beech333

I picked up this one off CL a few days ago to goof around on, but cannot find much information online. Even the Vintage Lotus Bicycles website does not have anything other than one photo. Does anyone here know anything? (Tmar, are you out there?)






(I apologize for the crappy photos.)

What is the tubing? I assume Tange, but I'm not sure. If it is, which kind?

Was this sold as a frameset only?

Any help would be appreciated.

Snydermann

That's an interesting bike and I also hope someone can give us more information about it. I suspect the model was available from 1984-ish.

The tubing is Chrome Moly 4130 plain guage. I've only ever seen the frame in this color.

Do you have the serial number?

balindamood

Always wanted one of those. Pretty neat.

T-Mar

I definitely haven't seen one on those until now. Gut feel is circa 1983. I'd be checking the seat post diameter and pulling the fork to check for a date code and tubing manufacturer's stamp. Serial number may help.

Mercian Rider

I don't recall ever seeing one of those locally, and I saw lots of the messengers bikes where I work in the '80s. I'm impressed Lotus offered a street rideable single speed way back in the '80s, before most hipsters were even born. Marketed to bike messengers?

beech333

Thanks Snydermann!

Dang! I was hoping to pull it apart next weekend, but I might have to dig my tools out early.

I tried reading it before, but it is not very legible. I'll give it another try as soon as I can.

Edit: Appears to be 4121397, but is hard to read and I am not sure if there is something before the "4" or if it is a blemish in the paint.

Snydermann

Could the blemish be the letter P? If so I suspect the bike is a Pacific Cycles built Lotus. P=Pacific Cycles, 4=1984, and 12=the 12th week of the production cycle for 1984. The last four numbers are the individual frame number.

Most of the Pacific Cycles bikes I've seen have the serial number stamped on the seat tube. Pacific Cycles Taiwan started making bikes for Lotus around 1982-ish and their bikes show up in the 1983 spec sheet as the Elite, Elan, Prestige and Special.

Details in this Lotus Elite photo look similar to the Lotus Sprint.

Snydermann

This photo of the Pacific Cycles Lotus Elite front fork also looks similar to the Sprint, minus the engraving. Some models with this fork crown were also chromed.

Note the Asian characters cast into the lug.

kozmikarl

I ride my '84 Lotus Sprint hard every day, down on the drops. It's a lovely green-gray metalflake, 110 mm overlocknut rear, the flip-flop sporting 14 fixed, 16 free. 23-622 racing slicks. Campy Record quills and clips mate with Duegi wood-soled shoes of the same age, all still like new. One brake. Serial # 4121181 makes it practically a crèche-mate of the OP's. The number is preceded by a hint of a trace of an impression which we'll assume wants to be a P but it's not really legible. Definitely 4130 straight-gauge tubing. Nice tight bike.

Biketiger

I had a Lotus Sprint in the oxide green color (appears gray). It was a decent bike for tooling around town but I just couldn't get past the dull ride feel and sluggish response. My Trek 630 has nimbler handling and a plusher, way more responsive ride. The Lotus Sprint wasn't a bad ride - it just wasn't a joy for me. Straight gauge tubing really can't compare to double-butted when it comes to ride quality of steel frames. Sprints a heavy bike and would make a decent single speed commuter.

T-Mar

The lack of a P-prefix on both samples would suggest that its absence is most likely not a manufacturing omission and that the bicycles were not manufactured by Pacific. Given the format, my leading candidate for manufacturer would be KHS of Taiwan.

kozmikarl

It's not absent, only too faint to say with confidence that's it's a P. Stamping a fairly long string of digits onto a curved surface takes precise centering, which isn't in evidence. The die apparently contacted corner-to corner instead of fast to the centerline, and was struck off-center as well. Impressions of numbers are deep and clear toward bottom right, fading away toward upper left, whereas the leading character is only visible, and then faintly, at extreme upper left. However, that faint impression is of a right angle that could be the top of a capital P. Did KHS apply a leading character to its frameset serial #s?

Incidentally: the Lotus weighs 1.4 kg < my custom bike fabricated of 531 and SL. That isn't to say the frame weighs less, though it may because of its geometry and lugwork; a track bike simply carries less material than a geared bike. I added a front brake and sturdier sneakers for road but otherwise ride it bare. The result is lively enough. I wouldn't compete on it, but for informal ITT and training it's just about perfect.

Hummer

Hello @kozmikarl,

Welcome to the forum.

Here is a link to another Lotus Sprint, from member @mkeller234, with a serial number that is not stamped deeply into the tube.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...n-its-way.html

KHS serial numbers starting in 1988 had a "U" as a prefix letter. From the serial numbers recorded for Lotus it appears that KHS was not contracted by Lotus until 1989.

The Lotus Sprint model is from before 1989.

Edit: KHS did not put serial numbers on the seat tube.