Holdsworth Super Mistral

[Euskadi]

Re:

That is a beautiful restoration job. I have a Holdsworth Super Mistral I would like to restore and ride in Eroica Britannia 2016, so if you are there too would be good to meet up (and any other Holdsworth cyclists attending). Am guessing you have the Universal centre pull no.61 brake callipers? Also your Super Champion rims are they 27" or 700cc? Am guessing 27" because of the red label? Reason I ask is that I have seen a pair of 700cc Super Champion rims on ebay with Campag hubs, but I don't know my fork length. I know the reach f or the Universal no.61 brake calipers is 49-60mm, but am currently house bound as I have just recently fractured my collarbone so can't get to my frame to work out fork length. Could you let me know your fork length? It's mainly the front rim I am interested in as I am pretty sure the rear would work with 700cc rim, but if you know the measurements to work that out, again I would be most grateful.

My frame number is 31236, which I always guessed at 1967 or 1968. As yours is 30511 would you hazard a guess at 1967?

 

[jules_b]

Re:

Thank you!!  I am very happy with it and hoping to be at Eroica this year (I have done both 2014 and 2015 on it and it has ridden perfectly!!!) so hopefully bump into you!

My Universals are side pulls but I cannot remember off the top of my head what number they are but I think they are Model 51. They are long reach though and the Wolber rims are 700c which accounts for the clearance which at first I did not like but actually makes for a comfortable ride. The Wolber rims are really good and strong and I really recommend them! the rims you found on Ebay sound like my setup exactly!!

I would love to see pics of yours! I would definitely say that yours is a 1968 model. How is the original paint? Does it have any chrome? Get well soon!!

 

[Euskadi]

Re:

Will send you pics when I can get to the frame. There is no chrome at all, is completely painted in Sky Blue with I think gold lining around the lugs. I did a really bad job in noting down components and measurements, but apart from model 61 centre pull I have...
Berthet Lyotard no.23 pedals
GB professional toe clips
GB handle bar with map of British Isles on
Aluminium decal on the head tube
Campy headset and seat post
Unicanitor Brevettata racing sadle (may replace this with a Brooks, but will swap them in and out I suspect anyway)
Am guessing my brake levers are also Universal no.61 but need to look
I have a Wolber m85 rear rim (no nothing about history of this rim at all)
Also have a 32 hole Airlight high flange front hub, which I would like to have kept on the restore but it is proving too difficult to find an Airlight high flange rear hub for 120mm spacing. Will keep the hub anyway for a future restore project.

I have no front or rear mech.

Was going to reply to my original post to change my guess to 700cc rims on yours, as I was researching after my post and Velobase had a good link to history of Wolber and Super Champion rims that basically said after Wolber bought them out they produced 27" in blue label rims and kept the red labels for 700cc.

I bought the wheels on ebay, was having a really nice conversation with the owner. They are in mint condition with Super Champions rims that look pre-Wolber buy out or about time of the buyout (1976?). They also have Campy record hubs. They will also be fitted with a 5 speed freewheel cassette from Regina extra (think 14-28 from memory).

The only thing I would have changed would have been to have high flange hubs as they are so attractive on vintage bikes, but the wheels were too nice to walk away from!

 

[Euskadi]

Re:

And just to add the paint job is near mint condition. I suspect this is because my dad (original owner) almost never used it. He had a Dunlop stainless steel front rim and the odd occasion I was allowed to go on it as a child I couldn't brake on it at all so suspect it was not safe on the roads!!

 

[jules_b]

Re:

The fact that you still have the original paint is awesome as the original Holdsworth paint was quite resilient! it sounds really nice and should be a great project to do up.

Everyone seems to use the same gear for these bikes (including me - Brooks and Campagnolo) but I reckon it is really nice to restore and use some of the original parts you have (like I did with my Universal brakes which Holdsworth used to stock). A big part of the fun for me was restoring some of the gear like the saddle and the brakes which gave them all a new lease of life!!!

By the way, by aluminium head badge do you mean one like mine?

 

[Euskadi]

I don't recall it having the crown on the aluminium badge decal, desperate to get out to take some photos now and share! Also the GB handlebars on yours have a really nice red decal at the front, which I am not sure my bars have. The other original part I forgot to mention is I have a Stronglight crankset. Cranks are no.80. Typically I haven't managed to write down the chain-ring sizes, but again once I am free to get out and take a look will report back. Totally agree with you about salvaging as many of the original components as possible - still on the look out for that rear high flange Airlight hub! Was thinking about using Campag Record Strada/Nuovo Tipo components for the parts I have missing.

 

[Euskadi]

Re:

https://instagram.com/p/-bhnjeOW0F/
Hope this link works.Have taken some photos of my Super Mistral and put them on instagram. Best I could do as recovering with broken collarbone. GB handlebars are 'Ventoux'.

 

[Euskadi]

Hmm. Not really sure what I'm doing here(!). I could only see one photo. My instagram username is: london_bengal and you can definitely see all my pics from there. I don't know how to get them to appear directly on to this forum?

 

[Euskadi]

Am also going to post some of the photos on my twitter account @whiskeycyclist as instagram seems to have truncated nearly all the photos. They are posted now.