Tony Butterworth track frame

Hi,
just bought this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291598930003

Anyone recognizes it? Was used in Manchester, but seller is coming from Kent.

A bit ratty, but super nice t-rex dimensions (60.5 cm ST ctc, 56.5 cm TT ctc), just like my other bike, and very tight. And apparently it is 531, not 501 as in the text, I think the seller misread the decal.

Still not sure what to do with it. Probably risers, and it's going to be a deluxe everyday beater, or I might actually take this to the track.

Does anyone know Tony Butterworth? How is/was he as a framebuilder? Was this frame custom-made, or one of many?

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Tony Butterworths was a shop in Sheffield... back in the day I think some of the frames miiiight have been made by him - I will check with some friends when I am next back over the hills there.

I do know for sure that some he sold were definitely gas pipe flyers, but others were pretty decent Italian imported frames rebranded. A clue may be the threads on yours if you whip that BB out.

All in all not the most reputable of characters for his frames. But a very decent shop owner/manager back in the day...

Did some more investigation in the meantime: he did not build frames himself at all.
Apparently the frames were built mostly by Vernon Barker and Nigel Dean.
By the way: the frameset is not necessarily from Butterworth, it's just the seller who thinks it could be so.

Looking forward to receive the frame so I can have a look at the BB.

The frame must be something nice, given its 531 tubing, the fastback seat cluster and what looks like Zeus track dropouts, no?

Compare:

This build is now finished (see other thread in Repairs/Fixes as well). I personally like most the narrow but deep oval profile of the vintage Syncros Altura stem.

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Damn, that looks TIGHT.

Surely that frame is too large for you if you are running a slammed seat and stem? Looks nice though

That stem is slammed as I don't need it higher and it looks best - these old Syncros quills are actually designed to be slammed, as they have a ridge that stops it from going further down, to get the ideal position.

Seat post isn't slammed? Sometimes you read the ideal seat post length is the width of your hand showing, so that's about what you see here. But yes, I could put it a bit higher. I'm 6'2" so with that ST being 61cm c-c, it fits nicely

Do you have any close ups of the lugs and bb shell? Looks like it might be an actual zeus frame.

I was watching this on ebay. Glad someone on here got it. Slightly sad it wasn't me.

Thoma: what was your bid?

btw, the seller got some things wrong, it is actually ST 60.5 c-c and TT 56.5 c-c and the headset is an italian OMAS

The ends are really nice.

Tjabo: see below for the lugs. The BB shell (68mm ISO) is smooth/clean underneath, no numbers, cutouts or anything.
Only characteristical thing are those three holes near the seattube (plus another three near the downtube)

Does it tell anything?

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lovely frame whatever it is.

I didn't bid in the end. Too may bikes already.

Let me know if you ever want to part with it though. If I can shift a few bits I may be able to sneak another into the hoard.

Builders usually put those holes in the lugs so that they can see that the braze has completely flowed under the lug. On cheaper bikes they don't bother, so you can infer something about the quality of the build by the fact that they are there. But yeah, the three in a row like that is probably a signature style by a particular builder, so hopefully someone will recognise it.

Hmm, those lugs look even more intricate than the Zeus ones:

I thought they looked simmilar in the prvious photos. And Zeus bb shells typically have two slots like this: Although there are exceptions. So its probably not a Zeus, sorry.

No, it's not. But at least we know now ;-)