Help identifying Carlton

[shmokica]

Hi All

I picked up a bike from a shed, which was owned by a lady's late husband from new. He was a mad keen cyclist still riding 20km each way to work on this bike in his 70's.

The serial number is 1191242 so I am guessing 70/71 era?? I am not across all the vintage components so have photo graphed them.

 

[Kempstonian]

Looks like a later version of my old Corsa (which I picked up in this condition in 1964)

 

[Illaveago]

Hi and

It looks like it should clean up well . Pretty blue colour .

 

[Kempstonian]

Hi and

It looks like it should clean up well . Pretty blue colour .

Yeah its very dirty, but under all that is a nice little bike. Well worth the effort of cleaning it up. I loved riding mine all those years ago.

 

[Illaveago]

Yeah its very dirty, but under all that is a nice little bike. Well worth the effort of cleaning it up. I loved riding mine all those years ago.

It looks nice with those chromed lugs . Should clean up with some rust removing treatment , oxalic acid , rust removing gel, lemon juice .

 

[midlife]

Chrome lugs . Number is 1968-72ish but would put it at the earlier range because of the chrome. Pretty looking blue colour as well.. I wonder what the chainset is as it's steel cottered with what look like alloy rings. TA cyclotouriste?

Looks like it should scrub up well

 

[Spokesmann]

Carlton Equipe, possibly.

 

[raleighnut]

Nice

 

[DCLane]

One of these Corsa's?

Oh, and my 'restoration' of one resulted in this:

 

[Kempstonian]

btw My Corsa (above) had extra decals applied by a previous owner - it should look more like DCLane's first pic (in a different colour, obviously!).

 

[DCLane]

btw My Corsa (above) had extra decals applied by a previous owner - it should look more like DCLane's first pic (in a different colour, obviously!).

Whereas mine had the same decals as the op's underneath all the blue gloss paint, honest:

 

[Kempstonian]

Whereas mine had the same decals as the op's underneath all the blue gloss paint, honest:

View attachment 471220

Painting over Carltons seems quite normal then... everybody did it! lol

 

[shmokica]

Thanks everyone, it certainly looks like the above bikes. The bit I was curious about is the top tube decal. If you look really closely the letter after the - doesn't look like the C or the E's that I have seen in placement decals.

It seems similar to the T or perhaps an I??? The last faint letter would indicate a word maybe 7 - 8 characters long. I went through the model range and couldn't find anything that appears to match exactly The bike which tends to match the frame and early decals would be a Team Pro, including chrome lugs, however all the components would match the Equipe or Corsa. It is a one owner bike, deceased estate and has been sitting in dry storage for 32 years, and I know you could buy the Team frame kit, so thought perhaps he had it built up for him to suit his commuting???

 

[Kempstonian]

Back in the day it was quite common to buy a frame and make your own bike up. Most people in our club did that. It was a better option than buying a ready made bike and then swapping out various components.

 

[shmokica]

Gave the frame 18 hours in rust dissolve gel and it is looking better.


I might give it another go later, however will ride it as is for a bit.

Partially assembled, waiting on new cotton tape, cables etc.