The Rocket
You've got a rare one there Peter.Jack Pesch had a small bike shop in Petrie Terrace,Brisbane,Queensland,Australia.All of the bikes in the shop were handbuilt by Jack in his workshop behind the shop.As I'm sure you can appreciate,being a one man show(retail,repairs and manufacturing) Jack was hardly a mass producer.I met Jack in the late 1960's and he had been in business a long time then.I last heard of him in late 1980's and he was still in business.Your frame could have been built anytime between 1946 and 1989.Jack was a craftsman of the old school,who put quality before profit(another reason he never became a mass producer).He was also a bit of a luddite,for example he didn't believe in cotterless cranks,so if the rear dropouts are an old pattern,it may be because Jack didn't like forward facing dropouts or because he liked the look of them and therefore had a large stock of them.I don't know if Jack had an identifing system for his frames but I'd look for numbers under the bottom bracket.I can't help you with the type of tubing used in your frame,but I'm certain that it's well built with no shortcuts taken during manufacture.Rocket may not be a famous name but I wish I'd bought one when I had the opportunity.I was just too young and stupid to know what I was looking at.I hope this is of use to you,it's a " blast from the past" for me.Regards Ralph.
