Hobbs of Barbican 1946

[Clydesdale Scot]

Length is just under an inch and circumference is ~100mm.

length is OK, the circumference on the GB levers is 90mm.
they are to snugly fit the GB size, not the later levers which grew in size

[Derny Driver]

Nice to meet you the other night Phillip.
Good luck with the build.

[cycles gitane]

A link to another Hobbs of Barbican at this auction in UK.
Lot no. 432 on page 54

Lots of interesting items for sale.

http://bit.ly/1yWCPv9

cycles gitane

[Clydesdale Scot]

Yes, I saw that. seems like it is very early version.

Still waiting for my wheels to be built. But the tyres (26 x 1 1/4") have arrived from England. I have also bought a NOS 18T freewheel. So that means my options are from fixed, freewheel and 3 speed derailleur. The clear shellac has arrived and has been mixed.
I will nudge the wheel builder a little harder.
Now looking for an period appropriate bell, stopwatch for the handlebar clip and grease pump.
I have identified what I need, but none are stopping the first ride.

[7VEN]

Hi Philip,
What's the OLN of this frame?
Thanks
Peter

[Clydesdale Scot]

Hi Philip,
What's the OLN of this frame?
Thanks
Peter

110mm is the spacing of the rear dropouts

[Clydesdale Scot]

[WyvernRH]

Very nice...what tyres are you going to use?

Richard

[Clydesdale Scot]

what tyres are you going to use?

when you have 26x 1 1/4" rims, you don't get a lot of choice.
Fortunately there are some being made: Raleigh tagged (Chen Shin manufactured), with wire bead to keep them on the hookless rims, from this seller
I am impressed that the brand name is very subtle, in stark contrast to just about every other modern tyre.
Kim did a very good job with the wheel build; they are remarkably true in roundness and there is no lateral movement.
The tyres are on.

[WyvernRH]

what tyres are you going to use?

when you have 26x 1 1/4" rims, you don't get a lot of choice.

Ain't that the truth!
I have a small stock of 'unnamed' 26x 1 1/4" tyres that I have acquired over the years as spares for my stable.
I'll have to follow up your links to see if I can get some more.
I believe Michelin World Tours are still made in this size but trying to find someone who stocks them is near impossible.

Richard

[singlespeedscott]

what tyres are you going to use?

when you have 26x 1 1/4" rims, you don't get a lot of choice.

Ain't that the truth!
I have a small stock of 'unnamed' 26x 1 1/4" tyres that I have acquired over the years as spares for my stable.
I'll have to follow up your links to see if I can get some more.
I believe Michelin World Tours are still made in this size but trying to find someone who stocks them is near impossible.

Richard

There is a few to be found on Ebay and you can get them from the US where they are advertised as 26 x 1 3/8 s-6. The ERD is the same 537mm as the English 26 x 1 1/4

[Clydesdale Scot]

the tyres I needed (and bought) are 26 x 1 1/4" ETRTO 37-597

[Clydesdale Scot]

an update.

the current setup is fixed and a single speed freewheel.
the VicTree bell arrived in the post yesterday. The Simplex bottle cage has had a DIY nickelplate, housing a NOS ribbed alloy bottle.

It had its first outing today to test the brake lever position. Seems comfortable enough with the Reynolds Binda handlebars. There are some well used Binda toestraps in the toeclips.
I need to make some tapered washers to get the right toe-in for the brake pads.
My reproduction Shockstops and cable bands are used in this project.

I am not confident the original saddle will survive the riding, so it might be stored for show. I have another same sized saddle frame and most of a cows worth of leather.
Open to comments on the current setup. If there are no glaring mistakes I will get the handlebars wrapped, solder then trim the brake cables ends.

[old steel Bikes]

Philip excellent build as usual

Danny

[RobertFrith]

Hard to fault Philip. Can we assume that the tyres will ultimately look a bit more tan sided? While the yellow brake cable outer is arresting it does pull the eye from the rest of the vintage goodness. Photos can be deceiving and perhaps it's less dramatic in the flesh Browsing CL readers' bike of the same period mostly have neutral cable outers, however it's safe to assume some of these have been updated. Looking forward to seeing the bars wrapped.

[Clydesdale Scot]

Robert,
I went with some yellow cloth bar tape, to try to brighten the bike up a bit as with the yellow cable outers.
If there was more colour in the frame, or the decals more prominent, I would have chosen a more subdued colour.
To have the yellow bar tape requires it to be repeated elsewhere on the bike. The yellow on the bands on the seat tube was insufficient (in my opinion).
Once the yellow bar tape goes on, I expect that it will lift the front end and the cables will not feature as prominently.
If not and I tire of it, it is easily replaceable.
The Brown Bros catalogue of 1952 has handlebar tape in red, white, green, yellow, black, light blue and dark blue. Outer cables came in black, silver, red, blue, green, yellow, green, yellow and white. The last of the Brown Bros catalogues before WW2 (1939) has handlebar tape being available in red, orange, black, white, green, light blue, dark blue, yellow and silver. Holdsworths Aids for 1939 has similar colours.
I was trying to show that there was colour in the 1940s.

The tyres will not be tan sided. The only tyres I could find are what you see; and I am fortunate that they are being made again.
You may recall, I have pinstriped one set of tyres and I don't propose to reinforce my reputation for eccentricity by painting these sidewalls.

[RobertFrith]

Penny has dropped on the tyres, I'd forgotten it was a 26'er. Look forward to seeing the bar tape on.

[Clydesdale Scot]

It seems that for Hobbs it is good to go with colour, see the Hobbs Facebook page, the red on the V-CC Marque Enthusiasts bike.

[WyvernRH]

I have noticed a marked tendency for people to assume that the 40's 50's was a down beat, staid and drab time colour-wise. From what I can gather from magazines and talking to chaps from the time (not quite that old) in the UK at least it was a time when folk wanted a bit of colour in their life and all these new technologies for making plastic, aluminium and steel vivid colours (Airlite hubs, GB brakes) became cheaply available. Bright metallic paint jobs, vivid handlebar tape and cables were often the go, especially with the more go-ahead types in the British League of Racing Cyclists. I had a mate who daily rode his Claud Butler from the mid 50's with a flam blue/silver paint job (original) and all the parts except the chainset and rims were anodized bright blue. He assured me he could have had the bike decked out all red, green or yellow if he had so desired.
Also with the tyres, white or tan gumwalls were an option, often seen as the 'sporty' choice and so featured heavily in manufacturer's advertising. However, bikes used daily or for touring often used all black tyres as they were cheaper and were still gumwalls just black. Skinwalls were another thing, lightweight, quite fragile and used mainly for racing when you were not using tubulars.
Richard

PS, Sorry got distracted there,- Nice build Philip! You could just go for taping the bottom half of the bars maybe or using the half-bar rubber slip-ons that are available again now?

[RobertFrith]

No assumptions made, my references are pretty limited though - Classic Lightweights readers' bikes and Mark Stevens flickr albums. The classic Lightweights pictures are small so admittedly it's difficult to impossible to tell what is original and what's been replaced. Mark Stevens has a large and well documented collection of English lightweights, many in original condition. Most bikes from the late 40's on these sites have black or grey outers, Stevens has Gillotts with red and green as well.
Contemporary photographic references are of course exclusively black and white and of no help at all, people who were there and can be reliably interrogated are getting thin on the ground

[Clydesdale Scot]

You could just go for taping the bottom half of the bars maybe or using the half-bar rubber slip-ons that are available again now?

Richard, any sources for the half-bar rubber slip-ons?

I have considered half taping the bars, and this was strengthened after Danny's Healing
The handlebars show a 'colouring' which suggests they were not fully taped.

[WyvernRH]

You could just go for taping the bottom half of the bars maybe or using the half-bar rubber slip-ons that are available again now?

Richard, any sources for the half-bar rubber slip-ons?

If you search for 'Track Grips' on E-Bay you get a range of types. I've used the ones from the seller Samurai61 as they have a less aggressive pattern that I like but they don't do yellow. Add Yoshida to the search and they seem to do
all the colours of the rainbow, including yellow.

This my Claud with the first mentioned fitted



Richard

[Clydesdale Scot]

with a coat of blond shellac to the lemon yellow bar tape.
I like it.
bricks are there to throw for those that don't.

cables trimmed, ends soldered. Now for the tapered washers to align the brake pads, and mount the watch clip.

[RobertFrith]

Better and better. You can put the bricks away

[WyvernRH]

Better and better. You can put the bricks away

Oh yes.. +1


Richard