Alan Richards (Tower Cycles Birmingham) 1983 build (Finished, pg3)

I don't think Alan would be too impressed with my gearing choice. :shock:

In this case, I've gone with a triple because 1) It was on the donor bike anyway and 2) I already have a couple of steel frames with the usual 52/42 rings and I fancied something a bit different for the local hills (proper hills, mind).

It does feel a bit weird putting this on a race frame, but that's what happens when you already own 4 other bikes and then buy a £20 frame on a whim when you're meant to be doing another build anyway... :facepalm:

I've found the result sheet for the event in which the photo was taken. It was the Richmond and Darlington CC on the Catterick course on 24 July 1976. Alan, riding for Velo Club Toutourien (French for 'all towers'?), was 7th out of the 103 finishers in a time of 56min 27 sec, winner was Alf Engers in 53.00. I was sadly way down the list with 1.01.59 - but at least I wasn't last!

Re:

Old Ned":1jcdykkj said:

I've found the result sheet for the event in which the photo was taken. It was the Richmond and Darlington CC on the Catterick course on 24 July 1976. Alan, riding for Velo Club Toutourien (French for 'all towers'?), was 7th out of the 103 finishers in a time of 56min 27 sec, winner was Alf Engers in 53.00. I was sadly way down the list with 1.01.59 - but at least I wasn't last!

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Thanks for all the info - the reason I was drawn to this frame is that I'm always more interested in a bike or frame with a bit of a story or history behind it - which of course is often the case with the smaller frame-builders (though sadly i have no idea about the history of this specific frame).

Meanwhile, I'm pondering whether black bar tape and white hoods is going to look weird or not...I'm leaning towards probably yes, it would...

The build has been on hold for a few reasons, one of which being that I got a pair of very dirty Mavic MA2s with Gipiemme Sprint hubs which have cleaned up pretty nicely and hopefully will be the wheels for this build. I need to re-grease the hubs, as they had been sat in a shed for at least about 30 years from what I can tell. The front hub is actually amazingly smooth, considering, but the rear is very 'gritty'. I don't have a 4-notch freewheel remover, so I'm waiting for that to arrive.

I thought I'd post a photo of the head badge, which is a bit different from the version H Lloyd stocks - though the tube decals they sell are exactly the same as the ones on this frame. The badge decal has obviously seen much better days, but as this is not a full restoration I think I'll keep it as it is - plus there is no exact replacement available without getting a custom one done...

Another long hiatus due to various things, now this build is slowly getting back on track, hopefully. The main issue was that sadly the chromed forks I originally bought did not have a long enough steerer (rookie error, there). Perhaps not unsurprisingly, getting a half-decent chromed fork with a pretty long steerer is not easy, so I've opted for respraying a fork using chrome-effect paint. It's a bit ironic, considering that the fork I got is in very good condition - much better than the frame, but there you go...this was probably always going to be a slightly odd build. Let's see if it will actually look the part once done. Fingers crossed.

I have also got the correct short reach 105 brakes, as I do like their design, and they are in keeping with the mid-80's look (admittedly 1983 is maybe a bit early for aero brake levers, but let's say whoever built this in an alternate 1983 was an early adopter).

I'm also including a photo of the seat cluster, as this is my favourite style, where the rear stays integrate nicely with the lug.

As it currently is, it weighs 8.2kg, which makes me wonder if the full build could come in under 10kg. Maybe that's being a bit optimistic, we'll see.

This is still going nowhere fast, but the time has partly been spent deciding whether to actually go down the triple chainset route, and whether to replace the head badge. After much dithering, I couldn't in good conscious put the triple on, so instead I'm using a Gipiemme Crono Special chainset which I originally bought for another build. This matches the wheels nicely, plus is drilled so fits in with the weight-saving idea too. It will definitely look a lot better than the triple I was going to use.

That does mean getting a different BB, and more £ of course...

Slowly getting somewhere. Possibly.

I'm also creating a custom head badge, to add to the complications.

sjcprojects":auospra1 said:

This is still going nowhere fast, but the time has partly been spent deciding whether to actually go down the triple chainset route, and whether to replace the head badge. After much dithering, I couldn't in good conscious put the triple on, so instead I'm using a Gipiemme Crono Special chainset which I originally bought for another build. This matches the wheels nicely, plus is drilled so fits in with the weight-saving idea too. It will definitely look a lot better than the triple I was going to use.

That does mean getting a different BB, and more £ of course...

Slowly getting somewhere. Possibly.

I'm also creating a custom head badge, to add to the complications.

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If your weight concerned, you can get 152g titanium spindle bb's off Alibaba or AliExpress for £20. That'll shave off 110g over steel ones.

otherself":flktwtkq said:

If your weight concerned, you can get 152g titanium spindle bb's off Alibaba or AliExpress for £20. That'll shave off 110g over steel ones.

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Thanks for the tip. Although a titanium spindle BB is tempting at that price, as long as when it's all done the bike comes in under 10kg (which would make it my lightest steel bike) I'll be happy. Seeing as I've only really got the BB, chain and chainset to add, that shouldn't be too hard, I hope (the Gipiemme chainset is about 625g).

Only a small update - having previously decided not to replace the head badge, it was really so far gone I felt it would rather detract from the bike, so I made and ordered a replacement. This is partly guess work on my part, seeing as I couldn't find an example of this exact style of badge - hopefully it's close to what the original looked like.

I do have pretty much all the parts needed to actually build this up now, so once the fork is finally finished being painted, with any luck things will start to progress. I had issues with the undercoat curing on the forks (possibly the cold weather?), so I had to start the paint process from scratch again.

A few more photos of some frame details here, before it finally gets built up.

Once again, I spoke too soon, and to continue the theme of going back on my previous plans, I've found someone fairly local to chrome the forks for a decent price (£60 plus VAT) - so I'm going to do that after-all. I had originally aimed to have chrome forks, and obviously that will look a lot better with the frame.

Of course, they have a 3 month waiting list, so it's going to be well into the new year until this FINALLY becomes an actual bike instead of a collection of parts. But one day, one day...in 2021...