C37 BERTIN

Here is a very nicely preserved mid sixties Bertin C37

This was raced by top grade rider

Kevin Hill, in the Dulux Tours and 

Classics of the day.

These C37's where only available through Hills Cycles

in Auckland. It would fair to say that nearly all top

New Zealand road men from the late fifties to the late Seventies,

would have had a least one of these machines during the 

course of their careers.

All C37's were made with 531 D/Butted tubing,

of course, and Nervex Professional lugs.

I really like the Nervex Pro lugs, but just 

can't get into the fork crown, 

kind of looks a bit clunky.

 The hand painted French colours are a nice touch

 Original water bottle, this was used by Neil Ritchie

during the 1963 Dulux, you can see his number still

on the bottle.

 One of the things I really like about these Sixties 

race bikes is the mixed group sets, notice the Record F/D

and the TA chainset, classic combo.

 Ambrosio bars, Cinelli stem....

 Campagnolo Record derailleur, what else in '66?

Brooks first generation Professional saddle.

These were regarded as THE bike by the New Zealand peloton

in the Sixties, you can see why.

1950's/60's Woman's bike fashions

Some very stylish mid Century

fashion for the Ladies.

And a couple from slightly earlier

 

HAWKES BAY CYCLE TRACKS.

I have just started riding the local cycle tracks with Siobhan,

 and much to my surprise, I am really

enjoying them.

I thought they would be, well a little dull I guess.

But no, they are really a lot of fun.

Siobhan and I have been doing a couple of rides a week 

after work after one of us has sorted dinner for the kids.

We usually pack a little snack, a small thermos of

strong sweet black coffee, and off we go.

The cows do sometimes need a bit of persuading to

move off the tracks

We found after a couple of rides of about 40 km

that we would be coming back when it was getting a little dark.

However the paths pop right out in the night light, which is 

quite cool. I have fitted a old battery lamp to Siobhan's bike

in case of emergency. I tried out my modern LED light

but it was to bright and ruined the ambiance of the ride.

I can't help putting up yet another photo of the Mercian, it's so pretty.

So anyway, I am thinking about putting a separate page on the blog

with all the different rides we have done in the bay. If you come over this way

you can check them all out here, some are definitely better than others.

 

While trolling ebay the other day I happened

across these original press photos for sale.

Luckily the vendor had nice big good quality images.

 I thought I would share them here, before they

go off to their new private collections.

Enjoy

IN DEFENSE OF CARLTON AND POMMY PRO BIKES IN GENERAL.

A few weeks ago I picked up

a late 1970's Carlton Professional for

a ridiculously small sum from Trade Me.

Anyway, it got me thinking about Carlton,

or more specifically about the 1970's

and later top end English Pro machines, and their place

in the scheme of things

 far as classic racing bikes go.

  Early 70's Professional much like it's stable

mate the Raleigh Professional, which proved so

popular in the USA.

 These late sixties/early seventies Professionals

have gained (and rightly so) a loyal following with

collectors/enthusiasts/riders.

Although other builders where of course using the Prugnat (?)

shot in stay lug sets at this time, for many, this will always

be strongly associated with the Raleigh/Carlton Pro's

 of this period.

 In this 1977 add for the Mk5 Professional, you can see Carlton 
has dropped the classic seat stay

and fork crown of the previous generation.

  These later Mk5 models and onwards

have been overlooked in large part by classic 

race bike collectors and riders. 

This brings me to the point of this post,

the fickle nature of what might be considered to 

be a valued classic/vintage racing machine, worthy of

much time and effort to track down and refurbish or possibly

fully restore to it's former glory.

As readers of this blog will know by now, I am a 

big fan of the 1960's/70's British Pro scene.

So I imagined that a Carlton Professional from

any period when Carlton where running a full domestic

team, would have a reasonable value, but (luckily!)no.

It seems that I am in a distinct minority when it comes

to appreciating these particular bikes from this particular

period. Remember that Falcon, Viking, BSA (one year only,1977)

Alec Bird, Sun and many others competed during this time, and all produced

factory race replicas,these were always of course the

 company's flagship model.

 Barras. Carlton-Weinman 1978

 Hefferman. Mid-Let/BSA 1977

 Harrison. Falcon 1977

Banbury. M.A.N-Viking 1980

So just to really bring home the point,

here is a comparison of a Team Raleigh

and a Carlton Professional from about the same years.

Keep in mind the value of the Raleigh would generally be

 about X3 of the Carlton, although I would hazard a guess

that there would have to be at lest 10-15 or more Team Raleighs

to every one Carlton Professional surviving today.

Pretty similar I think, well they should be
they where built in the same factory.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the 

red devil Team Raleigh's, and in fact ride one regularly.

and I of course know that they have a serious competition

history etc. 

But I am just saying.......

...maybe can get yourself into a serious classic racing bike, with 

the right pedigree, all without spending too much coin.

 I know I have.