We had this bike hanging off the ceiling for years with all its features hidden by many coats of hand brushed enamel, it appeared to be an old 28" wheel roadster with some old racing bars and rusty components. The tyres are 28x1.3/8 on old old endrick rims which gave the first clue, also for its size it was quite light ?

With our relocation to our new site I decided to strip the bike to make it more presentable. On removing all the gear it became obvious that I had a bit of a gem here....it was custom built, it had the remanents of nickle plating ,(not chrome) on the forks and rear stays, so it had to be a 1920's , it had cast lugs not pressed sheet steel, also the lugs had been pinned, the bottom bracket was a  cottered shell and the drive chainstay offset for a close chainline to horozontal rear tips.

The seat stays narrow section with hand cut bridging plate not a tubular brake bridge nickel plated...so would have been fixed wheel.

The big discovery was when straightening the steerer tube  (bent) an oval engraving appeared A&P which identified the tubing used, Accles & Pollock which meant the tubing was chrome molydenum.

The components on the bike were historic:

• Major Taylor Handle bars
• Major Taylor stem ,square tubing diagonal with a sliding adjustment
• Seat pillar L shaped for sliding adjustment
• Saddle Brooks sprung leather
• Williams light weight steel cranks 7"
• Rims endrick 28x 1.3/8 (racing)
• Rear hub not original but very old .Eadie Coaster
• Head set yes integrated with 1/8" ball bearings and inserted cups clamp collar !

The story continues, wooden rims were the vogue then so will research, can get these still made for collectors from Italy.

The frame had had a bit of a frontal not too bad so will pull the tubes straight, fork steerer now true and in line, LH chainstay re aligned.

Under many coats of paint the original was a deep red, would have looked very smart with the nickel plated forks and stays...which we will redo.