ride too

Mmm... It's offsetting 'The Money Pit" (as my girlfriend calls it), which started with a £350 budget but has somehow spiralled skywards and out of control... My first ground-up bike build, many lessons learned... Mmm... :-)

And so the mystery unravels...
Looks like it's a Rotrax track frame, unnsure of the date as yet... Rotrax is still in business (in a very small way) down in Southampton, from what I can gather this may be the Vel D’Hiv Path which was their track model... Apparently the curved brake bridge is a Mike Compton/Rotrax signature as well as the ornate lugwork, they used posh Nervex lugs before cutting their own in-house... Ownership of the Rotrax name changed hands to Whitcomb Cycles in the 60s so this baby may have been made in Deptford and not in Southampton... Going down to Whitcomb in a week or so for a proper long chat and find out for sure... There are pictures on http://www.classicrendezvous.com/British_isles/Rotrax_1.htm of a posh Rotrax tourer with the same stem so that kinda nails it... From what I can gather coulda been made anytime between 1946 and 1961... Fascinating stuff, well, for me anyway...
Here's a REALLY crap pic of what she looks like now after a bit of chrome paste and elbow grease...
All I need now is a vintage Dia-Compe long-reach front brake, clearance on the front fork is currently more like a carton of 200 fags than a fag paper!
Cheers, J :-D

That looks really good - Rotrax are damn good so that would be a nice find. It will be interesting to hear what barry has to say.

that is a real bargain if it really is a rotrax. and good thing is it's definitely british threading for everything you wont ever have any trouble.

Not a Rotrax, looks like it's an F. H. Grubb... New 27" wheels for her this week! :-D