1973 Dave Russell

I've now finished building my Dave Russell after having it refurbished by Chris Marshall in Keighley. He's done an excellent job on it and I'm very pleased with the result. As well as the respray he did some small repairs - including making good the bottom of the seat tube which was bady rusted internally - and it's all come out very well.

The frame was built by a guy named Bill Grey who was an original Claud Butler builder in its independent days. He then built for several shops, mainly in the London area, and was very good at lugless brazed frames. I believe he built them for CB, a type of build which CB was well known for.

It was built for the first 1973 Harrogate Lightweight Show and as such, does not have Dave's usual numbering where the initials of the original owner were added to the number. This is numbered 10973 which only appears on the fork steerer.

It won't be a garage queen and has already been raced in the last of the Planet X 'Old Skool' 10's last weekend. In normal use it will have 700c's fitted but here it is displayed with my 'best race wheels'.

Frame: 23" 531 lugless

Fork: 531

Headset: Campagnolo Alloy Track
Stem: Cinelli 12cm 1A
Handlebar: Ambrosio
Bar Tape: Cloth

Brake Levers/Brifters: Campagnolo Record
Brake Calipers: Campagnolo Record
Brake Pads: Campagnolo
Brake Cables: Clarkes

Shifters: Campagnolo Down Tube
Front Derailleur: Campagnolo Record
Rear Derailleur: Campagnolo Nuovo Record

Cassette: Regina Block 13-18
Chain: Sachs
Cranks: Campagnolo Strada 170mm
Chainrings: Campagnolo 53-42
Bottom Bracket: Shimano
Pedals: Zeus

Rims: Mavic GP4
Hubs: Campagnolo Record LF 28 hole
Hub Skewers: Campagnolo
Spokes: Stainless 15/17
Tyres: Vittoria Special Pro tubular 220gm

Saddle: Milremo
Seatpost: Early Campagnolo
Seatpost Binder: Allen Key bolt

Weight: around 20lb

You don't need me to tell you what a stunning bike that is. Keep those pictures coming...

You can keep all tour Italian fanciness, alumininum and carbon fibre, i do not think there is much better than straight forward British steel.

Lovely.

Gorgeous- great colour choice.

Thats lovely, Paul. And a quality re-finish by the looks of it.
How did you get on in the old skool 10, any pics.......
Mike

Thanks for the nice comments, here's a couple more shots showing details etc.

The 'bars' one shows the tape (which is binding tape from Dunholme Mills available in Red, Blue, Green, Black and White by the metre) wrapped in two sections starting at the ends and meeting under the brake levers.

Another shows the beautiful finish on the lugless brazing and the other shot is a slightly different viewpoint of the whole bike.

The Dave Russell decals are from Nick at Lloyds. It took ages to decide on a frame colour but Mrs Ned has always said I should have a bike of this colour so I went for it - and I'm glad I did. I reckon it compliments the Red and White of the decals, cables and tape perfectly.

Well, I finished.

That's about all I can say really. I did a middling '28' and was slowest of the OS'ers but I've not done much lately so not really surprised. It was all about taking part as it may be the last PX sponsored event.

The bike was OK so any slowness was solely due to the rider.

It 'looks' British, that bike. Even if you took the Dave Russell graphics off you'd still be able to tell.

Classic - more pictures please.

Love that Victor seat cluster/rear stay treatment.

Very nice bike. Great resto job done.

It looks very short? Is It? How does it ride?