1963 Bauer Weltmeister, Paintwork by Jack Taylor

Robbied196

Senior Retro Guru
I very rarely buy bikes off Ebay but I came across this bike and noticed there had been no bids with 30mins of the auction to run. I decided to have a bid although not really expecting to win, it was a Sunday evening, prime time for bikes sales!
I realised later the bike had been listed under handlebars which probably didn't help the sale. Unfortunately, there was a communication break down after the sale which was covered in another post:

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=269000&p=2010534#p2010534


However, all's well that ends well and the story continues with the bike finally arriving yesterday. It is exactly as described and does seem to be a very nice frameset. It has been resprayed, box lined and lug lined by Jack Taylor in the early 80s. Although the frame builder is unknown, I took the gamble that Jack Taylor wouldn't repaint anything low end.

The frame itself was originally chrome and I'm hoping to get copies of some photo's of the bike with its original owner in the 1950s along with Taylors paperwork for the paint and also a photo of the owner with the Taylor brothers :)

As well as being chrome originally, the frame does have plenty of distinguishing features including some very thin forks with a chamfered crown, cut out lugs and nicely shaped brake bridge. Brazed on cable guides and pump pegs so I guess it must have been a fairly expensive frame in its day? Obviously non of the components are original but if the 1950s photo's are good I'd like to build it back to its original spec. There is a very clear frame number 2567514

I have a theory that bikes often circulate in the areas they were built. For instance a good percentage of Rourke's come up for sale in the Stoke area. This bike came from Middlesborough, painted in Stockton on Tees so possibly there's a North East builder connection?

The big question is, do any of you recognise the frame builder?



























 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

Looks very nice Robbie, glad you got it sorted out
 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

I love the double box lining.
 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

There are definitely some distinctive features in its construction, the seat cluster for one. The lug cutouts are unusual, the chamfered edges on the fork crown, the scrolls around the rear brake bridge etc. They must point to decent builder as they're not generic.

I also reckon that it has had some additions, possibly when resprayed? The brake cable guides/stops look 'modernish' as to the DT cable stops. I'm sure these would have been clip-on items originally. The level of fittings is also quite modern, possibly it was all up-dated some time after the time of respray, guessing mid -90's looking at the 105 brakes etc.
 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

Spokesmann":251h2cts said:
I love the double box lining.

There's a great video you may have already seen:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALNsQpCL8LY[/youtube]

Nice bit with Jack and his Cyclo Box Lining tool. The guy with the stammer story cracks me up every time!
 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

Old Ned":cjlosf7x said:
There are definitely some distinctive features in its construction, the seat cluster for one. The lug cutouts are unusual, the chamfered edges on the fork crown, the scrolls around the rear brake bridge etc. They must point to decent builder as they're not generic.

I also reckon that it has had some additions, possibly when resprayed? The brake cable guides/stops look 'modernish' as to the DT cable stops. I'm sure these would have been clip-on items originally. The level of fittings is also quite modern, possibly it was all up-dated some time after the time of respray, guessing mid -90's looking at the 105 brakes etc.

I'm hoping to get Taylors invoice which may show some additional frame work. The seller is in the process of moving house at the moment so everything is packed up. Was it quite common to chrome the whole frame in the 50s? I've found a few example, nothing similar to this one, but fully chromed frames seem to be a fairly rare item.
 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

Just a random thought on the frame number. I wonder if 256 is February 1956, frame number 7514.
 
Re: 1950s Racing Bike Expert for ID, Paintwork by Jack Taylo

It was pretty uncommon to have a full chrome finishing on any British bike in this period, I think the stamping on the BB shell leads me to think this is a European import. Likely French, or italian by the lugs and the peculiarities of the fork. A lot of French/Belgian frames came here in the 50/60's because the finishing was very good and they were generally a bit cheaper. As for the maker - there's at least 500 good French builders went by the by.

I have a 60's Bottechia with similar lugs and lots of chrome, but that's Italian!
 
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