A Ephgrave and a Carlton refinished

As usual I haven't been keeping a very good

record of all the frame sets i refinish and

bikes I restore...but here are a couple I  have 

just finished.

First up is a absolutely beautiful Ephgrave No 1.

I have worked on and/restored a LOT of vintage

racing frames and bikes over the years, so I will say that

without doubt this Ephgrave frame set is one of the 

best finished and most beautiful frames I have 

had the pleasure to work on.

Here are some photos of the frame set after 

hand stripping.

You can plainly see the immaculate brazing and 

finishing, you can see a lot of love 

has gone into the building this frame.

I really wanted to pay a personal homage to Les Ephgrave 

when refinishing this frame set, I wanted to give it a paint

job that I thought Les would have been happy to see.

I mixed all the colours myself, and have to say

I am quite pleased with the result, the gold lining gives
it all a subtle finish and tied the colours together nicely.

As you might have noticed the Ephgrave head decal

was a bit to big for the spear point lugs, 

so I cut it down a touch, which was pretty common 
practice on frames with these type of lugs.

 I thought the contrasting brake bridge was a pretty 

nice little touch.

There was not one part of this bike I didn't like, 
it was perfect from one  end to the other, 
unfortunately it was to small for me, 
so it has now gone to a new owner in Japan, 
so although I am a bit sad to see it go,

I am really happy to have had the opportunity to work 
on frame built by one of the great frame builders..

Les Ephgrave.

Carlton Flyer.
Here is a Carlton Flyer that I probably spent
too much time on..but what the hell...

They are a bit under regarded and unloved these Carlton Flyers
so I thought I would show a bit of love to this one.