from the ebay description for this bike:
A true hand-made British wonder from the glory years of the 1970¹s, with classic road racing geometry, and parts that will make any aficionado drool. Before bidding on this lovely model, familiarize yourself with the small-scale, customized production works of the Taylor Brothers, perhaps the only English frame-builders whose skills and concern for quality put them on par with the legendary French constructeurs like Rene Herse and Alex Singer. One of their bikes¹ most noteworthy features were their paint jobs‹beautiful white box-lining on every frame tube, even the skinniest seat stays (hand drawn, using a tiny roller), a technique that has now virtually disappeared‹as well as beautiful lug lining.
This particularly lovely specimen is for medium to tall riders‹the seat tube measures 23.25 inches (59 cm) center-to-center, and top tube 57² (22.5 cm). Frame: Reynolds 531 steel, Nervex lugs, gold lug-lining, with the famous white box-lining over a sky-blue background. Serial number 6600 (dating it to 1973). Frame is straight and aligned, with no dings or dents, and rear stays professionally spread to 126 mm to accept 6-speed regular freewheels, or 7-speed ultras. Campagnolo dropouts with threaded fender eyelets front and rear. Horizontal rear dropouts. Braze-ons include pump peg, gear cable-guides under bottom bracket and chainstay, brake cable-guides at 7 o¹clock position on top tube, and water-bottle bosses.
Components: Campy Nuovo Record (NR) brake calipers, near mint condition (including pads, barrel adjusters, quick releases, etc.), beautiful to behold and with great stopping power; Campy Nuovo Record brake levers, with nearly new black rubber hoods, great condition; Campy Nuovo Record hubs, less than 500 miles; Campy quick-release skewers; Campy Lambda 32-spoke wheels, professionally built, fewer than 500 miles (these wheels and hubs are beautiful, and are probably worth as much as the rest of the bike). Good clincher tires and presta tubes, ready to ride; Campy Nuovo Record downtube shifters, clamp-on, some light rust on the adjuster screws which could be cleaned up; Campy Nuovo Record rear derailleur. The freewheel is a modern 6-speed Hyperglide, 14-28. This is the best-shifting friction-geared bike in my stable.; Campy Nuovo Record front derailleur; All new cables and housing, both brake and shifter; Campy headset; Zeus two-bolt, fluted seat post and seat-clamp bolt (Zeus was a Campy copy); Cinelli stem and bars, old logo, very nice condition; Zefal competition chrome pump (very hard to find, and this one is in perfect working order for Presta tires); TA (I think) bottle cage; A wonderful find: the best French component on this bike, and what a doozy! A legendary Stronglight 49D chainset, most likely from the 1960s, complete with both dust caps, 52-tooth big ring and 38-tooth small ring, the latter factory drilled for lightness. See why ³Vintage Bike Quarterly² calls the elusive and rare 49D a ³long-gone classic, combining almost unlimited chainring choices [most modern TA rings will still fit these cranks], a narrow profile, and impressive quality.² With the 38-tooth small ring and 28-tooth large cog in the back, you can climb a wall, and the NR derailleur handles the combo silently and smoothly; Brooks Professional leather saddle, brown, with the large copper rivets and great age patina. I rode this bike and saddle on a double century two years ago, and the one thing I didn¹t have to worry about was my butt; there is a lot of life left in this saddle, and I really love it, so here is my personal plea to bidders: Por favor‹if you don¹t like Brooks saddles or don¹t want this particular one, tell me before shipping. I will be happy to install a different type that may suit you better, so I can keep this one; Very cool and rare Bluemels ³shorty² aluminum front fender, which used to be common on classic British racing bikes. It admittedly doesn¹t do much to keep the rider dry‹that was never its intent. Rather, it prevents water from spraying up inside the head tube
Okay, now here are the caveats. Please pay attention, to avoid any misunderstandings, because the bike is not returnable except for significant error in my description. The frame has rust on it. Definitely not fatal (that would take decades), but it¹s undeniably there, in fairly extensive patches on the main triangle, and particularly around the head tube region, on both the top tube and the down tube. Also, most (not all) of the decals are replacements. Licensed and legal Jack Taylor decals are readily available through the website listed above for a nominal charge, and in fact, I will throw in a brand-new, never-installed Reynolds 531 sticker (which as aficionados know, has a design custom-made for Jack Taylor Cycles that shows the name of the bike model, in this case, ³Tour of Britain²). Frankly, the bike needs a repaint, though this can be done at your leisure and in the meantime it can be very comfortably, and happily ridden. All bearings were lubed a year ago.
