Finally got an Archie Wilkinson!

stickman

A few days ago I had a look at the website, it's been revamped and the cro-mo frame and forks are no longer on there. I sent an email enquiring and they still do them, without forks (as they come with straight not raked) they are £75 + £15 postage but I was able to go there myself and buy one today. No pics or weighing yet, hopefully soon

stickman

I weighed it on bathroom scales so not too acurate but it showed as 2.kg compared to the Raleigh Chiltern frame it's replacing which was 2.7kg. The rear dropout width is 110mm so can't use my XRD-3

(the Archie has thicker stays so not such a big weight saving as like for like)

stickman

Here's a picture of the frame http://www.flickr.com/photos/43734695@N02/

stickman

Took it out for the first ride today, feels very nice, the seat tube is about 1/4 inch shorter and the top tube about 1 1/8 inch than the Chiltern but it feels good. The Chiltern's forks are normal thread, despite what Sheldon Brown said so I used them. Got an AW hub and routed the cable along the toptube and seatstay as the chainstay is too thick for a fulcrum clip. I'll add a pic soon.

stickman

Just added a pic, click the link two posts back, i'll paint the front rim silver, going to buy a rear brake.
Forgot to mention before, took two links out of the chain.

A question for the geometry experts: it's got short stays and track ends so are these cycle speedway frames actually track frames?

Edit: another thing to mention, on the toggle chain side, before putting on the window nut I put on a spacer/washer about 3.5mm thick to get the window nut in the right position because axle spacers were taken off before to fit the dropout width.