Some interesting bikes

[hiflange]

The WAHCC recently lost a wonderful member who died suddenly at home a couple of months ago. Club members have been helping his family to sell his collection which has some interesting and unusual frames, many of which are unidentifiable.
He had 3 Flying Scots, one of which the family will keep. They are very nicely made classic lugged frames, one has a an optional carrier which was offered in their catalogue. Frame numbers are stamped at rear of the fork crown as well as under the BB;



This is a Frey, built in Mt Lawley (Perth) by Bill Frey. It's the only one I've ever seen. Another member has seen a few ladies Freys.



This is one he rode at club events and alway called a Claud Butler fixie. I have my doubts; the frame number doesn't seem to match Claud Butler numbering which from what I can gather is mostly 6 digit for the period (I'm guessing it's a 50's frame). It has very pretty fluted wrapover seat stays which I can't find a match for on any of the Clauds on Classic Lightweights and the spears on the forks don't seem to match either. Builders who did this style of seat stay detail are Carpenter, Holdsworth, Les Rigden, Major Nichols and Viking. The number seems to fit Holdsworth for the early 50's - numbers - Holdsworth Typhoon



Another mystery - an Italian(?) frame with late Cambio Corsa dropouts, they also have a regular hanger, I believe this feature puts it in the 50's. It has a five digit frame number stamped on the seat cluster, quite small digits. At various time he thought this might be a Bianchi or a Frejus. Who knows, could be any one of a number of builders.



There are few other curios in the Flickr album

[Derny Driver]

I also own a mystery Italian track frame, same Nervex lugs, same paint colours (sliver with blue lugs). I have no idea who made it but its very light.
If the family wish to sell the red Swansea 4 star, I may be interested in it. Ive always wanted a Swansea for my collection.

[WyvernRH]

Hmm, the blue/silver 'Claud' certainly does look like a Holdsworth to me. Are the family going to auction the collection Roger? I would likely have interest in one or the other of the bikes/frames.

Richard

[bicyclepassion]

Robert, the bike with the cambio corsa dropouts will be hard to pin down. It does not look like a frejus nor a Bianchi to me. The derailleur hanger looks like it was brazed on later. As far as I know, The corsa ends that came with a hanger attached had the derailleur stop at the 5 o'clock position, to match the very first generation Gran Sport derailleurs. These ends also had 19 teeth, not 17, as this bike does. This hanger is the one you could buy from Campag, to convert other bikes to accept their (second generation) gran sport rear derailleurs. Would like to see full photos of this frame! Any head badge holes?

[hiflange]

Marcus, images follow the text; the Italian frame is in primer, the blue and silver frame is what I think is a Holdsworth (it's a repaint too FWIW). I have made an offer on the Swansea, it's pretty much the only frame in my size!, waiting to hear back.

Richard, no auction.. the club had a day helping organise and roughly valuing bikes, frames and parts. On the more valuable items we ran a silent auction for members with decent starting prices. Not much sold which says that we got those starting prices right, the club only has about 50 members so it's quite a small market. Many smaller items were priced and sold on the day. Like many collectors of limited means Alan got bikes from a variety of sources over the years, and in a variety of conditions. And like most of us he had a preponderance of frames, mostly repainted, very few of them are identifiable making them hard to sell. The photos here are probably less than half of what is there, but it really is the best of it.

It would be great to find good homes at realistic prices for the Scots in particular. Looking at Classic Rendezvous there have been four come up for sale there over the past four years at US $200, $400, $995 and $1500 for frameset, a 70's bike, a restored frameset and complete original bike respectively. A pretty broad range, but there is zero evidence that any of these ended up selling. All the same it does indicate these are sufficiently sought after to say "no" to bargain hunters.

What is left of the collection will head for the Vincent bicycle swapmeet in a little under a month. There's a mountain of functional but relatively low value items; 80's and 90's derailleurs and brake parts, tyres, pub bikes... Hopefully we can find homes for the really good stuff before then.

Warren, the Italian frame doesn't have drillings for a head badge, pics of the head tube and whole frame below. Looks like the fork isn't original either. From what you're saying it's older than the 50's? (Bigger pics in the Flickr album linked in the first post BTW)