RBotM December 2019 - Open Month - All Welcome - Enter Now!

RBotM December 2019 - Open Month

Welcome to the RBotM comp for December.
Yes, I am aware as I am sure most of you are too that we somehow skipped or missed a month for November. It was just rested for a month to try and garner some enthusiasm for the winter and through into the new year.

This month is an open month meaning that any retro road bike is eligible to enter, with the exception of previous RBotM winners.
Usual rules apply, 1 entry per member, two photos and a brief sentence or two to describe and then if possible a link to a readers rides/build page so people can get more information about your entry.
Entries open until the end of the month after which a 5 day poll will decide the winner.
Cheers
Jamie

Ok I'll kick it off

Kingblings 1978 Holdsworth Professional

Finished building this in the early part of the year and took it to Velo Retro in Ulverstone but never got to ride it properly due to the cassette spacing being to narrow for the chain. Now I have the correct freewheel I'll be building some new wheels NOS mavic rims on campy large flange hubs. I'm still on the lookout for the correct Fiamme Dallas bars and I may even get a unicantor saddle for it also to be as close to shop spec as I can.

Build Thread http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... ofessional

So I thought I'd add one of mine to this months contenders, knowing that the standard will be pretty high, and having seen enough TV shows to know that a good back story can increase your chances of winning (I'm doing this for "our Gran" etc etc ) I thought I'd try to compensate for a fairly average unrestored bike with a huge chunk of (mainly true) blurb in an obvious attempt to influence the outcome . . . so . . .




In 1937, like a lot of young men at the time Mr W H Peters of 381 Lyham Rd, London SW2 was thinking about massed start Continental bike racing (It'll never catch on here in good old Blighty !), which was handy as he'd clearly come into a bit of money (or perhaps sponsorship) and had decided to add to his current 1935 Evans clubman by ordering TWO ( yes TWO ! one with gearing, one without) brand new Evans Anglo Continentals, They were a new model that year and were designed specifically for racing on the continent (according to the sales leaflets), The Anglo Continental model was bordering on revolutionary, to the untrained eye it looked exactly 100% identical to their usual racing machines, except these had the lamp boss on the "wrong" side, a Blue and red decal on the down tube and most importantly they'd misspelt London as "Londres", There was clearly nothing standing in the way of them (and Mr Peters) totally dominating the 1939 bike racing season on continental mainland Europe,



Mr Peters obviously clocked that it may not be "all over by Christmas" as he used nearly an entire gallon tin of Castrol axle grease, covering all 3 bikes, and then used the tin to store his spare pedals, brake blocks and paperwork,
His house and shed (where the bikes were stored under 16 coal/mail sacks) escaped the bombing (you can see it on google streetview !) unlike a lot of the area
All 3 bikes survived there, intact, behind a coal storage area for 75years

For whatever reason, he never returned to collect them and never got to race on the continent.

This is one of them

God bless him! What happened?

I don't really know anything about him, (he wasn't a relative or anything like that) I'd love to know more !,
I know he was a member of the CTC up until 1938
I know he had size 10 feet and that he paid cash for the 2 bikes,
His house is/was a normal terraced house in Brixton, so I'm guessing he wasn't really rich, but 2 custom made brand new bikes at the same time in the 30s was a pretty big deal back then, He ordered Chater Lea on both, and they are pretty specific bikes, unusual in South London !
I've no idea what happened to him, but I can think of very few reasons anyone that's obviously into their cycling would not return to collect them, very sad really,

I do believe the rules say ‘ a brief sentence or two’ but like everyone else I want to know what happened to Mr Peters, so just this once .........

Jamie

Ha, I'm just round the corner from Lyham road. Good story, I also like the bike.

Only two WH Peters listed on the CWGC and only one of those comes from London/Home Counties

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casu ... m-herbert/


If it was this Peters ^^ he never did come back, however if its highly unlikely to be the same person he’d have been 13 in 1935 when both bikes were bought.

After being convicted for bike theft Peters was sentenced to 2 years in Borstal, upon release his parents disowned him and he was placed in a children's home before being taken into foster care Peters changed his ways and took his foster parents name and changed his first name to become Christopher Lee