Ellis Briggs "Favori" - my 1st restoration project

[highlandsflyer]

Re:

Always loved these, very nice find!

 

[Goldie]

Re:

Lovely bike Mark - and great thread too! The bars and corroded wheel rim are like an extreme mettalurgy experiment.

 

[daccordimark]

This project is becoming less of a restoration and more of a "rescue what I can" job.

Not only was the taper on the non drive-side crank knackered but both cranks were noticeably worn by what looked like prolonged rubbing from toe straps. Being extremely risk averse and wanting a bike that could be confidently ridden without fear of things snapping I decided to let the cranks go along with the T.A. adapter and the "little" 50T inner chainring. The big 55T outer ring was severely corroded so that's also useless. Luckily I have some T.A. cranks with more sensible 50/40 chainrings that will suit the bike.

Having already taken the advice given on here regarding the G.B. bars I'm not left with much of the original bike! It came to me with a really varied selection of bits and pieces of all ages so at least I don't feel obliged to get everything replaced with stuff from one particular year or groupset. Anything from 1960 to 1973 (frame date) is kosher for this build. Here's what's left:

Frame and forks - either going for full professional respray or rattle-can rear triangle with touch-ups elsewhere

Unknown headset - it'll do for now

Rear wheel - needs full rebuild with new spokes

Mafac centre-pulls and levers - need new lever hoods, straddle cables and brake pads

Campag Record front mech

Campag Gran sport rear mech - minus one pulley

Milremo stem

Brooks saddle - just needs a bit of softening

Seatpin - plain alloy

Chater Lea pedals - slightly bent cages but perfectly usable

Stronglight bottom bracket cups with mystery axle

Everything else was either rusted, corroded or chewed beyond hope. Certainly not a bargain find and it will never be worth the money I'll have to put into it but hopefully it will be a nice bike by the time I've finished.

Mark.

 

[daccordimark]

After some more research and stripping down the Record rear mech I've concluded it is a 1966 version as it was definitely made for plastic pulleys.
The inner faces of the jockey cages don't have the little retaining ridge for the cones of the metal pulleys as shown on this picture of the Gran Sport cage.

Here it is all stripped down and cleaned. Lots more elbow grease and 1000 grit wet and dry took care of the rust without marking the chrome. Despite the flaking chrome it all seems very tight with no slack in the pivots etc.

Now rebuilt and ready to roll.

Gran Sport (1960) meets Record (1966). Although this shot doesn't show it the Record has much smoother castings than the Gran Sport and generally feels a bit better quality. Still not 1970s/1980s quality but getting there.

I'm definitely going to use the Record for the rebuild so the Gran Sport goes into the "spares" bin for now.