1948 Hobbs Super Course

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

13.3no2 by JuanM58, on Flickr

13.3no1 by JuanM58, on Flickr

The Hobbs is now on the road, at least in its initial form. The chainline was sorted out fairly easily with new spacers being turned up on the lathe; it pretty much worked OK first time, one of the beauties of being a single speed machine I guess. My 10-speed Gillott took an age to settle down. Similarly the Universal brake callipers fitted well with the revised arrangements although there is still little room for adjustment at the front. The arrangement at the rear allows the whole calliper to be moved sideways rather than just pivoting which serendipitously makes it a good deal easier to adjust. One day all bicycles will be made like this. GB Superhood levers, my favourite type from this era were installed. The tyres were changed for some rather tatty and moth-eaten 1” white wall tyres that were hanging on a nail in the garage which helped with the chainstay clearances. The bars were changed for a modern pair of alloy moustache bars which were partially wrapped with some blue cloth tape that I had in stock although sadly insufficient to cover the bars above the brake levers. In the longer term I want to fit steel bars of a similar shape although possibly not quite as flat, I think I have tracked down a well patinated pair and am currently awaiting delivery. Brooks toeclips were fitted to the pedals with leather straps and we are pretty much ready to go.

The ride feels taut and responsive and it goes and stops well. The gearing feels about right, perhaps a little low but that suits me. I haven’t tried running it on the fixed sprocket yet, I think I’ll leave that until the summer when I will feel more like experimenting. Despite a chilly North Easterly this afternoon I was out running about the local lanes, looking for a nice spot to take some pics. A mile or so after I took these the rear wheel suffered a violent blow-out which caused the tyre to run off the rim. I managed to keep the machine upright so it could have been worse and luckily I was carrying a spare tube so after fitting it I made my way home rather gingerly. So perhaps the ancient Slovenian tyres aren’t really up to it but as you all know, the choice of 27” tyres is rather limited. As soon as I was safely home I ordered a pair of 1 1/8” Conti Super Sport Pluses from Wiggle; hopefully they will do the trick otherwise it’s back to the bulbous 1 1/4s. These new tyres appear to have some element of puncture resistance which is good news as I have never had much luck with Contis. Anyway, we’ll see.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Looking really lovely mate. Even with the half blue bars it just looks right. Used and purposeful
Blow out sounds a bit sketchy but thankfully all was OK.
Looking good and looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Jamie

 

[Martin Rattler]

Bars1 by JuanM58, on Flickr

Bars2 by JuanM58, on Flickr

Bars3 by JuanM58, on Flickr

Bars4 by JuanM58, on Flickr

Bars5 by JuanM58, on Flickr

So then, handlebars. I managed to acquire a pair of rather rusty steel bars of a sort of South of France pattern. The bars came from a 1930s machine and arrived with a massively heavy headclip type stem, a bell, one brake lever and badly perished rubber grips. Everything came apart better than I had hoped and while the bars appeared to be reasonably sound they were heavily corroded under the grips. Thinking that the likelihood was that the internal surfaces of the bars would be in similar condition I decided to treat the corrosion electrolytically. Being such an awkward shape I had to use a large plastic swing bin filled with about 35 litres of water to which I added about half a packet of washing soda crystals. The bars were connected to the negative terminal of a 12V battery charger and the positive to a piece of scrap iron that was immersed in the solution along with the bars. The process wasn’t particularly aggressive, the charger drawing between one and two amps with the surface of the solution fizzing away nicely. I suspect that the process may be speeded up by adjusting the concentration of the solution or the size of the anode: the lump of scrap, but I was happy to let it work slowly so I left it set up for about 36 hours. After removing the bars, rinsing them off in fresh water and drying them, the rust had been transformed into a black powder that was removed with a wire brush and after a bit of elbow grease with emery cloth and Autosol the bars’ appearance has been greatly improved. They are still rather pitted and too far gone to consider re-chroming but the tops look in reasonable condition so I think that they should be OK for further use. The drops where the grips were fitted remain quite heavily pitted but I think it unlikely that I will put a great deal of stress on the bars at this point so I think things should be OK…hopefully not famous last words; I don’t think I would use alloy bars in a similar condition. I am a little concerned that the corrosion might worsen under the bar tape so I propose to paint the lower section of the bars with some rust inhibiting paint, Hammerite, Galvafroid or something like that; leaving the tops as polished steel of course. More soon.

 

[531brazed]

cola is a good de-ruster, full of phosphoric acid. I never cease to be astonished its legal in a foodstuff. Buy the 10p a litre muck from the supermarket.

 

[Jonny69]

Wow, those bars are something else and they look like they've come up quite well! Another approach is to use the oily rag to maintain the patina rather than allow it to worsen if left bare. Your bike is maybe a little shiny for it to look appropriate though!

#sellmethosebars

 

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

Bars6 by JuanM58, on Flickr

With the bars cleaned up the time came to fit them and as ever, things weren’t straightforward. Although the bars are fitted with a steel ferrule which appears to be brazed, the diameter of the ferrule looks to be 15/16” and of course the stem that I proposed to use was 1”. Luckily there is a model engineering suppliers in the next village and from there I was able to pick up a length of 1” OD brass tube with a wall thickness of 20 SWG. A piece of this cut to length, trued up in the lathe and slit along its length with a hacksaw did the trick. I left a little of the brass protruding each side of the stem clamp as I like the contrast between the steel and brass, and it matches the brass washer on the stem bolt. The bars felt fine fitted to the bike although as I noted before I wouldn’t trust a pair of alloy bars in a similar condition. I decided to paint the bars with Hammerite where they are most heavily pitted, in order to give an additional layer of protection under the bar tape. The tops I’ll just have to keep clean and polished as no chrome remains. The bars are now wrapped in blue cloth tape with the bar ends whipped and waiting for a few coats of button polish to finish them off. I’ll take some final pictures of the build out on the road when the weather improves.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Looking really good Martin. The stem and bars look like they are meant to be that way with the brass. Suites it perfectly.
Thanks
Jamie

 

[531brazed]

I too like the brass fittings, and the built-in adjusters on the brake levers - which levers are they ?

 

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

The levers are GB Superhoods, my favourite levers from the '50s/'60s although a little late for the frame, bars and most of the rest of the machine I suppose. Looking at the picture again, the brass ferrule does go nicely with the brass brake fittings.

 

[NeilM]

Re:

That's an amazing job on the bars and a really stunning looking build.