1986 Ammaco 'Monte Carlo' Restoration - stripping the frame

The Springhill Cycle Collection recently acquired a 1986 Ammaco 'Monte Carlo' road bike. The seller has asked for photographs of the restored machine and it is intended to move this restoration up the works list.

Ammaco came to notice in 1985 when they jointly sponsored the 1980 and 1985 British UCI Professional Pursuit Champion, Tony Doyle with RMC-Security Grille Protections. Tony's professional Ammaco branded frames were built by Charles Roberts in London. The Ammaco professional team consisted initially of Tony Doyle but for 1986 became Ever Ready-Ammaco and also had Australian Danny Clark and Nigel Dean on their strength. The team increased in size to 7 riders for the 1988 season which marked the end of Ammaco's involvement as a major sponsor of professional cycling in Britain. The Ammaco brand is sold by the family owned chain of Cycle King cycle shops based in the English Midlands and southern England.  A major selling point appears to be price. 

The 1986 Ammaco bike frame has 3 x 4130 Cro-mo main tubes, but the forks are Hi-Ten.  The handlebar stem is a heavy 80mm alloy of Taiwanese manufacture and would indicate this is probably the source of the lugged steel frame. What is obvious is that price point was a major selling point, along with the similar colour scheme and branding to the professional team bikes. Having bikes and frames produced in the far east was nothing new as the now defunct Evian (G.B.) Limited had marketed a range of 'Hirame' branded bikes and frames in the late 1970s/early 1980s produced by Kuwahara in Japan. Their range started with Hi-Ten tubed road frames up to full Ishiwata tubed road frames. The Hirame frame in the Springhill Collection is nicely made with Kuwahara's own forged drop-outs.

The Ammaco machine came with some original parts, but the original paintwork is now very tired and in need of renewal. The frame has 'Ammaco' branded seat stay caps and fork crown. The first problem to be addressed for any potential restoration will be that of the availability of original pattern transfers/decals. The second problem is the actual stripping down of the bike, specifically, whether the seat post and handlebar stem are seized in the frame and the alloy cranks seized onto the steel crank axle. I intend to deal with the stripping down of the bike here. 

The threads for the screw in crank extractor were very, very dirty and required cleaning with Brunox and Scotchbrite before wiping clean with kitchen roll. The crank extractor then had to be carefully screwed into the righthand crank, checking that it was square to the crank as the initial first threads were damaged.  I wanted to make sure the remover was not cross threaded before fully screwing the remover home using a spanner/wrench.  Thankfully the crank did move relatively easily and the left crank was also successfully removed without any damage.  The chainset is a Japanese made Sugino 42/52T.  The chainrings are steel which are swaged onto the alloy crank.  It was typical fare on lower end sports road bikes in the 1970s/1980s with Peugeot using swaged Stronglight or Nervar and British manufacturers such as Dawes, Falcon or Raleigh using SR Silstar. The seat post was chromed steel and although rusty came out with the use of Brunox. The handlebar stem being alloy was more of a problem.  It was seized into the fork steerer tube.

I have written an earlier post about dealing with a seized handlebar stem.  The one thing to recognise is that it takes time to corrode in, so it logically follows, that it will take a bit of time to unseize it!  The first job was to put some PlusGas around the top of the headset locknut/handlebar stem interface and leave it for several hours.  I removed all the other components from the frame, chain, brake callipers, gear levers, front and rear derailleurs. The wheels were removed last and then the frame up ended so I could pour some more PlusGas down into the fork steerer tube and then leave it to soak for 3 days.  The wheels were then refitted to the frame, the allen key expander bolt loosened which showed the retaining bolt was still stuck in the fork head tube.  A sharp tap with a soft faced hammer released it, so the next thing was to try moving the handlebars and stem. I chose to use the original handlebars rather than substitute them for an MTB handlebar which would offer better leverage.   I wanted to initially try to see if I could move the stem with the steps I had already taken.  Obviously if I had failed, then it would have been back to a soak of PlusGas for a longer period and use of the longer MTB handlebar lever to break the bond. 

After gripping firmly and applying leverage, the stem moved. Brunox was then applied and the steerer moved again.  More Brunox was applied and the steerer moved more easily.  The same process was repeated until the stem was moving relatively easily and pulled upwards and out of the fork steerer tube.  There was plenty of evidence of galvanic corrosion on the shaft of the alloy stem as no grease appears to have been used to prevent it.  The photo shows the alloy stem after a quick clean with a brass brush. One alarming thing that did happen was one of the fork drop-outs cracked.  The fork drop-outs have the slot in the drop-out for the tang of a washer for what is euphemistically referred to as 'lawyers lips'. The drop-out cracked at this slot.   The frame will now have to go to a framebuilder for repair before it can be re-enamelled.

The frame once stripped is actually reasonably light.  The frame number is stamped into the bottom of the seat tube at the righthand (crank) side just above the bottom bracket shell.  The gear tunnels are plastic, afixed to the underside of the bottom bracket shell with a 5mm Phillips screw.  The frame has a chain stop brazed onto the righthand seat stay, double gear lever bosses brazed onto the down tube and three cable guides on the top of the top tube.  I will deal with components and transfers/decals in future posts.

1940s Alex Singer - Une Belle Chanteuse

There are some ambitions in life which you may hold in hope, but never reasonably expect to fulfil. I held one in this category for many years, never believing it would ever be fulfilled, but by a unexpected turn of fate over the summer, I was able to realise it. I refer to riding a machine made by the great Parisian constructeur, Alex Singer. I have been fortunate to ride quite a few different hand made British and Irish lightweight steel frames over the years. My curiosity was aroused from childhood, listening to the cycling stories of my parents and the various marques of bicycle ridden by their siblings, friends and clubmates. As my cycling horizon broadened, I became aware of the great tradition of randonneuring in France and the top of the range 'constructeur' built machines. Paris was famous for the 'constructeurs' like Cycles Alex Singer, Cycles René Herse and Cycles Goéland- Louis Moire to name some of the more well known. There was debate amongst owners of Cycles Alex Singer and Cycles René Herse as to who was the better maker, with many favouring René Herse. The closest Britain got to a 'constructeur' was the Taylor brothers from Stockton-on-Tees who had some connection with Goéland-Louis Moire. These beautiful hand crafted French bicycles had mudguards, often had integrated lights, derailleur gears and were fast and light according to what I read. Were they that good I wondered? How did they differ from a British hand made frame? It has taken me decades to find out. I have some experience of riding a 1960 650B Goéland Randonneur built from Reynolds 531, which rides much better than many machines I had ridden up to that point. It was my first real experience of the 650B wheel size on a proper constructeur built randonneuring bicycle and I was very impressed with the integrated bike and it's responsiveness. 

I then unexpectedly had the chance to try a 1940s Alex Singer with 700C wheels. The machine came with some history and was beautifully made, yet understated. The bicycle was originally a full chrome model, but over it's long life, it's original owner, Pierre Berthet, had it enamelled black in the 1970s and fitted with top of the range all French component groupset from the same era. Perhaps some may consider the bike changes to be negative, as the machine was altered from the original constructeur's spec, however, the bike was used and ridden by the original owner and he considered the changes made to have been an upgrade. Many of the components are unique to this machine and were custom made for the owner with a gold anodised finish. 

My first impression was the beauty of the understated paint finish of the frame carried over onto the mudguards, complete with gold lining. The highly polished cranks of the triple chainset gleamed in the sunlight, before lifting the bike equipped with decaleur and sacoche, which was a revelation at how light the machine was. 

After checking the saddle height I got on the bike and from the first input of the pedals it was a joy to ride and just glided along. It looked right and it rode as well, if not better, than it looked. Of all the 27 inch/700c wheel touring/audax bikes I have ever ridden this is without doubt the best to date.

It has the performance and is close to the weight of a top drawer steel competition racing bike but with touring bike frame geometry, and mudguards. Everything just works together so well, no creaks, no movement of the decaleur even on pavé, no chain rub on the front derailleur, the responsiveness of the bike to input and the rock steady handling. The only drawback I found was riding it over pavé. The surface vibration is bearable, however, I found it not as comfortable as the 650B wheel size, transmitting much more of the road vibration. However, my interest has been stirred and I would love to try out a pre 1980 Cycles Alex Singer in 650B wheel size to see how the two machines would compare. I don't wish to denigrate in any way, other artisan frame builders, but can say the Alex Singer is the most joyous 700C wheeled machine I have ridden to date. It is a bit like Edith Piaf singing 'Je ne regrette rien', how do you isolate one element which you can say makes the performance so special? I don't believe you can, it is the sum of the whole. I think the Alex Singer is like that, hard to define one outstanding unique quality, rather it is the sum of the constructuer's skill, attention to detail and experience, all brought to bare in the creation of an individual machine. I always had a smile on my face after riding the Alex Singer.  

Singer in English has a different meaning to French. I think a wordplay on the English meaning, in French, sums up my impression of this 'petite reine' very well - une belle chanteuse.

The book 'Wiener Mechaniker Raeder'

I recently purchased the German language book 'Wiener Mechaniker Raeder' which has dusted down long forgotten and little used, A level German vocabulary. My computer keyboard is English, so I don't have the umlaut or eszett and have used the English dipthong 'ae' instead of the 'a umlaut' in the title. The book is subtitled 'A journey through more than a 100 Vienna bicycle makes 1930 – 1980'. The blurb on the back translates as:-

Vienna is big, but the diversity of Viennese bicycle marques was once much bigger; more than 100 marques existed in the city from the 1930s to the 1980s, among them innovative, oblique, noble, freakish, good dependable, solid and off the peg, - for example, noble racing bikes with paint finishes from another time (Rih), Aero bicycles from 50 years before the aerodynamic craze (RZ), prototypes from aluminium and small diameter steel tubes (Austria-Alpha), lugless welded frames (Degen), rethinking of frame design ( Wisent Einheitsrad), to name but a few examples.  For the first time, the complete history of the Vienna bicycle marques in a picture book, with all marques from Alpenrad to Ziel. 

I found the contents of the book fascinating. It educated me as to the variety of different bicycle makers working in Vienna, some from the 19^th century onwards, others appearing for a few years after WW2, then disappearing. The bicycles used to illustrate the book are well photographed and in some cases I would have liked to have seen a little more detail, such as head lugs etc. However, I'm sure the authors were forced to cut down the amount of material, to be able to make the book format and they have done a superbe job. The book has the following chapters:- Introduction (Prolog), Authors thanks (Dank), The bicycle marques A – Z (Wiener Fahrraedermarken A - Z), Puzzling machines (Ratselhafte Gaule) , And now? (Und Jetzt?), Picture index (Abbildungsverzeichnis), Bibliography (Literaturverzeichnis) and finally about the authors (Uber uns). The book is printed on glossy art paper, and each marque is given an introductory text box showing the years of production, the company address, the owner details and whether they built their own machines or not. There is then narrative text, accompanied by the superbe photographs. The authors have a passion for their subject and have done their research well, as they mention some bicycle makers lost in the mists of time, of whom, only a printed advert from a newspaper or magazine show they existed at all.

The cast aluminium RZ / Err-Zett children's bicycle illustrated on page 235 of the book and on the front page of the publisher's website, predates the Kirk Precision cast magnesium frame by some years. The authors record 'Wem dieses Design einfiel, ist leider nicht uberliefert, vielleicht war es ja ebenfalls Ottomar Rosenkranze selbst' – 'Whoever came up with this design, is unfortunately not recorded for posterity, but perhaps it was Ottomar Rosenkranz himself'. The frame material used in the Kirk Precision may have been different, but the concept of a cast frame was clearly established much earlier by RZ / Err-Zett and gives weight to the old saying 'There is nothing new under the sun'.

The book has a small section pages 332 – 338 on puzzling machines (german jocular chapter heading meaning enigmatic old nag, or gift horse!) which the authors believe to be Austrian bicycles made in Vienna but of which they have little or no information. The book finally brings the story up to date with information on modern framebuilders working in Vienna.

The book can be bought via the publishers website and is now available through Amazon,  the ISBN number is 978-3-85119-342-8. If you order a book through the publisher's website, you will be sent an invoice in Euros, which will have to be paid through your bank. Once payment has been made, delivery to the UK takes around two weeks. The book is well worth the money and is cheaper than some of the recent Japanese and US books on Toei, Singer and Herse. The authors have set out to record methodically the custom built marques originating in Vienna over a 50 year period and add considerably to the body of historical knowledge. It shows what can be done and it would be nice to see a similar work published on the framebuilders working in the London area over a similar time period! The only caveat is that if you rely on an internet language translator, you will get a literal translation of the words. The danger here is that you often need to translate the concept, not the literal words, to make sense of what is meant by the authors. However, it has been a very enjoyable and educational time spent with my old German dictionary and this book, discovering the delights of the Vienna bicycle trade. I can heartily recommend it.

Frame numbering

One of the most frequent postings on web forums by people who are starting to collect bikes is 'can anyone identify my bike or frame?'  The easiest route to possible identification is find the frame number.   It sounds simple enough, but it is made a lot easier if you know where to look.   Volume bicycle manufacturers like Raleigh tended to use the seat lug, as in this 1925 Raleigh roadster.

The size and font of the numbering could also change over time as illustrated in the Raleigh Moulton frame number, although the location of the frame number was the same.  

 

One caveat about Raleigh frame number information on the web. Sheldon Brown is quite accurate on Raleigh frame numbering, except where he supposes about Irish Raleigh production. His information is simply incorrect. As it was posted 'on the internet', it is assumed by many, as an incontrovertible truth, when it is not. Sheldon's pages were a work in progress. Unfortunately, this all came to a halt, on his untimely passing. I will blog accurate information on Dublin Raleigh frame numbers using known examples at a future date.  Raleigh have also used the back of the seat tube, either below the seat lug, or above the bottom bracket, the underside of the bottom bracket shell and rear dropout as location of frame number.  Some of these locations were used for 'badge engineered' Raleigh production.  As mentioned above, the style of font used in the sequential frame number changed over time and the example below was found on a 1920s British roadster.  

Other British bicycle manufacturers used either the seat lug or a rear dropout. BSA sports frames tended to have the frame number on the left rear dropout. 

Hercules in the 1950s also used the left rear dropout and used a different font to BSA. 

 

Sunbeam during it's time of ownership by AMC used the right hand rear dropout on some models. 

Bespoke custom frame builders in Britain used various locations to install a frame number. Unusually, some builders put their frame numbers on the bottom bracket shell at the down tube lug. 

Others stamped the underside of the fork crown. It was not unknown to have the frame number on both the frame and fork. 

Often the frame number was stamped on the fork steerer tube as well. 

However, easily the most common location for a frame number was the underside of the bottom bracket shell. 

The number was usually stamped in line with the axle, or at right angles to the crank axle and parallel to one on the bottom bracket cups.  Imported Peugeot bikes from the late 1970s/early 1980s had a frame number stamped into the bottom bracket shell which was parallel to one of the bottom bracket cups. Peugeot also had a paper identifier covered in clear vinyl wich identifies the model, frame size and sequential frame number. 

The location varied between the underside of the bottom bracket, bottom of the seat tube above the bottom bracket shell, or on the left hand chainstay.

The model numbers appear to be slightly different according to the country of sale. Gitane put their frame number on the left rear dropout of their tandems. The sequential frame number is on the bottom part of the dropout and the year identifier above. 

 

A further complication and a bit of a red herring can be a re-finisher's number. 

Frames were often stamped by a re-finisher before being enamelled to make sure the right frame and fork were returned. These are usually 3 digit numbers and can confuse as they are on both frame and fork.

Once you have located the frame number, the process of trying to indentify  the machine that you have found can begin. Finding the frame number can be difficult if it is only lightly stamped, or been damaged on a rear droput, or covered up with paint. Some small bespoke frame builders didn't bother with a frame number. Late 1980s volume manufacturer (Londonderry built) Viking 531 frames also don't appear to have been given frame numbers. I have also found 1990s examples of Dawes 531 frames with the same problem. Finally, another recent phenomenon which can add to the confusion is post code stamping of a bike frame to try to deter theft and ensure the frame is returnable to it's owner. These are usually 7 digits, usually two letters, three numbers and two letters. They tend to be stamped where they can be easily found, so keep looking to see if there are any others!