I've bought a 26er. 😛
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It was advertised as a Butcher's Bike (Yes, a vegan on a butcher's bike 😀 ) but I have my suspicions that it's actually a Post Office bike.
It's a Pashley, going by the head badge. I can't see a frame number under the BB and there's no sign of it having been removed.
It has got a number tag on the seat tube.
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It's got a poor quality, but thick, coat of black paint over everything. There's no sign of red showing through.
Rod brakes.
The chain stays are stamped flat at the ends to form the horizontal drop outs, there's no proper forging.
The seat stays are bolted on both ends.
Can anyone identify it, or at least give me an approximate year of manufacture ?
Where should I be looking for the frame number ?
that's not a post office bike, it's much older than that - 50's or 60s at a guess
When did the Post Office start using bikes then ?
It's not something I've ever thought about before. Haven't they always used bikes ?
The brass number tag makes it look like it belonged to someone who ran a fleet of bikes.
It looks like the Pashley Roadmaster that I had as a company bike at BP Chemicals, Hull back in 1990. It must have been about 30 years old then.
I've wanted a vintage bike for a long time, but not really done any research on them to know what exactly I wanted or what I was looking at.
Going by [url= http://oldbike.wordpress.com/1983-pashley-post-office-bicycle/ ]this[/url], Pashley were still using rod brakes well in to the '80s.
Had one just like that temping at the post office back in the 80's
All the Pashley Post Office bikes I can find pictures of have either got twin top tubes or a single top tube with a distinctive bend in it.
They also have a bolt on carrier, mine's fixed with frame lugs.
I've done a little bit of maintenance, just enough to ride it up and down the road, and found the brake adjuster nuts are metric, so it could well be post 1980ish, as I think that's about when British industry changed over. Or maybe the old BSC ones snapped off and got replaced with new ones.
I know a bloke who works in Middlesborough at a chemical plant. He says they have a stock of Pashleys unused and oiled up.