Monday, February 23, 2009

Mike Melton


Well, this bike has come a full 3/4 circle. I saw it on CL last year and missed it by a few minutes to someone willing to buy it sight unseen(it was a bargain for any lugged bike and a steal for a Melton of any size/condition IMO).
Remember my philosophy? I think I've shared it here. I think that the American builders of the 70s and 80s have been overlooked and are starting to see some well deserved attention from collectors. I think these will be the hot items in a few years. Brian Baylis, Bruce Gordon, Dave Moulton(Masi,Howard,Fuso), Dave Tesch, and Peter Weigle are a few that come to mind and that are now getting some much deserved recognition. They took the ideas of the classic builders of England, Italy, and Japan to a new level here in the states and the quality of their work would rival the best in the world IMO.
Anyway, I was really disappointed to miss the buy as e-mails from the original owner/seller revealed a really cool story. Oh well, I thought, maybe it will get a good home. Well I'm glad it was Todd that beat me to it. Small world. Todd is becoming a supplier of mine. First he turns up the '77 PX-10 in black(shown in a previous thread) and now this Melton. Todd bought the Melton and soon realized it was a duplicate project and, as it was a bit small for him, wasn't worth the space it would take. He listed it on CL this weekend. As a like-minded cycling fan, he has more bikes than any one person needs but knows what is worth preserving. Todd reinforced the provenance of the bike and said he hadn't really done anything to it. Easy sale. I hope he starts calling me with these rather than listing them publicly! ;)
I'll save the story as I found my old e-mails and sent one to the original owner requesting the story in detail. She was was quite nice last year and, though now relocated, I anticipate her response.
The bike was well used and saw multiple roles. It's rough to say the least but worth preserving. At some point the decals were "scraped" off and a brown paint applied. Even the cables clamps were painted over. The dropouts are Suntour - showing his Japanese influence. It was built up with the Shimano 600 "Arabesque" groupo at some point. 600 eventually became the Ultegra line and this version preceded that by a good decade. One crank arm is dated 6/78 and the other 7/78. The clamp on cable guide is dated 6/78. I questioned the date of the frame as being "80's" with the used of Nervex "fancy" pro lugs. I have seen pics of his bikes built in the 80's with the either DuBois or other simpler lugs more common in that era. The verdict is still out. Parts can come together under the most unique circumstances. I was under the impression that Melton built road frames as early as 1970 and moved from NC around 1980 and pursued Tandem builds with road frames built to order showing up here and there. Later of course he worked in the development of Huffy's Olypmic bikes for '84 and '88.
Here are a few more "before" pics.

Brown topcoat over everything.




Nervex lugs


Suntour dropouts.



I think that's a 600 under there.

It's not on the "front burner" right now but it is safe and sound and I wanted to get it posted for you all to see. Someday it will look and feel like it's old self again! With all the projects piled up, I will probably go on a painting frenzy this summer.

9 comments:

Jesse Strauss said...

Oh baby is it going to be fun to clean that up! Your blog actually came up in search for 'vintage Mercier" - I picked one up this weekend for the parts but I'm not quite sure the frame won't be added to the collection.

Anyway, great blog. It's nice to run into other vintage bike fetishizers with tolerant girlfriends (wives). I hope to see pictures of this project in the near future!

-Jesse

CurbDestroyer Chronicles said...

Eith High treshold of pain, or low threshold of being broke since that race was his only income I suspect. It wasn't like today whaen you hear, "oh so&so had a crash and retired to the team airconditioned bus.

dmar836 said...

.... and of course I know Jack Taylor wasn't an American built frame.

Don said...

I have a custom Melton track (made by Mike himself, I used to race with him in S. Carolina) made in 1978 (with Columbus and Mike's regular Ishiwata tubing, using a Cinelli fork and lugs and Campy dropouts). It's since been repainted by JB (Joe Bell) in California, using an extra set of original Melton decals. I still use it several times a week on my wooden rollers!

Unknown said...

Really nice bike. I recently picked a Melton up on CL. Any idea how old it might be? Seller thought 70's but I'm not sure....





http://s935.photobucket.com/albums/a...elton%20Frame/

dmar836 said...

Peter,
Couldn't get your link to work. I know the designer of Melton's decal wrote me and said that started in the early 80s so anything earlier was unlikely marked. Just guessing. I plan on putting the "newer" decals on mine.

Unknown said...

Sorry the correct link is http://s935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/bikesf1/Melton%20Frame/

dmar836 said...

Certainly looks like one of his 80's frames to me. Will you build it up? Thanks for the link!

Unknown said...

I built it up to be a fixed bike for now. Eventually I would like to restore it back to its geared glory...