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Help i.d. this frame, plz

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Wildralph

Look Ma, No Hands!
Hi all, i have a real enigma here...got it off CL 2 years ago for $50. It is has seamed aero tubes, lugged frame, and the most unique feature is the brazed?/tigged? Fastback seat stays that attach below the seat lug. Cant find anything like it anywhere, except modern all tigged bikes. None of the parts are original to the frame, except maybe the simplex DT shifters. I have switced most all parts, and those that came on it were not original, it did have late '70's-'80's simplex front and rear derailers, and levers. No manufacturer info. Anywhere, just the 4 digit serial on bottom of BB. A previous owner had adorned it with bootleg "Cinelli" decals. It weighs around 25 Lbs. The boys on "Bike Forums" were stumped when i posted pics there 2 years ago. Figured i would tap into the Cabe's vast knowledge and see if anyone has any ideas. Thanks for any help.

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Posting in the Lightweight section may help. I'll ring up @juvela in the mean time, doubt he looks in this section.
 
Thanks GTs58, for pointing me in the right direction. i will inquire if moderators can move this there.
 
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Thanks for the undeserved vote of confidence. :blush:

Have no ideas as to maker.

Suspect we are in the anglophone world here.

At first glance the work looks nice, then as one examines more closely there are irregularities.

The most glaring is the asymmetricality of fastback junction. Also, if one is going to do a fastback there should be some provision for it such as found with the Brampton Victor seat lug as seen on Raleigh Professionals of the 1970's.

Others include uneven brazing at the lugs, file marks on the crown and an absence of filling on the seat binder ears.

"Usually" when a builder is this ambitious in terms of fashion they will do something a bit more elegant with the seat binder arrangement.

If they are going to use stock stamped ears as we have here they will "fill" them a bit with brass to beef them up so as to resist deformation when the binder is tightened.

Use of the Campag Nr. 621 housing stop on the bottom bracket as a cable guide suggests the builder did not have ready access to the many purpose made fittings for this application.

Note that the numerals placed into the bottom bracket shell were put in after painting. They may be the work of a licensing agency. It is highly unlikely that the person who created this frame made over one thousand previous to it.

I suspect we are looking at a hobbyist project rather than something from a full-time frame builder.

As such it is unlikely you will ever learn the identity of the maker.

BTW - shift levers are Triplex (Spain) rather than Simplex (France).

Should an identification be possible member @MauriceMoss is the right person or the job. ;)

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Thanks Juvela, i agree, some things make you think, decent bike, it is rather light, and fast, aero tubing, and the campy dropouts, etc... but then the seamed tubing, inferior finish work, And the krazy fastback stays seems like a serious design flaw, from a strength perspective. Yes, i do remember now the triplex (not simplex), sorry, shift levers, and it also had a Triplex F.D. (i just checked parts drawer). I know it had a Shimano mega-drive - 5(?) speed freewheel attached to new "looking" Mavic MA 2 rear wheel. i believe, it had an Altus R.D., pretty certain the wheels, mega-drive, and R.D. were not original. Would the Triplex F.D. and levers give any help/clues, manufact./dating? Even as a lesser bike, i dont think they made very many, the seat cluster is very unusual.
 
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For a date of manufacture am thinking late '70's to early 80's. However, in that window one would expect 6V rather than 5V. For my date estimate to be correct one would expect 126mm rear spacing, although it is not unusual for owners to change rear spacing.

You do not mention your location. The new forum format does not show poster's loci.

In north america where I am located Triplex brand parts are fairly rare. Do you know or guess in what nation the frame was made?

From what can be seen of the fittings in the images of the frame most appear to date from the mid to late 1970's.

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