Newbie with a Tom Avon barn find, and lots of questions...

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Free post here
Tom Avon was made by my uncle who was called Steve Whitchurch and died in 2016,a broken man
I work in the shop along side Gary Harris,The name stamped on the bottom bracket “Stuart Franics” was a customer

Any thing else I can help with I try me best
 
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Where's your shop? I was sort of told it was a stab poke and was all geared up to get it rebuilt as such. Glad I haven't now!
Sorry to hear about your uncle.
Cheers
Lee
 
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I don’t have a shop or work with bikes no more


The shop in the chessel street which has long gone was actually called Avon cycles.and was passed down to steve from this father ( Fred) who ran it as a butcher shop and the meat hooks where handy for storing the frames and wheels on
But Gary Harris who now runs his own cycle shop at hambrook bristol May be able to help more ,but I am pretty sure Stan Pike didn’t build any frames for Tom Avon,May have done some work for them

The Wessex bike was brought in when Steve brother Jeoff put money in for Steve to start producing mass produce hand build frames,cause bascially steve was poor with money

Thinking last night about the name on the bottom bracket (Stuart Francis) came to me,he was a guy sure from Chippenham who got me to ride with him in a local two up TT has it was my first every TT,I was only about 13-14 years old then and Stuart was a lot older may be 30-40
 
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Just caught up on all the previous posts.

Sorry to hear about Steve Whitchurch, he built me a Tom Avon frame in 1977 which I raced in TTs and track. I still have it and it always brings back great memories. Argos resprayed it for me a while back and did a great job.

Happy cycling!
 
Any Pics Tony B.

I TT'd in the 70's and Tom Avon frames always looked pretty short wheelbase and likely pretty lively :)
 
Midlife":27uq05q4 said:
Any Pics Tony B.

I TT'd in the 70's and Tom Avon frames always looked pretty short wheelbase and likely pretty lively :)

Steve didn't just make race type frame,he made the whole lot,touring bikes,tandems racing and touring and racing type bike which had the short wheelbase,he also made a few low profile frames with smaller front wheel,

all the bike where individual made after the rider where measured up for the fitting,and steve had a way of working out what sizes to make

i had one made for me,with fully campag record group set on,and i now regret selling it when i was in my late 20 for a deposit on a house,i raced it with steve and gary harris on the weekend,and now after a 20 year break back racing,not as quick as i was then lol
 
Midlife":oa87ojg0 said:
Any Pics Tony B.

I TT'd in the 70's and Tom Avon frames always looked pretty short wheelbase and likely pretty lively :)
Yeah pics would be great :)
 

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