A Carlton Franco-Suisse - or is it?
Eventually I found this beauty – advertised by an Edinburgh bike shop as a Franco-Suisse with 531 tubing. I did some research and realised that Carlton built the Franco-Suisse in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s and it was a rather lovely bike with nervex lugs and interesting tube work.
Usefully I found a fantastic reference bike with detailed photos of a complete Franco-Suisse of similar design, so I had something to go on when restoring my new purchase to its former glory.
I was very excited about the bike. It was a complete wreck, badly painted in Hammerite paint but to me that just added to the challenge. It was pretty cheap so I wasn’t betting the bank on it, and while I waited for it to arrive I started to get a few bits and pieces for it.
Nervex lugs
Well when it arrived we took a good look at it. It was certainly fairly light at 5lb for the bare frame and another 1.7 lb for the forks. The Nervex lugs are beautiful and the frame seems pretty straight with no real deterioration. I measured it up and the dimensions are perfect for me, not only seat tube length but reach and crank position as well.
My friend Paul (from work, he of the singlespeeds) took a look at the head badge (or remnants of it) and pointed out it didn’t look like a Carlton badge. He’s English and grew up with these bikes (being an Aussie my knowledge is far more limited, but I’m learning).
Rather perturbed, I then trawled web resources of head badges and sure enough, not a Carlton. I found several great head badge resources to help with my search, the best being at Classic Lightweights UK. Again. Of course. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without those guys.
So what was it? My new frame was a mystery indeed. All we had was the top 1/2 inch or less of a copper head badge, held on by the top rivet. The remnant outline of the entire badge (now long lost) was visible under the Hammerite paint, and it had been riveted top and bottom, not side to side like Carlton badges.
The badge shows a plume of red flames, stylised and seeming to emerge from a torch. Quite a lot of old British cycle makers follow this theme, apparently due to the influence of the 1948 London Olympics, but these flames were a distinctive shape and only one maker came really close. Dawes.
Talk Wrench - Bikes and Bits 