Revolutionary Arts Ensemble

Hi folks,sorry I haven't posted for a while I 

Have been busy with another project.

you will have to watch this on utube here
as the quaility here sucks for some unknown reason
If you are in town (Napier) come along

It should be loud. 

EARLY 1960's FREJUS CATALOGUE AND KOLBET

 Frejus catalogue approximate date 1960-61

 

 Frejus road and track bikes where imported by

 Worralls cycle &  sport distributors from the 

early/mid 1950's.

These sleek new machines signaled one of the final nails being
driven into the coffin of New Zealand frame builders of this period.

Everybody wanted one, and this new Continental invader was 
soon joined by the stylish Legnano's and French Bertin's 
being brought into the country by Auckland's Hill's Cycles.

Suddenly owning a locally built frameset 

seemed old fashioned.

 Hugo Koblet, Frejus star rider of the fifties

known as Le pédaleur de charme

It's easy to see why Frejus bikes where so popular....

MORE ENGLISH TT COOL

A couple more classics from the pages of Cycling magazine.

Mike Ballard 1980

Very stylish black and white Ken Bird ensemble. 

Martin Pyne, 25 mile specialist 1982

This would have to be the last time a flying gate, in action,

was featured on the cover of a cycling magazine.

SR COMPONENTS

I have long had a interest

in top end vintage Japanese race bikes

and components. I guess this stems from my

previous interest in 1960's Japanese sports cars.

Here are some SR components from the 

early/mid seventies.

 

 One of the things I really like about this early SR

stuff is their cool logo, while everybody else is going

all minimalist, here come SR with their Ramones eagle.

 What can I say, I'm a sucker for a nice logo.

MAYBE A GILLOTT?

I picked up this bike the other

week on Trade Me for a very cheap price, 

mainly because I had spotted that it had a Cinelli

steel stem with badge, and although the photo

in the add was pretty poor, I was also sure the frame
 had Nervex pro lugs, so what the hell....

 The Cinelli stem, which sparked my interest.

The bike (Oryx) as delivered.

So the bike arrives today, the  first thing I noticed is

that it has a Oryx head badge, and decals, which 

looked fairly original.

I have seen a couple of Oryx bikes around, but nothing

of note, apart from one David Benson has on his flicker,

although this was a later one, and the only nice one

I could find. 

So I put it on the work stand, and notice a Campagnolo

Grand Sport r/d, Benelux f/d, Zeus shifters, GB brakes...

On closer inspection I also noticed that there were two other

holes above and below the Oryx head badge, the plot thickens.

I had thought, when I was originally buying it,

that it might had been a Bertin C37. The colour and 

Nervex lugs were about right, but I could tell straight away

that this wasn't one of theirs, as the seat stay taper is shorter

on all the Bertin frames I have seen (a few), and as it turned out

the badge holes are different, (some early Bertins 

had a nice headbadge), and the frame numbers were wrong.

Nice spear point seat stays.

The Oryx badge removed, notice the two holes

on the centre line.

The next builder that came to mind was Gillott.

The build finish was at a glance,certainly of the caliber

one would expect from them, I have a Gillott track bike, so

I took the calipers out and measured the badge holes, and 

to my happy surprise found a match.

Also the frame numbers (61551)on The B/B  match the 

Gillott style.

This would make the frame build 1961, which matches

very well with the lug set, and components.

I will have to do a little more research to confirm, 

here's hoping......

HURET JUBILEE

Here is a post modern classic.

The timeless Huret Jubilee.

These where initially released in 
1970 to celebrate the 50th anniversary

of Huret.

The aim was to make the lightest derailleur

on the market, and at 140gr they succeeded

brilliantly, not only for it's low weight, 

  it was also aesthetically 

an object of pure mechanical beauty.

The front derailleur and shifters while

pleasing, are not, in my opinion, of the same 
class as the rear derailleur. 

Funnily enough, this later rear derailleur

with it's drilled cages was actually slightly

heavier than the previous model, with plain

cages. The reason was that they had to ironically, make the 

cage fatter on the drilled version, so it wouldn't break.

Don't you love that.

The original earlier version, with lighter 

undrilled cages (what the...!)

CINELLI AND THE ART OF FRAME RESTORATION.

30/1/14
I just picked up this late 1960's/early 70's

Cinelli track bike (frame No 1650),

which I am restoring for sale. 
SOLD
adrian@theflyingwheel.com

I have decided to approach frame restoration

with a whole new philosophy this year.

From now on I am not going to have the frames 

out sourced to get the paint striped.

I will take the paint off by hand, although

this is a slow method, I feel this is a really

good way to get in close to the hart of the

bike, and it's original builder.

The Cinelli, well under way, getting hand striped.

I was extremely pleased to find the original chrome

lugs under the paint still in pretty good order.

Pretty much all the paint has is now removed.

You can see the lugs have been 
nicely thinned, the whole bike is
in excellent order.
Frame is ready for some sanding action.

The frame has now been sanded 

with wet and dry 400.

The lug 'as found' under the paint.

Dull but savable.

 Half an hour of polishing, and the 

lug is starting to come back to life.

Stay tuned....

By the way, the sound track for this
is a new (to me) pod cast
 The Partially Examined Life

 CINELLI AND THE ART OF FRAME RESTORATION.
 Part II
31/1/14

After quite a few more hours cutting
polishing, the lugs have come up
very nicely.

Now the frame is ready for masking,
and a coat of etch primer.
The inside of the tubes have already
 been treated with fisholine.

  CINELLI AND THE ART OF FRAME RESTORATION.
 Part III
31/1/14

Frame has been masked off and under coated with
etch primer.

  CINELLI AND THE ART OF FRAME RESTORATION.
 Part VI
2/02/14

 I have used the gold I have mixed for the Cinelli
as a guide coat, and have picked up a few minor
blemishes, which are easily fixed with spot putty.
On the top tube there was a small dent, which has been filled
with New Tech carbon filler (great stuff) and then 
spot puttied.

The frame was then spot primed, and knocked back with
800 wet and dry.
 Two coats of gold base coat then applied.
Starting to take shape now.
Just the decals, and clear coat left to do.

 Oh and one other job, repainting the 
headbadge. I have already started work here, carefully
sanding the brass back with a little wooden block and
1500 wet and dry.

CINELLI AND THE ART OF FRAME RESTORATION.
 Part VI
4/02/14

You can see above the head badge is nearly finished being
repainted, a very slow job.
The original Campagnolo head set with Cinelli spacer below.

The Cinelli painted and clearcoated, I am very pleased
with the result. 
Thanks to Greg again at Cyclomondo for the decals
immaculate as usual.

Now I can start work on my one.....
frame No 756, early sixties.