Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hello,

First time poster and recent retro bike enthusiast with lots of questions.

I recently found thIs Healing in Adelaide and have dated it as a 1957 as per Williams crank. Serial number appears to be 12747. Kind of a cool looking bike but rims/wheels and seat are missing though.
Anyone familiar with this bike?
Anyone know why the handle bar grip twists? Was it a brake or gear - or non original?
Are the rims easily sourced and what size would they be?

Cheers

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I have since discovered that this Healing takes 590mm wheels and 26 x 1 3/8 tyres.

Ive checked this forum and on line and cant seem to find a similar type Healing.

Anyone know anything about them?

Any comments or suggestions on restoring a 56 year old bike? Leave it as is and just replace tyres/saddle for that original look OR is it worthy of a full restoration?

thanks

The twist grip is for a 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub, I haven't actually seen one of those in the flesh yet so they're not all that common.

The headbadge looks the same as the one on my 1954 model, but it takes an english headset, not the standard type yours has.

It's unusual to see a mens bike made for 26 x 1-3/8" wheels, usually they were 28 x 1-3/8" like mine is, from what I've seen they were far more common on ladies bikes.







As for how to go about restoring/using it, that's just down to your preference I think. If it was mine, i would strip it back and give it a new paintjob and decals.

Hi Idcycles,

Good to know there are some Healing enthusiasts out there - thanks for the response.

I now plan to restore it and paint it in original matt black and white, fit decals, whitewall tyres and clean up the chrome.

Are there any preferred suppliers for these vintage bikes? I need a saddle....I quite like the one you have!

I got the decals from cyclomondo, his decals are universally regarded as the best you can get.

The saddle is a new Brooks B17, I got it from a shop in the UK because it was the cheapest source I could find, about $115 i think, but it is very very nice. There are cheaper options available for leather saddles, but the only ones I've seen that are really significantly cheaper are made in India and probably wouldn't last anywhere near as long as a Brooks.

Moruya Bicycles is an Australian source of 26 x 1-3/8" tyres (cheap too), and there's a bike shop in the UK (i forget the name but they list stuff on ebay) that sells new 590mm chrome westwood rims.

Thanks, Ill source the decals from him on ebay and keep an eye out for a nice Brooks.

Meanwhile,....Ive have added some old parts to get it looking like bike for now

ldrcycles wrote:
It's unusual to see a mens bike made for 26 x 1-3/8" wheels, usually they were 28 x 1-3/8" like mine is, from what I've seen they were far more common on ladies bikes.

Just stumbled across this thread while searching for some info and noticed this, since then I've learnt that 26 x 1-3/8" was actually quite common on men's bikes for a while, especially on club bikes rather than the commute oriented roadsters in this thread.