Leader Superbe
Yes one mans junk is another mans treasure, I found this Auckland built (Clark Cycles) Leader Superbe and a couple of other 30' -40's New Zealand race frames sitting in a trailer, about to take their last trip...to the dump.
Well I couldn't let that happen, home they came with me.
Not sure what I will do with them, as I already have quite a few projects on, although one of the other bikes, an Austral Star (which I will post soon ), is pretty interesting, so could well get restored.
Hand painted down tube writing, pretty common on New Zealand bikes from around this time, the main logo was always a printed decal. Most of the race bikes I have seen from around this time had plenty of nice hand done pin striping, some being real works of art. One early race frame I have seen had flowers painted in a sort of scroll on all the main tubes, it was a real stunner.
The ubiquitous stars on the head tube, lots of makers used them, there are all kinds of stories about them coming from Australia by way of Malvern Star etc, but I think they were just brought buy the builders along with the rest of the frame parts.
It's a bit hard to see in this photo, but there is some quite nice fine pin striping on this seat tube.
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