bikemig 

I finally put the bar tape on a Melton touring bike which I've owned since the early 1990s and finished building it up. I think it's a beautiful bike but then I'm biased, . It is a nice example of what a good frame builder can do. It has a cinelli fork crown and bottom bracket and all the lugs have pretty cut outs. The drop outs are campagnolo both front and rear. It has a pump peg part of the way down the top tube which must have been designed for a zefal hp pump and has three sets of water bottle braze ons. There is no frame sticker but the bike is obviously made from good quality tubing. It has a 27.0 seatpost.

I'm the original owner of the bike. The frame ended up in the shop I was working during the 1980s and it sort of hung around until I finally bought it. I don't know when the bike was built but I'm guessing late 70s or early 80s. I've toured on it before; it is, without a doubt, one of the better bikes I have ridden. I built the bike up as follows:

(1) cinelli 1a stem and cinelli 64 bar (one of my favorite combos):
(2) SR laprade seapost with avocet touring II saddle (this bike probably deserves a Brooks but I really like the old Avocet touring II saddles);
(3) Campy tipo hubs 36 spoke, 14 gauge wheelsmith spokes, Mavic MA-2 rims, and suntour alpha 7 speed freewheel (13-26);
(4) vintage tires (!), IRC 700 by 30c gumwalls (they're nice tires and still have the little nubbies);
(5) suntour XC pro crank (46-36-24), XC pro bottom bracket, and MKS sylvan pedals;
(6) suntour power ratchet shifters, suntour XC pro front derailleur, and suntour XC pro rear derailleur; and
(7) suntour cyclone long reach sidepulls with koolstop pads and superbe pro brake levers with cane creek hoods.

The build is pretty much all old school stuff except for the new velo orange headset.

Here are the pics of the bike:



Here are some pics of details of the frame:

mkeller234

That's beautiful! I regret ever selling mine, it was probably the nicest to pass through my hands.

gerv 

27.0 seatpost? Be interesting to know what tubing was used here.

BlueDevil63 

Mike often used Reynolds 531 Tandem tubing on his touring bikes. My Melton is almost exactly the same as this one, maybe a slight bit later. It has a Reynolds 531 Tandem tubing sticker that I think is correct. Mike built a lot of tandems and I assume he used that tubeset for extra strength on the touring bikes.

Very nice bike by the way. I built my Melton touring frame into a gravel grinder and I ride it quite a bit.

bikemig 

BlueDevil63 I know this post was 7 (!) years ago but you are still active on the boards. I know Mike Melton built a lot of tandem bikes and it wouldn't surprise me if he used that on this bike. Plus it has a lot of investment cast stuff (at least the BB and fork crown) so this bike is stiff.

I take it that 531 tandem tubing is even a bit stouter than 531 ST tubing? I've never seen 531 tandem tubing before but there is a reference to it on velobase.

bikemig 

I started this thread 7 years ago when I first rebuilt the bike. Most of the parts aren't really "period" correct but I chose them more for functionality than anything else. I haven't changed the original build much other than I broke down and decided to run a Brooks B 17 saddle and I'm now running platform pedals (SR SP 11s). I'm a fan of platform pedals when running toe clips and straps as I find that my feet get hot boxed on long rides when running quill pedals.

This is still one of the nicest riding bikes I own. The only hangup in rebuilding it is that it takes an ISO headset but the crown race is 27.0 (not 26.4). Velo Orange let me buy an ISO headset and then swapped out the crown race. I had to use a small plastic chain catcher as well since the chainring jumps are 12 teeth (48/36/24). When running a 24 tooth inner I really like using a steel chainring. The lighting wasn't good since today is a rainy day.

The Golden Boy 

"Classy" is the first thing that comes to mind about that bike.

mstateglfr 

That is a super mix of components! Its a bike that is clearly set up with excellent components and not brand loyal, which I love.

rccardr 

I’ve seen that Melton and it’s a stunner in person.

clubman 

Pretty loyal to Suntour if you ask me. Superbe, Cyclone, XC Pro, Mighty shifters (?). We'll forgive a wide range freewheel by 'He who shall not be named'. And rings.
I like.

BlueDevil63 

Yep still here. Went off on a vintage motorcycle tangent but am kind of getting back to the bikes and some projects there. Not much info on 531 Tandem Tubing. I'll ask over on the CR list I am sure someone there has some info. I assume that is is stouter than normal 531 but don't know how it is butted or wall thickness or anything. And I am not sure I ever weighed my Melton. I think it was maybe intended as a light, fast tourer? Has mounts for a rear rack and some dropout eyelets, and three water bottle mounts. But no canti bosses and no front rack eyelets.

Mine has weird provenance as I bought it as a frame on Ebay from, a seller advertising it as a Cinelli (because of the Cinelli BB). I could see it was a Melton and told them that but I got it for like $200 which I thought was a bargain for a Melton touring frame. Weird paint job. All I can imagine is someone was trying to match the Melton "Circus" font with some kind of clown suit paint job.

merziac

Paging @Doug Fattic and bulgie

Doug Fattic 

Mike Melton sometime in the early 80's moved from the east to Delaware, OH. He goal was to increase production using more workers and making fixtures. His plan did not work and his operation in Ohio (he had 2 other partners) went into bankruptcy. I forget exactly when but around 1983. I drove over in a rental truck with a couple of friends and brought back some of his machinery and a lot of odds and ends of frame materials including tubing. Included in that batch was a couple of sets of tandem 531 tubing. I still have a set. This was in the era that Reynolds marked each tube with indents. Later they went to an etching that did not disturb the tubing surface so they weren't a stress riser. These main triangle tandem tubes were marked 19/22 gauge. That is a sheet metal gauge and is approximately the same as 1.0/0.70 mm). The top and lateral tubes were 1 1/8" and not 1" like was common for top tubes during that time period.

I also brought back some of his decals if I got any of his frames in to be repainted

nomadmax 

I'll build upon what Doug posted. In the early/mid 80s Mike was working for Huffy at their technical development center on Byers Road in Miamisburg, Ohio. I was racing for the dominant local team and he made our frames as Huffy was our chief sponsor. They were mostly made of Tange tubing and they rode/handled great. At the same time, the police department I worked for was developing a bicycle patrol and the chief put me in charge of running it.

At this moment I can't remember the CEO's name who tasked Mike to build the police department some MTB bikes (branded as Huffys). He did but they weren't the same quality as the road frames he made for the team, most of them failed but to be fair, the cops on the patrol were brutes on equipment. My last Melton road frame was damaged in a crash and he took it back to his house to repair it over the winter. In the interim, Mike fell for a young girl working as a local bike advocate, he got a divorce from his wife and moved away. As I remember it, that was late 1990s. I didn't feel it was proper to go knocking on the door of Mike's old house to ask his wife for my frame back. That was the last Melton I owned.

Mike was a great guy and it was pretty cool to have someone like that make something made to measure for no one but you. He wound up in Tennessee and died in 2011. At the time of his death he wasn't doing anything related to bicycle work.

EDIT

I found this obit for Mike.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/da...&pid=148157297

BlueDevil63 

Fantastic information. Thanks guys!

bikemig 

Thank you Doug Fattic and nomadmax . This is a lot of neat info about Melton. I knew nothing about him when I picked up the bike. It was hanging up in the bike shop where I worked in the 80s. I thought it was beautiful and it was my size so I bought it.

pohlf

The group here might like my first post after a very long hiatus. In fact, the last time I actively posted was in 2018, just before my single road bike at the time, a red Melton, was stolen from my garage.

.. 10 days before:


And then, a week ago, after an extremely conscientious purchaser saw my "lost bike" entry at bikeindex.org and successfully contacted me, it returned home. 5 years - to the day - and that was not planned. I still cannot believe it. I think my frame is similar in build/structure to bikemig 's. Mine has Columbus tubing, though, and an unmarked (w/ no SN) bottom bracket.

As found.

I don't think I saw this link earlier in the thread, re: Mike: Dave Moulton's Blog - Dave Moulton's Bike Blog - Mike Melton 1949 - 2011

I bought my frame in about '08. It had been hanging in the rafters of a small bike shop in Noe Valley, in SF. It's beautiful, with near-perfect (just beginning to craze) decals. I'm not sure if baking in the attic all those years changed the paint's composition, but the surface of that gorgeous red finish has the durability of a potato chip. It's always something.


I had wide Mavic wheels and budget Shimano hubs, with my MTB gearing for the hills of SF. Now it's racy, thin DT-Swiss hubs, spokes and rims. Saddle and bar tape have been discarded, along with any bad juju.

The universe has righted itself.

bikingshearer 

pohlf, I can't begin to tell you how much you made my day last weekend when you called to tell me you were going to see if it was your bike and then when you texted that it was and you had it back. This is truly a happy ending for someone who deserves it.

Now go ride the heck out of it. You have five lost years to make up for.

pohlf

Indeed, Mr. Shearer! First brief ride planned in about an hour. I believe, at this point, there are simply no more excuses in my quiver.

The universe may right itself on occasion ..
but doesn’t it surely also call your bluff ..

.. stretch .. ouch ..

tcs

I had this frame built for me 42 years ago. Yeah, nice bikes.