early Harry Hall rescue mission and build thread...

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Yes Revell's Romany was a much lauded 80's tourer, but I didn't find any record of HH marketing a bike with that name and it did cross my mind a previous owner may have retrospectively added it, however they opted to place the decal on the top tube and not on the downtube like on Revell Romany bikes I have seen.
Meanwhile there doesn't seem to be a record of any other HH edition s named Romany , so maybe it was a one off, abandoned after Revell introduced theirs? I am hoping I might find someone who can remember it's origin or accurate date, there were other HH touring frames made.

Harry Hall was a paint shop too and often put his decals on after paint.

 

[vtwinvince]

How much of this was generated by AI?

 

[pwebb]

How much of this was generated by AI?

You can generate retro steel frames with AI now? A worthwhile use-case at last, sign me up!

 

[Nob]

Decals on this week - sourced from H Lloyd this time as I wanted that old typeface rather than anything more contemporary



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Decals color really match the color of the frame - cool

 

[pwebb]

some progress and some minor setbacks:

fitted vintage NOS dia compe cantis, the canti stops are tiny ( single hole) and there is little room for modern cantilever arms ( I learned this when doing an Orbit CX resto recently that had Mafac) This bike had weinmann cantis originally but were heavily corroded - these dia compe are about the same size but I am struggling to find shorter double ended straddle cables - the ones i have are probably too long.


I also managed to find a NOS Dura Ace uniglide cassette in ireland so was able to use this wheelset which is very light and axles are exactly right length and no tight squeeze



front mech used Dura Ace and some new MKS pedals - chainset is Suntour Superbe Pro I had in stock and is also very light



so far no major challenges with things fitting although I haven't been able to find an exact fit for seatpost - it appears to be an odd size maybe 26.4 - so have fitted a 1" post with a shim for now

 

[pwebb]

there was/is absolutely no frame number or date related clue on this bike so I am dating it at 1982 judging by the original 'winged' Reynolds 531 decals that survived... Harry Hall , though still trading, didnt keep records of frame numbers etc so little I can do but scour online archives and search for similar HH bikes of the era...

... there are some archive pics of the infamous mini pickup service car and some of the local heroes who were sponsored by Harry Hall back in the day...


This could be Terence Mee aka The Monsal Monster - after the infamous well-dressing incident and injury...



...later to be heir to the Springfield black pudding fortune , Mee was the Ashbourne parish gravedigger but was eventually spotted as a prodigous talent on two wheels and went on to several successes on the notorious Monsal Head ascent.



an ill fated attempt at the Strade Bianchi was remarkable only for finishing last despite a bad case of food poisoning after sampling some local charcuterie en-route for Siena



to be continued