F.C. Parkes Lightweight ‘48/‘49?

[TheDocmeister]

I’ve just picked this up from the local Gumtree. No history with it, I picked it up from the father of the owner and he knew very little about it.
It’s a bit grimy, but that seems to have been its saving! Genuinely can’t find anything really wrong with it that a bit of cleaning won’t sort out. At a push, it’s missing one Huret wing nut on the front wheel…

 

[TheDocmeister]

Here’s another few shots of it (still on the bike rack until I can find somewhere to stash it out of sight…)

 

[Jonny69]

Very rare bike. I don’t know how much you do or don’t know about Parkes bikes. FC Parkes started the Sun bicycle company. Sun were the factory-built bikes and the Parkes brand was reserved for the handbuilt lightweights. They shared frame numbers with Sun frames, so your P is 1948/1949:


Over the years on here, I’ve heard it said that the L in the frame number stands for Lightweight and designates it’s a Parkes frame and not a Sun. I’ve never seen any evidence to confirm this, but it has been consistent every time a Parkes turns up on here, including mine. Some more info here well worth reading and following the links: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/f-c-parkes-sun-bicycles-frame-numbers-question.365685/

Parkes frames usually had clip headsets, even well into the 1950s. I’ve never got to the bottom of why that was, other than concluding maybe it was a Parkes ‘thing’. Yours doesn’t have a head clip.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Very nice and very desirable in my eyes.

 

[TheDocmeister]

“Parkes frames usually had clip headsets, even well into the 1950s. I’ve never got to the bottom of why that was, other than concluding maybe it was a Parkes ‘thing’. Yours doesn’t have a head clip.”

I had a quick poke about it yesterday evening and you’re spot on. The headset is marked “Specialized” I guess there’s been some work done to keep it on the road over the years… I’ve messaged the previous owner this morning to ask if he might still have the head clip parts.
My one big concern was the stem, it looks a little bent to me, but everything appears straight otherwise and it rides well (once I’d adjusted the incredibly narrow toe clips). You can just about see what I mean in this cropped shot.

 

[TheDocmeister]

The stem. It does look like it may flare out to accept the bars, but it definitely drops too. Loving the Benelux shifter!

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

This has real potential