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The serial number could imply that the frame has been produced in August of 2001. I'm not sure if it's the norm for all NJS frames, but this video from the Level workshop suggests that approach. Not that it really matters in this case, but it might be an interesting video (and channel), nonetheless.
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He seems to be going by the name "Featch" on several cycling related forums. I think I found a post of his from 2011 where he says that he hasn't built a frame in 12 years, so that would put his last frame being built in 1999.
You can also find his profile on Facebook if you search by the name Andy Thompson Featch. Much cycling related stuff there.
Oh I would love to be able to book a Manchester Velodrome session, but I live in mainland Europe, some 1850 km away from Manchester. But that doesn't stop me from admiring all these bits of British cycling culture heritage, and owning a part of it is indeed a privilege.
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Much appreciated, Chris.
So would you say that Andy Thompson of the 80s fame has never, to your knowledge, built frames under the trading name of Atom, and that all the misinformation arose from the similarity of the two builders' names?
By the way, the photos and especially descriptions of your work shown on the flickr page are tremendously enjoyable.
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Wow, I was under the impression that there's only one Andy Thom(p)son, the framebuilder who at some point had built Atom frames. The info I got from various forums led me to believe that, but that info was probably based on speculation to a certain degree, and I could have misinterpreted some of it. I'm very glad we cleared that up.
Anyway, I was aware of the Andy Thompson that goes by the nickname "Featch", who is, if I understood correctly, our guy from the 80s.
But is it possible that he had also built frames branded "Atom" at some point?
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Thanks for this info, Gaston. As I own this frame now, I was curious to learn more about it. From all the info I managed to gather, I presumed this was an Andy Thompson built frame, as it resembles some of his other work that I saw, specifically the details such as the monostay and the seatpost binder. I'm glad you confirmed that. By the way, it bears the serial number "atom 032", so it most certainly is one of the earlier frames.
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Same here, It's been on my mind for much too long, made me lose sleep, until I decided to go for it one sleepless night. Never felt better.
Cheers everyone for the positive feedback. Much appreciated.
The build is from what I had at my disposal from my other bikes, but it turned out nicely, I guess. Such a nice frame really makes all those parts shine.
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So this came in the mail the other day, and now I only need a headset and should be able to build it with the parts from my other bike.
I'm after a '90s Campagnolo Chorus headset that originally came with the frame, but has been removed at some point. I would hate to cut the steerer and put a shorter stack headset, so one of those tall Campagnolo ones should do the trick.
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Want to assemble this Atom that I got recently, so I'd need a headset. It originally came with a Campag Chorus, the '90s version, so that's what I'm after. VGC please.
Presumably, it should be in British threading, since it's a British frameset after all.
Would consider a Record one from the same era, as presumably they have the same stack height.
I have about 40mm of steerer available.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/CdoAu2yjqUT/
I believe Roman is member of this forum @NoFuckingChance
I follow him on instagram, and ever since the war started he was collecting and transporting aid and supplies from France to Ukraine, putting a hell of an effort in it. Now he went there personally to defend his country.
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The frameset was built by a builder from Moscow, who stopped doing it a few years ago. Here's his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strelabicycles/
Those are Campagnolo track ends. I'll snap some more photos in the coming days.
Cheers.
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Theoretically, any NJS frame can be made to accept any ISO headset properly, by reaming/machining the necessary surfaces to a proper diameter - headtube and fork crown. That wouldn't be considered a hack job, since those surfaces are normally machined or reamed anyway during the production of the frame, and doing them just a little bit extra is completely okay. Vice versa would not be possible, or advisable, since the diameters on the frame made to accept an ISO headset would be too large (or small in case of fork crown) to safely accept a JIS headset.
So if you see a CK headset on a NJS frame, the chances are someone modified the frame to make it accept it, which would be the only normal thing to do.