7.9 Kg Roy Thame Campionissimo TT

The Roy Thame Campionissimo TT is finally finished.

As I explained here, I have been collecting period aftermarket 

O.M.A.S. and Cobra performance and lightening parts for this 

super light TT project bike for several years.

 I didn't actually have the right bike frame to attach the parts to

when I started the project, but when a 1979 Roy Thame TT 
frame set came along, 
I knew it was the one I had been looking for.

Thame as Holdsworth Team manager 1974

Roy Thame is mostly remembered today for being the driving

force behind the iconic British Holdsworth Professional team 

from it's inception in 1962  in sponsoring Bob Addy 
through to it's disbandment in 1978.

However Roy was also I very good TT man himself during

the 1950's and was Hemel Hempstead Cycling Club 

champion in 1952.

In 1976 the Holdsworth shops at Putney, Penge and Welling

started selling frames bearing the Roy Thame name.

Apparently many of the custom made frames where 

built by master frame builder Reg Collard at the Putney shop.

I brought my Roy Thame from it's original owner,

(unfortunately I have lost his name), he ordered the frame from

Roy at the Putney shop in 1979, it is a Campionissimo model

made in Reynolds DB 531 specifically for TT work.

I am extremely pleased with the build, sometimes you get it just

right, and I think this is one of those times.

The Blue is pretty similar to the original colour.

I couldn't find any decals that I thought where right, 

so I made my own set, which I am also very happy with.

The lugs where hand cut, filed and drilled to the club pattern

by Holdsworth employee Bob Donington, himself a top

25 mile time trailer.

Bob Donington in action on a Holdsworth.

Classic 1960's English TT style

This build really is about the sum of the parts 

being brought together to make something unique.

Cinelli bars and stem both have full O.M.A.S.

alloy kits.

CLB professional brakes, my only deviation from modified

components on this build, I did have a full OMAS lightening kit

for Campagnolo brake calipers, but the CLB are so pretty...

...although I have used alloy retaining bolts.

CLB  professional drawing by Rebour, above OMAS brake kit I didn't use.

  Huret (CLB) Sulky levers, a bit lighter than the original

CLB Pro levers, helped along with a bit of extra work 

on the factory drillings

OMAS 28 hole hubs with titanium axles and alloy ends.,

laced to Mavic Monthlery Legere rims.

 Decals I made for the build, came out quite nice I thought.

Swiss Assos saddle, actually made by Soffatti in Spain.

(but don't tell anyone) still my favorite saddle after

the Brooks Professional.

Campagnolo Pista crank set, Super Record pedals

Fides extra light toe clips.

Cobra alloy chain wheel bolts, Cobra alloy B/B nuts.

OMAS Alloy/Titanium B/B

Regin Extra SL Superleggera hollow pin chain.

Campagnolo Nuvo Record modified with full OMAS kit.

Regina Alloy freewheel.

Campagnolo chromed dropouts, drilled. 

 All up 7.9 Kg ready to ride, I was hoping to get under 8kg's

so am very pleased.

 Could I get under 7kg's?, I think I can, I have decided to slowly

keep on working on this bike to see if it is possible for me to

trim weight where ever I can over time, and achieve the

impossible dream, not quite in the Martin Luther King

league of dreams for the future...

...but a dream none the less

What it is all about for me, recreating as close as

I can those amazing TT bikes from what I consider the last 

classic period of English hand built lightweights.

1965 Cecil Walker track bike.

This very pretty Australian built Cecil Walker track bike 

was made for Kiwi rider Hugh Grace in 1964.

Hugh (Hugie) Grace was along with his brother

Max, quite prominent in the New Zealand road/track racing 

scene during the 1960's, although because Hugh moved to 
Australia in 1964, locals are probably 
more familiar with his brother.

 Hugh Grace 

N.Z. Cycling magazine Oct. 1971

Hugh, annoyed at not been given an opportunity to be part

of the 1964 NZ Olympic squad, decided to take a trip across

the ditch to Australia to 'cool off'' for a couple of months.

He ended up there for 5 years.

 Living in Melbourne, Huge quickly became involved in the

local cycle racing scene, and as his local shop was 
Cecil Walkers, he had Cecil built him a new track frame.

Hugh told me that Cecil was an extremely likable man, and as

you can see, also a fine frame builder.

Cecil Walker add

Australian Cyclist December 1962.

Before starting his bike business, Cecil Walker was

an international road and track racing star, especially in the USA.

Apparently he is regarded by some to be Australia's

finest track rider, which is really saying something, 

considering the stiff competition for that title.

I especially like the story that he was still riding off

scratch at the age of forty.

Cecil Walker 1920's-30's racing legend.

He open his Cecil Walker Cycles in Elizabeth St,

Melbourne during the 1930's and ran the shop until

he passed away in 1969.
The Shop still operates today.

 It seems all Cecil Walkers (as did many Australian) bikes

had hand painted signwriting, and always beautifully rendered.

  Hugh's name on the top tube, such a nice touch.

Even though I have only closely inspected

about a dozen vintage Australian racing bikes, I will go out

on a limb and say from what I have seen, their best are 

up there with the best in the world.

 

Tom Harrison winning Gold in the 1962 Empire games

on a Cecil walker track frame.

Frame number W1233

Looking 'just right' a real Aussie classic.

Ron Kitching Crono Express

  Ron Kitching, a name well known in

the UK during the sixties through to the eighties, 
as being one of the biggest importers of cycle 
racing components and in the country.

Ron was also known as a generous and enthusiastic 

sponsor of top riders in Cyclo Cross, Time Trialing,

and even had his own sponsored teams .

Barry Davie, Ron Kit Cyclo Cross team

 Ron Kitching (R) with Andre' Bertin and Eileen Sheridan

 photo courtesy of Bertin classic cycles, who have a great piece

on Ron Kitching here. 

Ron Kitching also had a range of bikes built under his

name on the market in the early seventies.

Of course every item in the bikes manufacture was 

gleaned from the Ron Kit inventory.

This could make for quite an interesting array of

tubes, lugs and components on the one Ron Kit

machine..witness the Crono Express.

 The Crono Express as it arrived, tatty, but as far as I can tell

mostly original.

according the original add for the Crono Express, the frame

was constructed from the following components;

Tubes Vitus 971

Bocama 'sport' head lugs

Milremo 'Trident' bottom bracket shell

Milremo' Super Corsa Fork crown

Zeus 'Gran Sport'drop outs

Milremo 'Classic de Luxe' head set

TA Professional bracket set.

  Crono Express add International Cycle Sport

May 1974.
Notice that they have the rear wheel set at the very
front of the rear drop out, to make the wheel base of this TT
bike look a bit shorter I assume.

My Crono Express seems to have been brought as a

frame set, and built up independently from the suggestions

made in the Ron Kit add, which is a bit of a shame.

I think I will build this up (one day) as it is in the add.

Quite an unusual seat cluster, I am sure that I have read

elsewhere that this was also a Milremo part.

Note the Ron Kit badged seat bolt.

Bocama lug and decal, bot the prettiest lug profile I have seen. 

Mafac Tiger brake caliper, with Milremo fork crown, plenty of 

light between the tyre and bottom of the crown.

 Early version Campagnolo Record R/D.

Zeus drop out.

Vitus 971 decal, very unusual to see on a English bike.

 Cinelli steel stem/bars, non original brake levers.

Even though Ron Kitching bikes where heavily 

advertised at the time, often with full page colour adds.

I could only find a bare few examples on the internet, 

whether this means that they didn't sell well, 

or just that not many have survived I don't know. 

However after talking to my pommy pals, 

I have the feeling they were not that

highly regarded by most serious riders.

Still Beryl Burton was sponsored by Kitching for quite a while,

so they couldn't have been all that bad.

Although that being said, Burton would have probably still

kicked everyone's arse riding a Raleigh MK 1 Chopper.

Raul Mesa Columbian road bike.

A couple of days ago a chap walked into

the Bookshop and asked if I buy bikes..

sometimes, I answered, what have you got?

Dunno, he replied, they are on the back of

the car, come and have a look.

Both bikes were covered in years of dust 

and grime, so difficult to assess.

 However I sort of liked the look of one of the bikes.

 and I could just make out the name Raul Mesa 

on the down tube which I had never heard of, 

and as I love a bit of bike detective work I 

couldn't resist.

Raul Mesa early in his career steering the Freskola team

motorcycle.

It turns out the Raul Mesa is the name of one of Columbia's

greatest Directeur sportif, who, after a brief career in the 
saddle found his gift for leading cycling teams 
and guided both the Cafe De Colombia and later the 
Manzana Postobón teams

to considerable success during the 1980's-90's.

Mesa with the Postobon squad.

It also turns out Raul has his own bike shop, and built bikes

under his own name and maybe at some point for the

RDM team.

All the information I have here is from the incredible

Alps and Andes Colombian cycling blog.

Here is the Raul Mesa after several hours of cleaning and

re-greasing.

A very nicely built frameset,with a almost full 

Shimano 600 RD-6207 EX group set, which dates the frame 

from around 1984-'86ish.

I am not sure what it is made of, but with the Columbus 
drop outs, and weight, probably Columbus SL.

Quite an unusual fork crown, not a profile I have seen before.

The seat stay caps also have a subtle difference of their own.

All in all a very nice machine,with a good back story

 and equipped with one of the nicest 600 group sets 

Shimano ever made in my opinion.

I will take it out for a couple of rides 

then pass it on and get back to my current vintage
English TT obsession. 

 Raul Mesa still active in Colombian cycling.