Tom Simpson's Bikes

Now here's a question for all those here of 'a certain age'.

When Tom first went to the continent he initially continued riding his Carlton which can be seen clearly in photos and, rumour has it, it was resprayed to suit whichever sponsor he was with. However, when he was with Peugeot, the frames he rode most of the time appear to be standard issue white PX10's with the black Nervex Pro lugs etc.

Now, when we come to the fateful '67 TdF, he was riding a bike totally unlike a PX10. It had plain lugs, all white colour with just a small Peugeot transfer on the DT, a chrome fork crown nothing like a Peugeot. Was this actually a Carlton? I have been told that claims have been made that Tom always rode a Carlton but the black lugged bikes look so like the standard team bikes that I can't see this being altogether true - but was the '67 bike a Carlton specially built for him?

Photo taken from the memorial tribute 'magazine' published after his death, photographer unknown.

according to one of his biographies, he rode masi bikes that were resprayed to resemble peugeot or whatever for racing.

I foresee another can of worms opening!

Should have stuck with Carltons....

The frame pictured has all the hallmarks of being a Masi Special and nothing remotely like a Carlton. At the same time, Merckx who was a Simpson team-mate in Simpson's last two years, has stated that at the time he rode a Masi painted as a a Peugeot, so there is not only the visual but also logical connection to Masi. When you add this to the official biography, there can't be much debate as to who the framebuilder was. The bike was however still officially a Peugeot.

Yes, it's the forks especially that are the giveaway. Never seen a Carlton with a chrome fork crown like that, also similar to the Bianchi crown of that time.

I was about to point out the oval cutout in the bottom bracket lug, filled with contrasting paint. That's a very common Masi feature.