JIMS TI TEAM RALEIGH

Some photos of Jim's

TI Raleigh, which I painted for

him last month.

Jim and his Dad Max, decided to use

Dura Ace 9 speed in the build, which I don't think

looks out of place on the frame, and makes

the bike feel pretty contemporary, Max says.

Max and Jim started collecting up the parts for theTI on

Trade Me about Six months ago.

He tells me because they weren't in a rush to collect the parts,

and were prepared to wait until the right bits came at the right price,

 that the build has worked out very cheap.

A really nice Father and Son project, well done guys.

CRAZY 1970's ENGLISH TT BIKE ROAD TESTS

Time Trail king Alf Engers

on a very sweet looking Alec Bird TT bike

If you like these crazy super light weight

1970's English TT Bikes check out 

these period road tests

1972 Alec Bird

1972 Ron Cooper

1972 Harry Quinn

By the way, if anyone out there in the world

knows of one of these, or something similar

let me know. as I would seriously like one.

adrian@theflyingwheel.com

SPEEDY CYCLES CHRISTCHURCH

Jack Sucklings, Speedy Cycles were built in

Christchurch during the early part

of last century.

They were raced with success by the

famous New Zealand rider Phil O Shea

You can read all about his career in the 

fantastic book by the Kennett Brothers.

The Wizard on Wheels.

Advertisement from the 1926 Timaru-Christchurch 

100mile classic race program.

 Phil O' Shea Speedy team rider during the 1930's-30's.

The Speedy shop Manchester st. Christchurch.

 Original 1920's Speedy Cycles embroidered patch, 

that was sewn on the front of the jersey.

NEW BARTALI PAINTING

Just finished this painting of Gino 
during the 1948 Tour of France.

DULUX AND WISEMANS SIXDAY RACE BIKES

Check out the new page on Dulux and 

Wisemans Six day race bikes on the new 

Blog dedicated to New Zealand's great 

Six day races 1953-1985

  Wolves of the Road

 Kevin Hill- Bertin C37

Stan Wilmhurst- Pahiatua Special

This bike was converted to a road bike for the 

first 1960 Dulux Race.

Read and see more here

DULUX JERSEYS IN COLOUR!!!

Check out the new 1969 Dulux Jersey drawings in

FULL colour on the Wolves of the Road Blog.

The jerseys are drawn by Jan Soens in Belgium.

I would like to extend a big thanks to him for doing 

such a great job so far, thanks Pal.

We have just completed the 1969 Dulux jerseys.

And would obviously like to finish all the other years.

If you have any information on the jerseys or on the

Dulux Six day race itself, please contact me

adrian@theflyingwheel.com

HOW TO LOOK AT A VINTAGE JERSEY

So here we go,
 how to look at a vintage 

cycle jersey.

Firstly as you can see I have chosen for my example 

a pretty average looking jersey, why?

Simply because one of the great jerseys,

like the classic Legnano jerseys, are just so beautiful and are just so"right",

that it would be too easy a task to look at these.

Whereas this jersey really  needs to be viewed

from the point of view of a connoisseur

.OK, the first thing I see here is that this was

obviously a sponsored rider or event, and judging 

the age of the jersey to be early to mid sixties.

So I know there wasn't a lot of sponsored riding 

in New Zealand during this period, so the jersey is straight away

quite a rare item and of interest to me.

The next items of interest are the details of construction.

Looking at the label I see it is a New Zealand made Vel-Sport jersey. 

I already knew this was a NZ jersey, because the body colours of green and white

 have been sewn together' rather than dyed, and the
material is a type of rugby knit which are pretty unique to NZ jerseys.

Notice the different colouring 

of the ribbing on the collar and arms, a nice little touch.

Turning the jersey around we see the three pockets on 

the lower back with their classic white buttons.

There you have it, the jersey has revealed that it has

been quite nicely made,and although not a top end product has a couple 
of nice touch's, is pretty rare in that it 

a sponsored jersey from the sixties.

The printing is also very 'hand done' which

appeals to me...now to do some research and

try to find where and when this was used, and if I am really lucky maybe 

even find out who wore it.

  Does all this interest in some old, not that great, cycling jersey
make me an eccentric weirdo of some sort.
I wouldn't have a clue...you tell me.

FOR THE LOVE OF WING NUTS

Nothing says 1940's early/mid 50's racing bikes 

like a sweet set of wing nuts.

Just another of my (way too many) obsessions.

Cyclo wing nuts on the back of the 1949 Bates Bar

PRO TOUR OF CENTRAL 1960-61

 As can been seen by the size of these races 54 starters in 1960 and 47 in '61

the Professional race scene was still in 

reasonably good health in the early sixties.

 The good health of the 'cash' scene was not to last,

the last of the cash clubs amalgamated with the amateur

clubs in the early nineties..

There is a brief explanation of this decline

in my other blog here

I really like this Tour Leader jersey,

worn by Colin McNaught, winner of the 

Tour in 1960.

NEW VEL-SPORT DECAL

 We have just finished screen printing the new seat tube decals 

for our project bikes. This one is on the Three Speed Fixed bike.

Should be ready for clear coat in the next few days.

DRINK,SMOKE - BE FIT

Left to Right;

Brik Schotte,Gino Bartali,Fiorenzo Magni,Pino Cottur,
Louison Bobet Fausto Coppi and Ferdi Kubler. 
Between them they won,

seven World titles, eight Tours of France
 and eleven Tours of Italy.

THE RACING MANS KIT

The Racing Mans Kit

Taken from the first Tour of Britain

program 1951

Don't know about you, but I think this looks 

far more stylish than most of the modern kit.

 

 Ian Steel rode for Viking in the Tour of Britain.

You can read more about Viking race bikes here

New Page -Readers Rides

New page of readers rides.

I will have two pages

New Zealand bikes and others.

If you have something of interest,  please email some good 

photos over

adrian@theflyingwheel.com

Empire Superb owned by Ben in Auckland

1950's NZ

 

I don't know to much information on this photo.

Beasley(?) Labour Day grass track meet 1954

Nice photo though.

The Scratch bunch, start of the 

Round the Mountain Classic 1954