roccobike

The charity I volunteer with inherited this road bike. It came packed in a bike box. I put it together and will upgrade it some, but I'm trying to get a handle on what brand the frame is. It was repainted by the a previous owner. It appears to be a good paint job, not rattle can, probably powder coat. There are no serial numbers to be found in any of the logical locations like the bottom bracket shell, seat tube or stays. It's fully lugged with a braze-on front derailleur bracket. The bottom bracket shell does not have the typical plastic cable guides. Instead the guides are molded into the shell. The seatpost is a 27.5. The spread between the stays takes a 130mm axle wheel, but that could have been cold set so I don't put much stock in that. The drop outs appear to me to be at least medium quality, My own experience with vintage rides tells me this is probably not a bottom of the line frame and the seatpost indicates it's most likely a double butted chromoly frame, but those are assumptions on my part. Any help is appreciated.
Here are the pics.

roccobike

More Pics

base2 

Braze on hanger? Nothing particularly too vintage.

Lugs? They look Centurion-ish Though a half-dozen other brands used almost identical lugs on the head tube.

My vote is something 1990-ish, perhaps Ishiwata steel on account of a random unsubstantiated hunch/guess.

My kids JIS/BSA Peugeot looks similar. How goes the seat post diameter? Headset size? 1 inch I presume. Generic Profile Design fork doesn't necessarily say much.

The bottom bracket guides will be the tell.

roccobike

The head set, based on outer dimensions, appears to be a 1" with a steerer that has an adaptor to take a 1 1/8 stem. The seatpost is standard 27.2.
There's some kind of logo on the bottom bracket shell, but the paint has filled it in so I can't read it.

Doug Fattic 

The rear dropouts and stay attachment treatment looks exactly like a Miele in Toronto, Ontario. The fork is a replacement. They went bust about 1995.

roccobike

Thanks. Does the bottom bracket shell look like one they would use?

Doug Fattic 

Miele used a lot of different BB shells including the one in your picture. What is most distinctive are the dropouts. I have never seen them on any other frame although I doubt they were exclusive to only Miele. Also the way the dropouts are attached to the stays in your picture is exactly how Miele did their attachments.

In 1995 Miele auctioned off their frame building equipment and supplies and I brought some of both back to Michigan with me. It was a fortunate trip because for years I've been able to use the materials I got there in my framebuilding classes for brazing practice. I have a 5 gallon pail full of those dropouts. That is why I am so familiar with them. I also got a bunch of lugs and shells and fork crowns. They used a lot of different kinds on their different models.

roccobike

With your comments on the dropouts and the attached pic of another Miele on ebay, I'm convinced it's a Miele. The ebay bike has chromed Campy dropouts so that's not a match to the charity's bike. However the bottom bracket shell is identical to the one on the charity's bike and it has a braze-on front derailleur mount, just like the one on the charity bike. That along with your comments about the drop outs is enough for me, it's a Miele. Not the Pro, like the one on ebay, but I'm guessing it's a good quality frame, probably double butted, chromoly steel.
This is a big help as I prepare to sell this locally. We sell the really nice bikes we get to fund the bike ministry charity so we never have to ask our church to pony up any funds. Of course all the workers are volunteers. Thanks very much for taking the time to help out.

verktyg 

roccobike

"The ebay bike has chromed Campy dropouts"

Those are COLUMBUS stamped dropouts.

verktyg

roccobike

I stand corrected, Thanks

Doug Fattic 

Here is a picture of an unpainted Miele (which is why it rusted) with those dropouts and stay attachment treatments. They used a lot of Tange #1 double butted tubing in their better frames including this one. These dropouts had a longer than typical back section.

T-Mar

I agree with Doug that the BB shell does look like the Miele product. Furthermore, as he notes, both the dropouts and stay end treatments are Miele style. Where I'm having an issue is the top tube cable stops, as I can't recall having seen a Miele with this feature. However, if we assume Miele, the presence of a front derailleur hanger, combined with an absence of embossings, suggests one of the mid-range Cromor models from the very late 1980s to early 1990s. In which case, I'd expect a 27.2mm seat post

Hummer

+1

This frame has many of the characteristics of a Lupa model that I have seen, except for the brake cable stops.

P!N20

^ That's some creative cable routing...