Frame number

[Richard Moss]

Am I right in thinking that the frame number on a three speed super frame is on top of frame down tube at headstock?
I,m going to have to chip paint off to get to it, so it would be good to be close…

[Ian Parsons]

Same place as on a 2 Speeder ie on the headstock stamped on the flat portion on the boss for the sidecar fitting.

[BRIAN MARSHALL]

Hi Richard, You have been calling your racer a Three-Speed Super for a long time, but that is a mistake ! Super Squirrels have the classic Two-Speeder type crankcase. From photos I see that your machine has a Flyer/TT Rep full crankcase, and from the shape of the fuel tank too, I am pretty confident that you have a long tank version of the Sprint Special !!! The frame number should be on the left-hand side of the headstock in the area where the top downtube is brazed in. If you look in Technicalities you will find articles that I wrote about the Sprint Special, together with a full list of SS frame numbers.
Brian

[Richard Moss]

Ian, thanks for that. If the number is there then I think its long had a bracket brazed on top of it. John knew the number, so it’s probably in the records somewhere.
Brian, that would be quite amusing if it were a Sprint. We spent most of my life referring to it as such but somehow the idea was transplanted with it being a Super Squirrel. I can’t even remember what it was now, or who suggested it. I thought I remembered some detail passed to me about the way the subframe mounts to the seat tube as being indicative that it was not a Sprint Special. If none of the above then what else? Its not really been a focus but I was considering getting it registered for the occasional summer run out.
Thanks for the input,
Richard

[Richard Moss]

Well, I’ve sanded off a lot of perfectly decent paint so far with nothing to show. I can’t find anything on the LH side of the headstock from about 1/2″ down from the top of the headstock to about 2 1/2″ down.
If it were, for example, a single downtube flyer frame that had been modified to remove the front tank mount, where would the number be then? It’s been a racing bike for over forty years so we’ve never really been interested about the frame number but I’m pretty sure it’s necessary to show it upon (re)registration.
I tried to search the forum, as this may have come up in the previous 11 years, but it wont let me search ‘frame’ or ‘number’ as they are too commonly used apparently. There is a lug brazed on top of the headstock casting about 1/2″ up from where the main down-tube enters it. If a number was going to be under there, then I won’t find it.
Any further ideas anyone?
Thanks,

Richard

[BRIAN MARSHALL]

There is no front tank mount on a Sprint Special or 1931-33 single downtube Flyer frame…. The tanks are secured by a loose clamp fitting around the top tube of the frame, (long tank SS and 31-33 Flyer). Of course an oval tanked bike has no front mounting at all. There are various differences between the two different types of frame, with three or four different removable rear upper chainstays, different diameter front downtubes, and the bottom lug on the seat pillar tube has a squared off top edge on oval tanked SS machines, to accommodate the bottom of the tank, while the 31-33 Flyer’s lug is feathered off at the top. On the Flyer type frame there is no mounting lug for the handchange gate and lever, because the gearchange mounts onto the underside of the tank. Oval tanked and long tanked SS frames would originally have had the mounting on the top tube.
Brian

[Richard Moss]

Well, thanks to photo from Mr Heath I avoided stripping the complete frame. Found number half buried under braze from a bracket that used to be used for a tank strap. PM sent to Ian.
Thanks for input Brian, looks like I’ll have to call it something else!

[BRIAN MARSHALL]

I forgot to mention that the lug brazed on the top of the bit near where the top downtube enters the headstock is the anchor point for the Andre steering damper.
Brian

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