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@tallsam
Hey. Thanks for replying.
I'm afraid the bike has already been stripped down. I've not got room to keep another bike in my flat. Don't worry though I'm not actually ever gonna throw any of this stuff away. Heavens above! Some of the bits are just unusable or I don't have a bike to use them on.
I've been to the
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/reclassicbikes/Bates_Cantiflex_Home.html
page already. I should contact the guy who made it and send him pics of my frame.
I'd already concluded that if it was one of the Bates brothers then it would be an EG frame. Thing is it says it was made in Thornbury by L Bates:
To the best of my recollection Thornbury is near Bristol and I'm yet to find a mention of L Bates.
Seeing as the Bates brothers between them were only in London and Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex.
I did think for a minute it was from Thornbury, Victoria, Australia (about 45 mins bike ride from here) but its stamped British Made on the underside of the BB.
Also on all the EG Bates frames I've seen they have the same style graphics which don't match mine which is odd.
BTW the hubs are different. Low flange at rear (flip flop - no name), High flange at front (hub is stamped "Normandy" Made in France).
The Rims seem pretty shit. Araya chrome something or others. They look amazingly like the rims I used to have on an old Raleigh MTB that cost me £10 in the late 90's - it was shit.
BTW the crank arms are stamped "PWB". They're a little worse than surface rusted. The metal is pitted and rough from extended rusting. I'd not trust them to ride on. They could be blasted and rechromed though but they're never gonna have a smooth look to them again.
The chainwheel is only surface rust. I didn't know about it being a "chater lea" though. Thanks for that. I'll clean it up with wire soap at some point and polish it up.
I wish the bars and stem had something stamped on them. I really want to know more about them.
Brakes are ok but not period.
As for using the frame. It's far too small for me. I'm 6 foot 6 and I already have back problems. If I wasn't leaving Australia to come back to the UK in 5 months then I'd keep it until I found someone I could build it up for or just keep it to hang on the wall.
I'll possibly try and sell it on ebay to buy some new bits for my bike though. The only problem to that though is I found a 1cm wide dent on the top tube when I was cleaning the frame.
I'll get some better shots at the weekend when its sunny and I'm not at work.