Frame

1889

Untraced

The deposit is recorded as “YES see 8620”, a receipt number, and delivery promised at six to eight weeks. The attachment is the customer's own “Bicycle Specification” sheet, headed with his Nottingham address and telephone number, purpose “Light Touring”, size 21" in Reynolds 531, with a Basso catalogue photograph pinned over it; an arrow above the photograph marks the frame the finish instruction refers to. The build list has been worked through in the shop: Athena crankset with 170 mm cranks, a freewheel amended to 13–15–17–20–24–28 “European make – steel”, brakes changed from Athena to “Std Depth Campag”, handlebars 15" wide with 5" drop “GB or European make”, a fluted GB seat pin fitted in place of the Athena, Brooks B17 Narrow saddle, Sedis chain and “Esge or Duroplast with mudflap” guards. Faint pencil in the attachment's margin tries a geometry: 21½, 73 head, 71 seat, 40 wheelbase.

Ordered: 8.11.89
Tubing: 531C
Frame: 21"
Ends: Short with eyes
Seatstays: Fast back (A.K. seat lug)
Wheels: Mudguard clearance (“no” struck out)
Equipment: Athena head set, B.B. set and seat pillar; “Build with Athena group set complete cycle See list”
Brazed on: Gear lever bosses, two brake stops at 45° on the left-hand side (“eyes” struck out); all brazings ticked; lamp boss entry “ON FORK BLADE” struck out; TA bottle cage bosses marked “NO”
Finish: “See Basso picture arrowed but with YELLOW INSTEAD OF WHITE & CHROME”; standard transfers
Customer: Mr T. E. Fox, Nottingham

Own this sheet

£110

A high-resolution print of the sheet, not the original. Giclée on enhanced matte art paper, mounted in snow white, glazed, in a solid wood frame. Free UK postage. £15 goes to Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance.

See it framed — £110

Print only £35

See it before you buy · Pay by card or PayPal · Free UK postage

A print of the 1889 sheet, framed — to scale above a two-metre sofa

Own it? Remember it?

Nobody has come forward for 1889 yet. If it is in your shed, or you remember it being built, ridden or sold, send a photograph and whatever you know.

Send photographs and what you know

Read before anything appears · Nothing published without it

Filed with it

One more page in the folder

Kept in the folder with the worksheet and scanned with it: the build written out and ticked off as it was fitted, a letter, a sketch, the second side of the sheet. The worksheet is the record; these are what was going on around it. Tap one to read it full size.