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Mick Mills Frames


millsbomb
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  • 3 weeks later...

About 20ish

years ago i was riding around the Reliance trial[a round off the original Sammy Miller series] with Mike Mills,when after we finished the last section he offered me a ride on his own framed B25! I can honestly say having rode a fair number off bikes over the years,including Tony Calverts Scottish winning cub and Grantys last? Ariel amongst others,it was and still is the best handling and engined Pre70 bike i've ever ridden.It left a lasting impresion on me to this day!It felt so easy to ride and i felt like i could ave gone up anything!Mike was a jovial character,always having the craic! We often talked about it when we met,and one day he offered me the chance to buy the last frame kit he had,i declined.A while later he passed. Inciddently straight after i rode Mikes bike i rode Neil Sellys trick bullet he rode in the scottish a few times,No comparison!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

Sorry to enter the fray, but having looked personally at a couple of Mick Mills frames - and known Mick personally - I am utterly convinced that so so-called 'lookalike' Mick Mills frames are anything but - they may share some dimensions but the workmanship comes from a far inferior planet.

Mick and I came from the old school that firmly believes that if you are going to weld two pieces together, then the weld material should be the same - brazed frames have a tendency to weep oil through the joints and then wash away the 'glue' over time, all too often parting at a point in the riding career that is critical............

The use of the word 'replica' is all too frequently incorrectly applied, any replica should be identical to the original - and in my original definition for the Sammy Miller series that was interpreted that any 'replica' part should fit without any modification precisely into the correct place on an original.

If not, then it was a 'Special' and rode in the relevant class.

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There are replicas out there, with jigs taken from genuine articles, there are also modified replicas I believe. Some of the best frames in the world are brazed. Harris, Spondon, Bimota as well as Alan Whittons and many more. Any brazed frame which will carry oil needs pressure testing.

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Hi Guy's.

Come on you mean Bronze Welded not Brazed!! Hearth brazing is still done on traditional cycle frames using cast lugs, and not that far up the road from me, and the eldest used to design and build Trials bikes there.

Deryk a good bronze welding job is far better than "Glue" and there are several sides to the story. I have been a fan of Ken Sprayson all of my life, and many famous riders put there faith in his work.

It was only a few top sidecar racers that thought they could bronze weld but then paid the ultimate price that proved they could not.

A Trials bike is an all different game as is Reynold tube nowadays if anything is going to break (My Opinion) it would not be the "Bronze-Welded" joint it would be the tube.

Rant Over.

Regards Charlie.

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Hi Deryk

As I think you know I was one of the first if not the first to own a MIke Mills frame back in the nineties, it was one of seven in the original first batch.I picked it up off MIke after the Miller round that we started close to Bristol airport.I know seven is a strange number but MIke told me that was because that was how many top and rear down tubes could be made out of one length of tube.and as for MIke Mills replicas come on have you seen them.P.S I refer to him as MIke because he prefered it to Mick same as Bonkey really,just sayin and hope this doesn't offend anyone cheers Simon.

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charlie back in my road racing days with bsa outfits we allways used either renyolds 531 or T45 tubing both had nickel content we used bronze rods with a gasflux unit as that type of tube goes brittle if heated to much , great to work with and we built lots of outfits i cant remember them breaking up even when i bounced of the wall at ramsey hairpin one year,. will

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Charlie, yes of course I refer to bronze welding.

Simon, no offence taken , the replicas are what they are.(Not a Mike Mills frame) The jig for my frame was taken from one of the last genuine frames. I have lost count of how many jigs are about.

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Hi Andy just a thought if you are using a C15-B25 no problem as long as it's not been stroked,B40 and long stroke 250's are too tall as standard so might be an idea to check this out.your frame may have been constructed with this in mind however cheers Simon.

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