Who made this 'McBain Record'?

[P!N20]

The story so far...

I picked up this track bike in Hobart a few weeks back from one of the Bottles And Chains crew:


^ Photo courtesy of Bottles And Chains



It has aero tubing, 54cm ST, 57cm TT, shallow lugs, Shimano track ends, Shimano 'Sprint' (?) fork ends, and no obvious bottom bracket shell stamp.







Components are Sugino Autex bottom bracket, Shimano 600 cranks, Shimano (Dura-Ace?) 44T chainring, Dura-Ace AX seat post and stem, Shimano head set, Cinelli track drops, Concor saddle, Maillard 'Galli' hubs, unknown tubular rims and 13T sprocket. Most of this gear had me date the bike about early 80's.



It has decals on the down tube, head tube and chain stays that have it as a 'Record' from 'McBain Cycles Tasmania'. So I contacted Kate at McBain Cycles in Hobart to see if she could help piece together its history. Kate confirmed via her father that McBain's frame builder, Frank McCallum, would never use Shimano ends, but did confirm that the colours were McBain's, so concluded that somebody had brought their frame in for a respray. Kate dated the frame about mid 70's.





A fixed.org.au forum member posted some images of a bike he bought from Tassie but never received (below). It appeared to be quite similar, and with it came some information of the previous owner. I am still trying to make contact with the alleged previous owner who can hopefully tell me who built that frame which should be the same builder as my frame. I'm hopeful that both being located in Tassie they are Tasmanian built.


^ Photo courtesy of SanEsteban

So in the meantime I thought I would post it here to see if anyone could tell me anything about it.

Cheers.

[dodgiebros]

I wonder how many of the 'retro' guys read this forum?....

[P!N20]

Do you think this would be better in the 'Retro Biking' section?

[P!N20]

Well after being told by McBain Cycles in Hobart that it wasn't a McBain (due to the Shimano dropouts), I set out to try to find out what it was. I contacted the people connected with the red example in my initial post, but no luck finding a previous owner.

Thinking I had hit a dead end, I started to explore frame builders who used Tange Aero tubing - as the few examples I could find had similar characteristics. A (seperate) forum user mentioned he had bought the Tange Aero specific Dura-Ace seat post off a guy in Tasmania. I contacted the seller to find out if he knew anything. As it turned out a friend of his is Rik Sloane who worked with Kevin McBain back in the day and ended up buying the McBain shop in Launceston. Rik was certain it was a McBain as Frank McCallum was using Aero Tubing with Shimano (and Campagnolo) dropouts during the 80's.

Thanks to Ben and SanEsteban at fixed.org.au, Ian at Sprung and Rik at Rik Sloane Cycles.

So now the process of restoration can begin...

[growahead]

Despite what Kate says, I had two custom made sports touring bikes made by Frank in 1981. The first was for my wife, and had Campagnolo dropouts. The second made was for myself, and to my minor disappointment, had Shimano dropouts. I still have this bike, and I ride it regularly in Hobart. The hubs gave out on the wheels, and I had a pair of Velocity 700 c wheels with Campy hubs made by Rik Sloane. So, your bike could well be an original McBains.

[FCG]

good to see a nice makeover on an unhealthy and rare bit of australian cycling. and well done on making sure it's origins weren't lost

still looks a bit 'naked' to me though. some new decals could finish it well

[siluro]

I have had two 'Record' road bikes with the same decals. Both made in Japan with Tangle plain gauge tubing and Shimano components. Yours was probably just sold by McBain.