“I have recently been given an old frame which belonged to my wife’s grandmother. I have attempted to trace its origin and found my way onto your website. The frame is ladies specific and has the builders emblem as follows:- E.D. Nichols, Mazeppa Cycles, 5 Reform St. West Bromwich. It is made from Reynolds 531.There are 2 stamped ID numbers. The first is on the top of the seat tube and is 50683.The other is on the BB and as far as I can make out states P1100 V 61/61, although the first 61 could be 01 or even 04.

Any information would be gratefully received. The plan would be to rebuild the bike using period components where possible for my wife. We are a keen cycling family and tour regularly. We would love to see it back on the road.”

This is a custom built Reynolds 531 frame with hand cut lugs and tulip front dropouts of the late 40s and early 50s. It has a particularly fine twin plate fork crown and beautiful fork blades. I will revisit the description when we have a chance to see the frame and gathered some daylight photos.

E D Nichols was Major’s father we think he had died some time before this frame appears to have been built.  It bears two of his Mazeppa head transfers which were unknown to us and a clear forerunner to the shield and wreath transfer. The downtube Mazeppa script name transfers we knew existed in Alvin’s collection and elsewhere. We are fairly certain that this is a finish by Major and because of the quality and ‘M’ shaped cut on the head lug DT shafts we are inclined to think this was built by him too but we will never be absolutely sure. It is in good shape and the finish is also very good.

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