Philipre

Hi Out there,
I am needing abit of help with identifying the Age of this bike i acquired today.
It is Decal ed with Armstrong Consort with Armstrong Head badge . Paint work is pretty well much falling off but was Magenta over a silver type coat over enameled Black , Armstrong decal badge on seat tube with world striping above and below with fine pin stripe in box format. original Bayliss wiley hubs and BB . Frampton headset , williams Crank.
off side dropout has A 4196 Stamped on it. Wrights olympic 14 saddle , 531 reynolds tube with 27.2mm seat post.
Any help on dating and where i might find original style decals would be appreciated.
I Have tried uploading photos but failing miserably .

Phil

rhm

Phil, in the absence of photos I can't tell you much (honestly, I probably couldn't tell you much even with photos, but I'd like to see them anyway). But I can tell you all Williams crank parts have a date code that you can look up here. The date code accompanies this mark:


A guide to Williams crank and chainring identification

The Veteran Cycle Club library has several Armstrong dealer price lists. Those for 1955, 1956 and 1959 list a model called Consort.

There's also some catalogs...

https://www.veterancycleclublibrary.o...20Library).pdf

Philipre

Thanks rhm , the cranks abit rusty so will be taking off today to sit in an acid bath.
Yeah i was hoping someone might have some knowledge on Armstrong cycles.

Philipre

here we go Managed to sort photos

Philipre

some more

Michael Angelo 

rhm

That's a great bike!

I'm going to guess 1955-8 for now, hope to be corrected when you get a look at the crank date code.

The usual decal suppliers are H Lloyd, Cyclomondo, Velocals, and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment. But I looked over all their offerings a few months ago and I don't think any of them has your exact decals. Could you get a better photo of the seat tube decal?

Philipre

Thanks team. the advert i have seen before but the difference is the pump pegs are on the down tube so wonder if that could men earlier than mid 50s. Seat tube decal is 80% gone but looks the same as the head badge . Unsure if they are williams cranks as no standard markings or dates on them .

clubman 

It is an unusual crank, not a Williams design but more like a 3 pin Nicklin. New to me.

rhm

Yes, good point about the crank, I see that now. The typical Williams 3-pin crank had a smaller bolt circle, so shorter spider arms. This might be the continental pattern (116 mm) or something else. The Raleigh Lenton Sports of this era had a crank like what's on this Armstrong.

I have frame that came to me with no decals or head badge but is said to be an Armstrong Moth from 1950. So I've spent a fair amount of time looking at their old catalogs --there are several on the web-- and I've learned almost nothing. The variety of Armstrongs to be had, according to their old literature, was bewildering. And the comparatively few bicycles that I've seen (pictures on the internet, that is) are all different. All different from one another, and all different from what's in the catalogs.

So, Phil, I dunno. Could you share a few more photos, maybe of the derailleur, the seat stay treatment, the brake calipers, the brake levers, the handlebar stem? There may be a little more we can say about the date. Okay, I'll admit that's pretty unlikely.