Featherbed FACTS.

I've just been looking through old copies of Roadholder & came across a letter by Ken Sprayson, in which he quotes a few facts about the Featherbed frame.
All Featherbed frames from Jan. 1951 to 1970 were made at Reynolds Tube Co. in two basic versions, Manx & road, the only alteration to the Manx being the shortening & welding on of the rear subframe in '53/'54. They were made in 531 tubing of 1 /1/4" & 3/4" both 16 gauge & bronze welded. Frames for Inters were as Manx but made from A grade mild steel, & had a flat on the top tube to clear the taller engine.
The road frames were made from B grade mild steel tube but in 14 gauge, all arc welded, & had a reduction in bend radius under the seat tube to give more room for road equipment. The only differences being alterations to mounting points for various engines.
All frames had a headstock angle of 64 deg./26 deg. as this was never changed.
Hope this is usefull.

Did anyone doubt this?

But is it not true that Mercury frames were made in Italy?

I have had a love of Featherbed frames since I was 17 years old (1976) when my mate Don had a hot 750 Commando his older brother built it in a 1957 Wideline he loved riding my Honda TL250 trials bike and we swapped bikes for the day, I was so wrapped in how well it handled and with that hot 750 motor with lighten/balanced crank it was a bitsa and had a lot of bogged up bits on it, but it was a very quick bike and smooth to ride, but I took it easy as it was my first ride on a British bike, two weeks later I brought a brand new old stock 74 850 Commando.
But it wasn't long in 1979 Don sold me a good 57 Wideline Featherbed frame complete with fuel tank, oil tank, a rusty frontend and rusty wheels, so in 1980 I started my 850 conversion to the Featherbed frame, Don had two Wideline frames one with dents in the bottom rails and one that was perfect, that is the one I got, I out smarted Don as he was trying to sell me the dented frame.
One thing with Featherbed frames they are a heavy frame, but the tubing is very soft and can easily dent if you accidently hit it, why his other fame had dents in it.
It took me 2 1/2 years to build my Commando/Featherbed as money was tight but it's is still on the road, with the balanced crank and other work I have done to it's a pretty smooth bike for a hard mounted Commando motor and is a lot lighter than when it was a full Commando, surprising how heavy isolastics/engine cradles are.
Only other Featherbed riders/owners know how good they are if built right and I built mine completely different to how Don had his Commando/Featherbed set up, I learned by his mistakes without the boggy jobs.
I now have a Slimline 1960 Manxman project bike I am starting to rebuild but its going to be built as a cafe racer as it was a ex race bike and has racing history back in its days with a lot of missing original parts, I brought it in boxes very cheaply for $1k, so looking forward to start back on this project.

Ashley

Triton Thrasher said:

Did anyone doubt this?

But is it not true that Mercury frames were made in Italy?

Click to expand...

At least one member on this site has quoted a head angle of 24 degrees, & it would seem they are wrong. Also, I think the only frames made in Italy were some Commando ones, unless Mr Sprayson is mistaken, which I very much doubt.