rickpaulos

French or Italian manufacturer. The surest way to tell is the bb threading. Most French companies put the serial on the rear dropouts, this has a partial number visible on the bb shell. French stem quills were mostly 22.0 mm, vs 22.2 for most other makes. There was an Italian company named Torpado. Perhaps this was made by them and sold for others (a very common practice for most manufacturers).

Numerous parts replaced since mfd. The bike looks like 1960s, the Huret Challenger derailleur is a 1970s design. Pretty unlikely an Italian bike would have a French derailleur oem. Looks like a partial repaint to hid the weld repair and other chips.

Yeah, worn out low end bike. Yard art or recycle. Repair/restoration would run far more than makes sense and the ride quality would be lousy to actually dangerous with that weld. And those brakes, stay off any hills.

baldyphill

So do we reckon this is better off going to scrap?

Murray Missile 

Ah. I'm not as sharp as I once was but I'm still....
.
What were we talking about?

cb400bill

Duplicate threads merged.

MauriceMoss

The lugs used on this frame are Haden 'Speed' series (H801) along with the 'Oval Sports' (HCN.8) fork crown, which essentially eliminates Japan, France and Italy as source countries.





"Tornado" on this bike (and the one posted by Murray Missile) is a model name, rather than a make. In this case Elswick Hopper 'Tornado'.

This is from their 1976-77 catalog:




Tornado appears about mid-level in that catalog, which isn't saying much considering that not one model has the tubing stated, and only the top model (Mistral) came with a 10 speed Huret Svelto drivetrain (the rest were all 5-speed).
Adding to this the current condition of the frame and the repair(s) already done, investing any effort into this bike wouldn't be advisable, unless there was a very high sentimental value attached.

Aardwolf

Awesome detective work, the only Tornado I found was Holdsworth Tornado (1951-1955) which seemed unlikey.

baldyphill

Thank you all for your help. As expected it’s pretty much junk, just had me curious that’s all👍

Murray Missile 

Thanks for posting it, we love a good challenge. Sorry it wasn't a diamond in the rough but we all had fun trying to figure out what it was.

ollo_ollo

Probably belongs in the bicycle humor thread but also fits here: Once answered a no pic ad for a "Claud Butler Touring" and found a BSO resembling subject this thread. Told seller was not a Claud Butler + worthless in current condition. Didn't believe me until I pointed out its "Foremost by JC Penney" head badge! Asked him why he thought it was a Claud Butler? He had googled
"English Touring Bicycle", saw same color Claud Butler, saw resembled etc, etc.......Don

USAZorro

Might be able to turn it into passable windchimes.

rickpaulos

bar stool.

The red one in the middle has a story. A friend called and said she had two bikes to get rid of. I told her to drop them off at my house. She came over with 1 and said she didn't want the hassle of stuffing two bikes in her car and would bring the other bike sometime. A couple days later I got home from work and found a red Huffy mountain bike at my place. It was pretty much trashed so I cut it apart and made it into a bar stool the same day. A couple days later I found a note from another acquaintance on my door asking if the red Huffy mtb was repaired.

I have a similar bar/shop stool in my work shop. Its very handy when working on bikes so I don't strain my back.

I have a few top/down/seat tubes in my work shop to use as cheater bars. Raleigh, Schwinn, Trek. Sure beats straining muscles or bashing things with a bfh.



Another frame project using a rear triangle, seat post, seat post clamp, a rim, some 1/4" rod and recycled pallet boards.

Chombi1 

The value on that bike would mostly be sentimental. Especially because of its quite poor condition. It's not totally crap but it's towards the lower end when it comes to classic bicycles. Try to clean it up and see if there's a big improvement in the way it looks. Then you can better decide what's best to do with it.

CroMo Mike 

Set yourself free... Toss it in the dumpster and move on. It's given all it had to give.