Simoncini Super Record
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Absolutely. Max was well advanced in 1987 (was it '87? I seem to recall an email from Columbus saying '86..) & will endure I'm sure.
Columbus was so much more adventurous than Reynolds, who sat on their 531 laurels for far too long. But that was typical of Brit industry of the time. Complacent & seeing no real need to innovate....
You need to show your new Max frame here: )
Meanwhile check these previously unseen pics of mine:
I love the paint (you might think it dated, but each is unique & not too much 'in your face', I say: )
I wonder why it was painted over a nickel plated ground?? Paint doesn't adhere well to nickel....
Here is the sad rear end. The previous owner accidentally backed his Transit van into the rear of it. Trashed the rear quarter & chain-set. (The Columbus ends were reusable though)
He was so sick about it he gave it to a local scrap dealer.... I'd have scrapped the Transit instead!! Luckily a friend of mine saw it on the scrap mans wagon & rescued it for me: )
The good Samaritan??
I think so.
How sad?
But I soon realised it was well worth resuscitating & got the rear end tubes from Ceeway, & Madgetts did the work. (I heartily recommend both)
An article of faith I say now!
Good story though: )
Isn't it?
Columbus was so much more adventurous than Reynolds, who sat on their 531 laurels for far too long. But that was typical of Brit industry of the time. Complacent & seeing no real need to innovate....
You need to show your new Max frame here: )
Meanwhile check these previously unseen pics of mine:
I love the paint (you might think it dated, but each is unique & not too much 'in your face', I say: )
I wonder why it was painted over a nickel plated ground?? Paint doesn't adhere well to nickel....
Here is the sad rear end. The previous owner accidentally backed his Transit van into the rear of it. Trashed the rear quarter & chain-set. (The Columbus ends were reusable though)
He was so sick about it he gave it to a local scrap dealer.... I'd have scrapped the Transit instead!! Luckily a friend of mine saw it on the scrap mans wagon & rescued it for me: )
The good Samaritan??
I think so.
How sad?
But I soon realised it was well worth resuscitating & got the rear end tubes from Ceeway, & Madgetts did the work. (I heartily recommend both)
An article of faith I say now!
Good story though: )
Isn't it?
I agree 110%.
You got wriggle room with steel. Not sure how alloys & carbon perform, but I doubt their longevity.
Steel in the 40s/50s is still around, & repairable, 60 years later.
We see how alloy & carbon lasts.......
Here is a 1953 Claud Butler Allrounder, with bilams & very similar to the Holdsworth La Quelda.....
Fancy bilaminated lugs, but that's how it was done then.
Very cool Brit machine from way back when; )
All that follows is related.
Including Simoncini: )
You got wriggle room with steel. Not sure how alloys & carbon perform, but I doubt their longevity.
Steel in the 40s/50s is still around, & repairable, 60 years later.
We see how alloy & carbon lasts.......
Here is a 1953 Claud Butler Allrounder, with bilams & very similar to the Holdsworth La Quelda.....
Fancy bilaminated lugs, but that's how it was done then.
Very cool Brit machine from way back when; )
All that follows is related.
Including Simoncini: )
simoncini is mostly related to this
but I do like the holdsworth!
http://revanchebikeco.wordpress.com/201 ... uilt-1948/
Good question,
Well, it all started in prewar France...
The founder of this factory was in exile there as a child, his family didn't get on well with the italian political scene.
So the whole family up and left.
While in France he started racing, touring.
After the war ended he came back to his home town and apprenticed at a framebuilders' shop.
A few years after that he set up his own shop, and this is the bike he built himself.
It was hearth brazing at the time, and cyclo rear deraileurs.
The fit was different as well, it's a 60cm centre to top, if I remember rightly, he was 5 10" tall.
He rode that frame four or five times a week for the next 40 years, it's been repainted about 6 times, at least.
He died ten years ago, he was still riding up to a few years before his death. A masher, he liked big gears and slow cadences.
His frame's still here, we're on our second factory.
He taught the brazer who's teaching me, so I guess the continuity is guaranteed for a while yet.
I see his ghost sometimes, when I stay on to practice my brazing, shook me up a bit the first times, but he paces up and down wearing his blue mechanic's overall.
His name was Renato.
Well, it all started in prewar France...
The founder of this factory was in exile there as a child, his family didn't get on well with the italian political scene.
So the whole family up and left.
While in France he started racing, touring.
After the war ended he came back to his home town and apprenticed at a framebuilders' shop.
A few years after that he set up his own shop, and this is the bike he built himself.
It was hearth brazing at the time, and cyclo rear deraileurs.
The fit was different as well, it's a 60cm centre to top, if I remember rightly, he was 5 10" tall.
He rode that frame four or five times a week for the next 40 years, it's been repainted about 6 times, at least.
He died ten years ago, he was still riding up to a few years before his death. A masher, he liked big gears and slow cadences.
His frame's still here, we're on our second factory.
He taught the brazer who's teaching me, so I guess the continuity is guaranteed for a while yet.
I see his ghost sometimes, when I stay on to practice my brazing, shook me up a bit the first times, but he paces up and down wearing his blue mechanic's overall.
His name was Renato.
