smontanaro 

At my recent backyard bike shindig, one of the attendees brought a mystery frame. I was intrigued. Tom said it came to him with grey paint and no decals. (He built it up, so no parts you see should be assumed to be original. I doubt any are.) It has a British threaded bottom bracket and 27.2mm seatpost (so probably Reynolds 531, Columbus SL, or similar high quality tubing). Tom stripped it and clearcoated it. As he understood, it was built in California and raced in Michigan in the 70s.

It shows excellent workmanship to my only semi-trained eye, and two interesting details. The first is an assymetric fishtail treatment at the top of the seat stays:


The second is the serial number, "TR24005."


I measured the frame at 24 inches ctt, which plausibly explains the "24." Serial numbers need sequence numbers which would seem to be "005." That leaves "TR," which I suspect might be connected to the builder. Given its apparent age and suspected region of manufacture, I'm tempted to guess "Tom Ritchey," but that would be an exceedingly serendipitous outcome.

I have so far queried the Classic Rendezvous folks and asked both Doug Fattic and Matt Assenmacher (as Michigan framebuilders). Nobody has so far recognized the work. Does anyone here have any ideas?

unterhausen

somebody's 5th frame?

I haven't really looked much at Tom Ritchey's work. The mitering on the seat stays looks good, but I would say the end treatment could have used a little more filing. Which would argue against it being built by Tom Ritchey, because he filed everything down to the minimum. OTOH, if you sent him a picture, I bet he would tell you if he built it or not. Hard to forget making stay ends like that.

smontanaro 

Yes, someone's fifth frame, but whose? Not Ritchey's (long shot, but I asked anyway, they said "nope"),

Tom was also told Proteus, maybe by the person from whom he bought it, but he thinks not, as he owned a Proteus in the late 70s which was much different than this frame.

Can y'all suggest other American or British builders with the initials "TR" who were building in the 70s?

unterhausen

It might have come from a Proteus kit, that's where a lot of us got our start in framebuilding. But there is nothing about it that looks like a Proteus other than it has the same parts that they sold.

Andrew R Stewart 

Some builders use their client's initials in the serial number. Andy

smontanaro 

Thanks. We will keep looking.

Doug Fattic 

I looked in the appendix section of my Talbot's frame making book printed in the late 70's or early 80's and their list of frame builders at that time did not include anyone with the initials TR besides Tom Ritchey. By the way I don't recommend that book as a guide on how to build frames. It was the author's documentation of figuring out how to build his first frame with the advice of several full timers. Back then all American builders were fairly new and didn't have that much experience yet to refine their skills. Not everything in the book is terrible but his method to put on a rear triangle is deeply flawed. That colored my opinion of the entire book.

unterhausen

That person may have only built 5 frames.

I'm not sure Talbot really got everybody that was building back then. Can't check, because someone stole my copy. Okay, you can D/L the book.

Doug Fattic 

I'm sure they didn't get nearly everybody. It would be difficult to get all professionals that didn't build full time. Also builders came and went in and out of the trade/craft all the time. And some were pretty small fry being more amateur than professional. I've been on other framebuilder lists in Bicycling magazine 40 or so years ago too. I think they did they lists ever so often back then. SpeedofLight who posts old bicycling magazine articles on a regular basis might remember what issues those lists were printed.

I'm betting this is a really hard one to find. It is likely this is his #5 and probably not many more. I've taught hundreds of students to build frames in my classes since I started teaching them in 1976. Many of them built a few later but never in any numbers. Think of all the students UBI has taught and some would have built in small numbers too after they took the class.

unterhausen

The copy that you can download is a more recent version of the book. At least it had Henry James lugs. OTOH, he still talks about 531 like it's the only tubing worth talking about.

At least you're listed 3 times in the back.

What didn't you like about his seatstay method? I have to admit I didn't read it closely. He shows how to build a seatstay mitered to a seat post binder, so not exactly a beginner-friendly method