Mitichell Maddness

I have finally finished the first part of my Mitchell restoration
project..what a mission!

As some of you may know I have been a Mitchell fan for
quite a while, these New Zealand built race bikes are
one  of the real local classics of the late seventies and
early  eighties. A classic that has a race history and
pedigree in New Zealand which is hard to match.

Stephen Carton riding his Columbus SL Mitchell
to victory in the 1982 Dulux Tour.
He looks to be running a full Shimano AX Dura Ace Group set 

 

Firstly if you are not into some serious bike restoration
minutiae..then you might want to skip this bit.
Anyway let’s step back. The most important part of
the project was to recreate the decals as faithfully as I
could to the originals; the decals on the bikes I have
collected over the years had decals that were obviously
printed on a Gerber printer.
These very early sort of half digital and half analogue
printing machines used a cassette for very colour
you wanted printed, very time consuming!

 

Gerber colour cassette, showing a print that has been
transferred to the vinyl medium 

The great thing about these machines is that they could
print onto chrome foil and also print fairly opaquely
onto clear vinyl.The finished print also has a quite
distinctive look, which I very much wanted to
replicate. I also wanted the "Mitchell" and
"Professional" to be on clear vinyl which wraps
around the top down and top tubes respectively.
And lastly I really wanted that
really wrong green on the world champ bands. 

 

The very distinctive Gerber printed Worlds band with 'that'
green on an original Mitchell, it's a bit hard to see here,
but the Mitchell text is printed onto clear and
wrapped around the tube.

Now as it turns out I got myself an old Gerber from a print shop
outside Wellington with a lot of cassettes to do just such a job.
I was told that this machine printed some Mitchell decals,
However Kevin Filer who owner of Mitchell Cycles 1973-82
and was the driving force behind the creation of the Mitchell
racing bike, told me that he had the original decals made in
New Plymouth. Kevin also told me that the
sequential numbering (starting from 100) went to the early
300's when he sold Mitchell in 1982.
The funny thing is I have about nine Mitchell's and all bar
one are numbered between 400-700, obviously I will have
to do some more research into this, and am hoping that
the actual frame builder Mark McLean might be able to
shed some light on this when I talk to him. 

 

 

Mitchell Frame number 745 centre rear B/B shell

Anyway, luckily among the colour cassettes I did have
was the very green I was looking for.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get my Gerber
running, so I tracked down a local sign writer who still
had his (though rather unused) Geber and
commissioned him to print the decals on his machine
with my cassettes.The results I think were pretty good;
I mean they should have been, as I did supply very exact
artwork files that had taken quite a while to get right,
except the 'professional' font which I will amend when
I print my own on the next run...so here we go.

 

Just picked up from the sign writers..pretty pleased.

I also got Ishiwata 022 frame decals made...not bad
but will need a bit more work next time.

Decals covered with ap tape and cut ready to apply

The other thing I did, which I know is not period correct,

but I am sure they would have made them if they thought
about it.. Mitchell toe straps.

 

Screen inked up and ready for action

 

Toe strap on the print board and freshly printed

Nice little set of colour ways to suit various paint jobs

 

My first Mitchell (Frame No 691) restoration was this
Professional Road bike which I built up for myself as
a replacement for the Mitchell I crashed badly
a while back.

It runs a complete Japanese group set including
Dura Ace Black anodized drive train. The group I
used is probably a generation earlier than I should
have used, but hey it was black and the bike is
white...what ya gonna do?

A very unusual and seemingly quite rare Sakae SR
stem..if it's got factory drilled holes, I am there.

Top tube 'Professional' clear wrap looking good, text is
very slightly different, I will correct this at some point.

The drilled lugs picked out in a contrasting colour is a bit

of a Mitchell signature (in NZ),and not a bad starting point 

to identifing a Isiwata built Mitchell

 

Early SR Custom logo handle Bars, nice bend, and

look pretty cool as well.

Dura Ace crank set with classic Sugino B/B set

The Dura Ace front derailleur is a particularly
nicely finished component.

Mitchell Cycles ad Southern Cyclist May 1982

"as used by NZ's Leading road cyclist"

wonder who that was.......

 

..Stephen Cox on his 'sponsored' Mitchell with full Suntour Superbe

groupset circa 1981. Photo from the cover of the 1982 Dulux
Seven Day Cycle Race programme.

The only pair of black SR pedals I had were a bit worse
for wear, so did a bit of a make over...

 

..cleaning, sanding, masking and then
etch priming/top/satin clear coats....

..and you finish up with a reasonable looking pedal set.
Mitchell toe straps don't look out of place either.

 International Cycle Sport Nov 1973

 

The 'Crane' Dura Ace rear derailleur, I find the action very

direct and positive, not a bad effort for Shimano's first

high end racing derailleur.

Nice cockpit, I know a lot of people don't seem to
like the Benotto celo bar wrap, personally I
really like using it, and it cleans so easy!

 

OK, bit of a side track here...this Dulux race photo doesn't
have anything to do with Mitchell, but it does have an
interesting bike. On the left the rider is riding a Danglo
labeled bike, which I am pretty sure were frames branded
by the (then) NZ based Australian rider David Gee..
would be interesting to find out a bit more about
this, by pure chance I actually have a full decal Danglo set. 

If anyone can shed some light on this...
adrian@theflyingwheel.com.

The Shimano anodized black components seem to me, a
lot 'blacker' than most anodized gear, they have almost

a painted quality about them, or maybe that's just me?

Mitchell text on clear vinyl full tube wrap,
and silver foil printed World Champ band, they
came out pretty damn good if I may say so myself.

Andrew Whitford gets a push back into the fray by
Dulux race mechanic John Sutherland,  1982. 

Whitfords Mitchell looks to be running Campagnolo.

Seat tube decals look pretty bang on too, and even the
Ishiwata frame decal doesn't look to bad.

Dura Ace calipers with period Scott Mathauser finned
brake pads, which actually do work really well.

International Cycle Sport may 1975

After riding this for a few hundred km's, I can't fault 

the drive train at all, maybe just a wee bit clunky, but that is 

probably more of a reflection of the derailleur technology
of the period than anything else.

 

This is some of the type of racing Mitchell frames were
designed to handle, and by all accounts they fulfilled their

 role with ease.
I have heard that Stephen Cox regards his Mitchell as
one of the finest machines he raced on...

you can't ask for a better endorsement than that.

NOS Barum Kriterium tubulars ride great.

 
So there you have it, the end result of  a hell
of a lot of time/research and work and a lot of
frigging around for one reason or another, and
at the end I have (I hope) recreated a pretty
authentic example of one of New Zealand's
great racing bicycles.
I can say that it was well worth all the effort,
I have been riding this one and the Black one 

which I will do a post on next, a lot. They both
ride and handle as well as any high end 

bike I have ridden, with the difference being
that this bike has it's own unique place in
New Zealand's racing heritage which I often

like to think about when I am out on the 

road, riding..especially on the saddle of a NZ
made racing frame..Mitchell,Comet, Leader,
Bosomworth,Jones they are all just a little bit
more interesting and special to me, but then

they would be ......I am biased after all!