dbhouston 

I purchased this bike today and am quite pleased after just one short ride. But it is going to bug me not to know what the frame is.

The seller was the original owner, but she doesn't remember what the frame was before they stripped and painted it and bought all new components. It has excellent components for the era, and it's going to make a nice rider with a few modifications. Dura-Ace 8-speed would mean early 90's, I think, though the frame could be older than that. Not a particularly racy geometry, either.

All I really have to give you is the serial number under the bottom bracket: 4HR00469. Maybe that format will ring a bell with someone?

Velo Mule

Nice looking bike dbhouston . I don't know anything about this frame, however, I see the post sliding down the page. One problem is that there are no distinctive details on it.

The paint on the frame is in such good condition that I would think it is a recent repaint. Do you know who might have painted it?

Is there a story behind it? Where did it come from? Was it sold to you? Did the seller have a story about it? Did you buy it as a frame or a complete bike?

pcb 

OP should hop to T-Mar's data and search around there for starters.

Kinda feels like a Taiwan-/China-made frameset to me, at least medium-level, not low-end. I'd look at Giant & Merida ser# formats.

Long-wheelbase frame with dual rack/fender mounts on the dropouts and rack mounts on the seatstays, but short-reach brakes, with shoes at bottom of slots, means a Sport-Tour design, not full-on touring. Mated to a race fork, so fork is likely not original, or original owner bought frame/fork separately.

As with a lot of tig-welded frames, not a lot of distinctive visual clues, at least to me. I don't recognize the rear dropouts, and it's hard to tell from the photos, but if there's any brand stamping on them that could be a clue. The extended seat tube, with scalloped top and binder bolt, is nicer than the usual straight-cut with a seatpost collar, so that might be another hint.

Spaghetti Legs 

I’m also getting a more mid level feel from that. Vertical dropouts to me suggest mid 90’s or later.

As an aside, the stem setup does not look all that safe to me. At a minimum, there needs to be a spacer underneath the top cap to avoid a pinch crack at the top of the steerer. Or is it aluminum steerer? Even if so, that’s a lot of torque on a threadless steerer. It might be less iffy if the star nut is set well down in the steerer, I.e. really long bolt on top cap.

dedhed

I would think the fastback, seat tube above top tube, and offset cable guides would be good clues.

dbhouston 

Thanks for the leads and thoughts, y'all!

I bought the bike from the rather tall older woman who had it built up from the bare frame in what she said was the early 90's, though she couldn't remember what the frame might have been from. It was stripped and powercoated at that time, and the paint is in very good condition. So, the components offer no clues to the origins of the frame. Also, I can't find any engraging anywhere on the frame other than the serial number shown.

The big aluminum spacer/collar on the carbon steerer won't be around long. She rode it like that for years, so I figure it's safe enough. I'll ride a bit more before taking it into the LBS to be cut down to a more reasonable length.

madpogue 

Is it a trick of the light, or does the seat tube narrow down just below the top?

Steerer tube on the original fork might betray some identifying information, if the PO still has it.

pcb 

Don't most tig'd frames pretty much have fastback seatstays, or close-to-fastback?

Just grazed through photos of a bunch of tig'd frames I have/had, and the stays mostly look pretty much the same as OP's. A somewhat random sampling though, fer sure. A Kona ***** Tonk and a couple of Kelly frames (Knobby-X & Bonestock) were the only brands that didn't have pretty pure fastback stays.

The only two tig'd brands I have/had that didn't use seatpost collars was a older Soma and the Kellys.

AeroGut

Looks to me like the rear brake has been mounted with a drop-bolt, so frame was originally designed for longer reach. Seems like they just put a race fork and components onto whatever frame they had that fit the rider even though it wasn't intended to have those components.

dbhouston 

Good eye, AeroGut! And, yeah, the frame and components do seem like a bit of a mismatch. In a surprise to me, I put on 25mm tires yesterday and that fork had plenty of room left over. The chainstays could accept much bigger tires.

T-Mar

I don't recognize the serial number format with alpha characters in the second and third positions, It's definitely not Giant or Merida, unless they drastically changed their formats. Given the frame characteristics and lead '4', it's most likely a 1994-1995 model manufactured in late 1994. I concur that it appears to be Asian origin and a sport-tour design.