1982 Holdsworth Special, at least it started that way...

[3wheeler7]

Gently does it!

 

[novocaine]

Gently does it!

That's what she said........

have you thought about stringing it to check for alignment? I would expect the seat tube to be out of place by a little bit, maybe the drop outs will have shifted a bit. enough to notice? maybe, maybe not. head tube maybe out top to bottom.

 

[sjcprojects]

That's what she said........

have you thought about stringing it to check for alignment? I would expect the seat tube to be out of place by a little bit, maybe the drop outs will have shifted a bit. enough to notice? maybe, maybe not. head tube maybe out top to bottom.

The frame builder who took a look said the seat tube is out a bit, as you say - but the drops are fine. If it does seem to go to plan, I'll probably take it to someone to check it before actually riding it.

 

[pigman]

Because it's not a place that is really known for doing bikes, but more for industrial stuff, I doubt anyone on here would be (foolish enough?) likely to use them. I was apprehensive about the quality of the paint job, but actually that's turned out totally fine, but the frame has presumably been treated the same as a metal gate or railings, i.e without much care. It might have been them, or it might have been the blasters they use. I do wonder if it happened at the blasters and they just coated it with the dent in it - sort of looks like it, from how the dent appears. Anyway, they are called Express Coatings (ironically considering there wasn't anything express about the process, either).

Anyone know a decent powder-coaters near Sheffield, seeing as I'm probably starting from scratch again? (or even Leeds/Manchester at a push).



The frame builder didn't seem to think it could be set cold, so £100 plus is because he'd be heating the tubes. Do you think straightening a bend like that can be done cold?

Can't vouch for them myself, as I've never used them, but a lot of motorbikers use a firm called Two Brothers somewhere down at Neepsend in Sheffield

 

[sjcprojects]

Can't vouch for them myself, as I've never used them, but a lot of motorbikers use a firm called Two Brothers somewhere down at Neepsend in Sheffield

Thanks - yeah, I did try them but they never answered the phone or replied to my email. Seems like you have to actually go down there to have a chance of getting work done, which put me off a bit. I have found a few other places that look decent, although I'm hoping I won't need to use them, but we'll see.

 

[sjcprojects]

Sadly the frame-straightening attempt did not go well – partly because the frame was more bent that I thought - the seat tube is really quite far off being straight, which was presumably why the frame-builder I saw said it would need the tubes heating. I can't justify spending at least £225 on the work needed (including a new paint job). It feels crap having to scrap what was decent frame, but there you go. At least it wasn't anything rare or unusual.

Speaking of which, the replacement is fairly rare, coming from a small frame builder who was only really working for about a decade, from what I can tell. There's not much info on the net, but I did find this:

"Atom Cycles was the trading name of artisan frame builder Andrew Thomson who worked out of his own premises in Hazel Grove near Manchester in the 1990s. Andrew learned his skills from Frank Herety the renowned Stockport frame builder."

Which makes sense as I picked this up in Stockport. It has a fair amount of scrapes and also rust in places, but isn't looking too bad so I'll keep it as it is apart from some touch-ups, for now at least. At some point it'll probably need a respray but that can wait.



Clearly I was fated to get this, as not only had it been knocking around on FB for ages with no interest (I actually nearly bought it instead of the Holdsworth), oddly someone has at some point added a very crap attempt at a Holdsworth head badge:



Obviously that's coming off, first thing. Luckily they kept the other decals on, as the only frame number I can find is a very faint '16 1', so there's no way I could have identified this otherwise. The second job is that there is a stubborn bottom bracket cup to remove, where I'll try the thread and washers technique to hold the removal tool on whilst using a large spanner.

Anyway, good and bad news, I suppose...

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Nice looking frame and a happy ending

 

[sjcprojects]

Nice looking frame and a happy ending

Thanks. I'm going to wait until I've actually built and properly ridden the thing before I'm calling anything a happy ending!