Skylar

My buddy has a mystery frame he acquired for free. He's taken the fork out and stripped all the paint off the frameset.

I'm told it once wore a blue-to-white paint fade scheme. That could mean anything from Nishiki to Colnago. I don't think it's either.

The biggest clues seem to be the bottom bracket clovered petal cut outs and the Club/Clover detailing.

He didn't have the fork at his place. All I saw was the bare (literally) frame and Tange Levin headset.

Any thoughts? It's very light. Nothing but the frame and headset not withstanding.

I'll take more pictures if needed. I wasn't there long and was shaky from a motorcycle ride/coffee.





Thanks for looking.

RaleighSport

I don't know much, but the drop outs don't have any markings? I know with my mysery bike I narrowed it down by hunting down the right style for the serial, matching it to the company but that took a lot of hunting through obscure websites. Someone will probably recognize the lugs/BB etc though!

realestvin7

Looks neat.

shnibop 

That seat lug window looks very familiar but can't place the name...

I think DrilliumDude did some work for someone who had a frame with the same triple-circle detail.

BRB

Skylar

The dropout photos are very poor. I called my buddy to see if there's something stamped in those. The dropouts are fairly vertically-angled, not horizontal like a track frame.

RaleighSport

Need more pictures! If you can sideviews lug, and reverse angle on that seatpost. The lug triple circle looks very similar to some Mercian's.

Skylar

Yes sir. I have this one:





I thought Mercian as well but the ones that popped up on google look a little fancier in lugwork. Maybe that was a top end model.

RaleighSport

Are those race cups engraved? If so what do they say? LoL this is bugging me as much as one of my own bikes.

Skylar

On the head? Tange Levin.

TheOtherGuy

I've got a '70s Davidson with lugs drilled that way, but the BB shell doesn't have those cut-outs.

Skylar

He mentioned Davidson but didn't quite think his frame was a Davidson, either. Maybe it's a copy.

Thanks to everybody who's checked out this thread and offered information.

shnibop 

ahh yes, Davidson, that's what i was thinking of...


Seat cluster by amoll68, on Flickr


i remembered the drillium, but now that i found the Flickr i was after, it's not DD's work, sorry Jeff


anyway, lugs look similar but that BB shell is still unusual

Straightblock

I'm betting it's a Nishiki ONP. I had one as a team bike with the Montrose Cycle Club in the late 70s. Mine was a champagne color.

Skylar

Sweet. ONP? Wouldn't it have more horizontal pullback dropouts? (You tell me, serious question)

Straightblock

Mine had vertical dropouts, but others had horizontal.

They were light but fragile. The team let me keep it when I retired from racing, and it cracked the drive side chainstay JRA in the park with my girlfriend/future wife. I saw others cracked at the bottom bracket/seat tube and on the downtube near the shifters.

Skylar

Nice. I'll present him with my findings in a couple days.

unworthy1

That's what I was going to guess based on the BB shell cut-out. Only place I've seen that before, but might have been used on another high-end Nishiki model as well, can't remember. This is (another) time we really need T-Mar.

Straightblock

Check the pics of a Bicycling Magazine scan on this guy's Flickr page:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ga_mueller/page18/

Skylar

Yeah, that's near-conclusive right there. GREAT find.

Skylar

You guys are the coolest. Thank you. BTW- Where's T-Mar? Haven't seen him much since I registered in '09

RaleighSport

Glad you found out what it was, I was stumped. Well time to add another tiny morself of knowledge to the stash.