Vintage velodrome fixed gear

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ambman

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I have a neat old bike that I bought in the 80's and forgot about, my Dad brought it over recently and said " what do you want me to do with this?" I kind of forgot about it, it was in his garage attic, even back when I got it I didn't know what to do with it, now I do!, there is a velodrome out in Rochester hills that I want to take it out to and there is a group of people who run races in Detroit with primarily fixed gear bikes. Point is can anyone tell me what frame builder built it? I do know the guy I bought it from said he raced it in the 50's at U of M on their track (do they even have a track anymore?)
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nice, throw some tires on an ride. looks like a skip tooth, wow, i want it.

Outlaw :mrgreen:
 
dude, that's awesome. I would clean it up, regrease the heck out of it, and take it to the track and ride. Those fixie fella's will poop when they see it's a skiptooth.

jeff
 
I have two books that show the 1937 Schwinn paramount prototype and there are many similarities. The frames look virtually the same and the crank arms are similar but, the sprocket is different. The books are "Schwinn Bicycles" by Jay Pridmore and Jim Hurd and "Classic American Bicycles" by Jay Pridmore. Next time I see you remind me to show you the pictures.
 
From what I can tell the bike may be British made. The crank look like Williams made in England. The wheels are spoked 32/40 hole which is a British style, Schwinn had 36/36 if I am correct. I am waiting for some closeup pictures of the bike and some info on the parts. I do not know the maker but can email a few guys to see what they think. I would say the bike is 50's, maybe late 40's. I don't think it is pre WW11 because of the style of it. Very nice bike.
 
What's something like that worth?

Seems like it would be very hot in today's fixed on fixies market. :shock:
 
It is hard to say. If he can get a make on it it would be better. If it were a 40's/50's Paramount it would be worth a grand or more. A generic British bike maybe $100 to $500 if it was 531 tubing. A Holdsworth is worth a grand or more. Again finding more out about the parts on it and the make would be great.
Here is a c1918 Schwinn Admiral in original condition except tires. All the parts on it except toe clips are Schwinn. This bike belongs to a friend who bought it many years ago. It comes with some letters from the Schwinn family museum asking to buy it for the museum before it closed. The guy who had it in his collection for 60 plus years claimed it was used by a family member who raced on the boardtracks. He also claimed the rider was a top US rider which is why the Museum wanted it. They offered $175 to buy it. It is a very nice museum piece.
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you might try posting on the Classic and Vintage forum at bikeforums.net. Bob Hufford from there or the Schwinn board could be of help too.

Cool bike. Sometimes you can take apart and look at the bearings. The name on the bearings sometimes corresponds to the bike or can at least tell you American or British.
 
Thanks for all the great input, it does have a serial number on it, I don't have it with me here at work though. I think it is British considering all the components are British (which might not necessarily mean it is) I will post more picture tonight and post some on the mentioned racing bike sites.
 
Definitely looks like a Brit, pretty sure they're Haden lugs and the cranks look identical to a Williams chain set I have in the workshop. Any makers mark on the hubs or rims? If it is British it's likely to be made from Reynolds tubing. If the seat post measures 27.2 its almost certainly Reynolds 531 (manganese molybdedum steel). If it's 27 dead it's Reynolds 501 (chrome molybdenum steel). Track bikes often used the cheaper steel (in a non-butted tube-set) even in custom frames because it was thought to be stiffer than the thinner walled 531. Nice bike BTW, with the fashion for fixed wheel riding in London at the moment you could sell it for a small fortune just as it is.
 
So here is what I found out after some careful study, I found quite few markings on components. The cranks say williams on them in very small lettering, I didn't see any arrows and the bearing caps say frampton england. The pedals say lyotard on the cap (one cap is missing) with sprint on the cages and alfredo binda on the straps.The rims say mavic, the front hub reads raleigh industries, the rear hub says bayless wiley. The chain didn't have any brand name but had a diamond on each link. The seat is plastic and says super coureur(that is how it is spelled)I could not make out the frame number, it is raised and is indiscernable but you could make out a 6 or 0 and it's stamped made in england on the bottom bracket. I am thinking it is araleigh now but the lugs don't match any raleigh I have seen so far although the rear dropouts look like some raleighs as well as the rear downtubes. Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.
 
I did find a stamp on the chainring, it is shaped like a dagger with a 25 at the pointy end, AL at the handle end and a letter B in the middle. I guess since it's AL it's 1949 or maybe I was just destined to own it since my name is Al.
 

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