Youngs of Lewisham Project

P1000002 by JuanM58, on Flickr

P1000003 by JuanM58, on Flickr

P1000001 by JuanM58, on Flickr
For my next project I wanted something that was built in South London in the late '50s, like I was. I was looking out for a Youngs as I had lived near their shops on a couple of occassions and may even have bought a chain from them in West Wickham in about 1972, rather a tenuous link I know. I spotted this frame on the website of a well known purveyor of etc. and it isn't the first time that it has graced the pages of this forum having been owned in the past by roadking OTP.

I built it up over the Christmas holiday, more as a proof of concept as much as anything else so many current parts are random from stock.

So the frame seems to date from the late 50's or early '60s, is 22.5'' square and seems to have been built for 26'' wheels or sprints (I suppose). This surprised me as I had intended to kit it out with 27'' wheels, but it was no go when I tried the 27'' front wheel from my Raleigh Clubman so 700c it will have to be; which will be much easier in the long run. According the the VC-C marque enthusiast, the transfers are from the '70s or '80s and it appears to have gained cable guides under the BB and the chainstay. It appears to be made of 531DB with round section forks, the numbers on which match the frame.

Current build as follows: Genetic Cranium heaset and Campag Record (mostly) BB and 1960s Campag Record chainset. Campag levers with 1950s Campag GS derailleur with Camplex front mech being a GS Matchbox mechanism with a Simplex Criterium cage. The brazed on cable guides under the chainstay made the cable turn into the top of the GS mech too tight so running the cale along the top with a Suntour band improved this; a Campag band-on cable guide is fitted to the bottom of the down tube.

Bars are Il Primo Giro di Sicilia on a Milremo stem, GB Superhood levers with Weinmann 500 callipers from the '80s (ex Mercian); Campag twin-bolt seatpost with Brooks Pro saddle. Wheels are Campag LT hubs with Rigida Chrina rims and Vittoria Rubinos, currently shared with the Hanlon. Maillard 16-20 5-speed block is currently fitted.

So, plenty of room for improvement there. Not least with the routing of the brake cables! I had originally intended to retain as much of the finish as possible but to be honest the paint is pretty horrible so I am erring towards refinishing, perhaps next winter; I think I'll retain the tricolour seatstays though, very natty. I don't know whether to remove the add-on cable guides; it's part of the history of the frame I suppose so they might be retained and just not used. I might decide to run it as a five speed with a single chainwheel; I've got a few options and I'll post more as the project progresses.

nice looking steed there with some interesting history.

I really like that h bar stem ! my god do the bars have a map of sicily on them? !! :shock:

Well this is pre-GPS of course; in the ‘60s, with the right selection of bars you could probably navigate yourself around Europe.

That's quite a pretty bike. I'm from round there too but moved away last year. My first bike came from either Youngs or Ken Bird's but I can't remember exactly. There's been a couple of Bird's and Young's bikes pop up on here and it's always really nice to see them. I don't miss SE London particularly but I'm quite happy to slip on my rose tinted specs when I see these bikes

Are you certain it's a 60's frame? It 'feels' like an early 70's one to me. Just a thought on the wheels- 26 x 1/3-8" are quite a lot smaller in diameter and in my experience seem to be found on frames with a lot more clearance for mudguards. Your 700c look nice and tight on there but there is still room for slim 'guards. You'd also need enormous brake calipers to reach a 26" wheel. They also have quite narrow hubs even at the front and you might have had to have pulled the fork apart a bit to squeeze a 700c wheel in.

I have been promised the loan of some 26’’ wheels so it will be interesting to see how they fit. It does look pretty good with the 700c wheels which I built up myself with modern rims on Campag Nuovo Tipo hubs, set 120mm OLN at the rear; I can’t remember having to spring the front wheel in. With the Weinmann 500 callipers the pads are at the top of the slots – oh, and I couldn’t install the rear wheel with the tyre inflated , so it has been built pretty tight and seems to me to be built for smaller wheels.

Regarding the ‘style’ of the frame, I have a late ‘60s Pat Hanlon which seems to me to be more modern than this, particularly in the design of the fork crown, so on the face of it I would put this frame earlier. But no, I’m not certain! There’s plenty more research to be done though and it is shaping up to be an interesting project; all comments and suggestions welcome!

Top tube braze ons, under chainstay cable routing and frame geometry looks like late 70' as do the dropouts. LIkely made for sprints lovely looking frame with the full wrapround seat stays and lugs / fork crown :

Shaun

Nice looking bike. But too many puns!

Nice looking bike, especially the stem.