New Project. Old English Cycle to be Reborn.

One of the delights of these old steel framed cycles is that they are completely out of fashion, so if you keep it simple and un-flashy, they are most unlikely victims of the magpie-style thief!

It pleases me no end that my green Carlton is probably worth less than £100 on eBay. Yet if I stripped it, and sold the parts I could probably realise much more. Even Peugeots are more highly prized on eBay!

Riding such a bike is an understatement or no statement at all in reality, but also certainly no hair shirt, though most people would never realise it!

It is quite funny to ride about on what looks a very plain machine, and then catch someone up riding something that looks much more fancy and modern!

ATB from George

The perils of riding a cycle even slowly!

On Thursday on the way home from work a wasp got inside my glasses and stung my just below my right eye. I was going little more than walking pace as I was patiently waiting for a pedestrian to move to one side of the cycle so I could move on ...

Twenty yards further and the nuisance insect did his deed! I went straight off the path onto the grass, and fell off! No damage done to clothing or bike, but my next step was to the chemist to buy some  antihistamine tablets as I react very badly to bee or wasp strings. I have been feeling quite poorly ever since, though I certainly went to work on Friday. 

ATB from George

Sorry to hear of your crash.

This would be a good project frame. Reynolds 531. It's for sale (not by me). You can likely find the site by following the photo's url. (Hope I haven't broken forum rules)

Dear Winki,

Thank you. We shall see, but there are real issues of how you safely send a cycle by courier!

Thanks for you sympathy regarding the bloody insect!

ATB from George

I have done a bit of reading about the stamped drop-outs. It is Old Skool for certain, but in these narrow rear axle frames not an indication of lesser quality so much as period of manufacture. Later, 125 and wider [rear axle spacing] bikes with stamped out drop-outs are certainly of lower quality than those fitted with forged parts instead ...

The forged rear drop-out has the ease of a hanger to support the derailleur bolt, which can be seen as either an advantage or a disadvantage. 

I rather like the idea of a cycle that could easily be as old as me as my new project! Madness in some ways ... After all if the frame has weathered fifty years, it is likely to survive me without many complications!

Dear Winki, That is a striking looking frame in my view. So fine that any attempt to rebuild it would definitely be correctly towards preserving the original enamel and decals, and fitting appropriate period parts. Also it is kitted out for ten or twelve gears [note the brazed on left hand mount for a gear lever for the front derailleur], and one of the attractions of my simple and very old frame, is that the frame has no mountings placed for control of a double front chain-wheel set. 

What I am after is a simple, good handling, and non-too-precious [if still nicely lightish] second cycle. No need for it to be obviously posh!

Good news is that I have finally got the shaft of the sting out of my face to day, and within half an hour the reaction was subsiding. Otherwise I would have gone to the Doctor.

ATB from George

A pair of rear gepiemme forged drop-outs on my Carlton:

And showing the old way way of hanging a derailleur off a stamped drop-out with a separate hanger plate, which is replaceable if it ever gets damaged:

ATB from George

To my eye, the Carlton looks like it has class. In comparison, the red bike looks like a department store frame.

Dear Winki,

I more or less agree! Though even the Carlton would struggle to make £100 on eBay.

I have a friend who has a lovely 1600s Italian cello.

It is so dark as to be almost black, and plays really well. He loves it. It is a bit bashed about, but old damage for all that.

He took it to Philips [the Auctioneer in London, who used to employ the musical instrument expert, the late Ted Stollar] for assessment. Ted told my friend that Italy has always made violins in both the Ferrari form and the Fiat form even in the 1600s!

Ted thought my friend's cello fell into the latter category!

Strangely my friend was delighted that he could keep his cello and use it daily, rather than worry that he had to preserve a priceless historical instrument far too good for him!

ATB from George

Just ordered a Tange one inch headset!

The process starts!

ATB from George

This sounds like it's going to be a fun project George. The frame appears to be all you need for its main purpose of commuting to work. It'll be interesting to see if Argos are able to solve the mystery of its maker. I bet it will look just fine when completed.

Hi!

Yes, I am sure it will look nice when done. Argos make a lovely job and part of what makes the frame look rough at the moment is the terrible thick and uneven paint, spray on top of hand paint!

I am sure Argos will have an expert view on what the frame actually is, and I bet they won't mind making it fresh again!

I see this as more of an MG Midget than a Lotus of the period!

And potentially just as as much fun, though with a serious aim in mind of making a useful commuter for the winter, and it will have mudguards!

ATB from George

When tired out, how many of us will admit to driving through on bottom cog, before dis-mounting and walking the last bit. I am too old to be so proud as to pretend otherwise, but the splendour of a cycle ride does exceed personal pride in my honest view ...

ATB from George

I got the Tange-Levin headset yesterday, and it looks well partly mounted!

Not a Campagnolo Super Record, like on the green Carlton, but nicely made and finished. Quite in keeping with the plan ...

ATB from George

Here is more than forty-five year old photo of my grandparents and my brother and I in the garden of the first house I lived in. Behind are some of the hop-buildings which bordered the lawn. About 1967..

I want to enamel the new old cycle the dark metallic red of my first cycle.

This will be a sort of full circle made, and this will almost certainly be the last last cycle I ever get!

ATB from George

You have another 50+ years to go, George. I hardly think this will be your last bike.

Dear Winki,

My "first" oversized bike!

Off to Norway in six weeks to see my aunt who is the younger daughter of these two lovely people shown!

ATB from George

I have decided something! I will set this cycle up as a single speed, though not fixed wheel. 

I reckon 48 or 50 over 16 or 18 will be useful for commuting. If I have to go up the many steep banks we have round here or in Herefordshire, then it will be the lovely green Carlton for choice!

But the saved weight will make up for a lack of flexibility on my fairly flat run to work, and this will save money!. I am all for saving money! The only soft concession adding weight will be mudguards!

ATB from George

Been reckoning the top speed - not really a consideration on the commute, and decided a very modest 46 over 18!

A ratio only just about two thirds as fast as the Carlton on top cog, but fair enough. Their is no rush is there?

ATB from George

PS: Five weeks today, I'll just have landed at Gardemoen, and be passing through customs! I cannot contain my excitement!

Alternatively for saving money, I have a great spare Super Record 53/42 crankset [and bottom Bracket bearing set] so I could use the 42 tooth wheel over a 16/17/18 single cog freewheel, and get a useful flexible gear for no extra expenditure ...

I have a 52 tooth big [Super Record, bought for 50 pence] front cog that is completely worn out on the teeth, and could make a really nice chain guard to fit by grinding off the shark's fins of teeth!

Would look the "Bee's knees" and as light as an economic single front chain-wheel.

ATB from George

I have managed to reduce the back axle width from 126 mm to 118 mm - which fits perfectly the archaic frame - by hunting through my box of bike memorabilia otherwise called scrap [!] by reducing each side, so with different spacers, there is no reason to re-dish the wheel, and the five speed freewheel is nicely centred for chain line and the wheel itself is dead centre. The small cog on the freewheel is quite close the frame, just like the six speed on the Carlton, but at least the chain could never get between the small cog and the frame.

The cones and bearing surfaces are undamaged, so a proper rebuild [using new ball bearings] should see the old Maillard hub nicely smooth - if not Campag smooth - in a while. I have to get off the worn-out Regina freewheel [when was the last time you saw a Rigina on a bike?], as the place for the special tool is rounded away as someone must have already tried!

I'll manage it though with patience! So off to Norway just now, and in a few weeks on my return the process will leap into first gear!

ATB from George

Some further photos from this afternoon showing the correctly fitted 118 mm rear axle with five speed freewheel. The Freewheel is actually scrap, but good enough to show the spacing is correct now.

The more I do with this little frame, the more it becomes clear that it is a typical old style Englsih cycle that though hardly of the first quality is in fact very nice. Well proportioned, and straight. Great potential as a useful commuter. Plenty of room for mustards, and I'll fit a Thorn comfort bar mounted on a Humpert stem quill that will give the riding stance something along the lines of typical Dutch or Danish commuter cycles.

When I get back from Norway, I'll take the frame for re-enamelling.

ATB from George

Mustards equals mudguards!

Auto-spell is a bloody nuisance!

ATB from George

The first picture gives a hint that this frame is both low and is also longer than normal for road bikes nowadays. For example it is two inches longer than my 1984 Carlton, which is hardly as compact as the latest geometry on road bike frames ...