CBC bicycles Adelaide. Early 70s "Custom Built 10".

[uart]

Does anyone know anything about "Custom Built Cycles" (CBC) of Adelaide?

This one is believed to be from the early 70's (bought second hand in about 1976). It belongs to a friend, and I'm just about to give it a basic restore to get it functional. (The wheels in the photos are just stunt doubles while I test what tyres sizes will fit. The actual wheels are not in great condition and need a bit of work).

The frame (tubing) doesn't seem to be anything special. TBH it doesn't look dissimilar to entry level Apollos of the era. The components however (Durace and 600ex would have been pretty decent in their day.

[10speedsemiracer]

I have seen a few others in my Gumtree/eBay travels, and from memory were the sort of thing that got stocked in sports stores like the Sportsworld and GX-Sports sort of thing. A small step up from K-Mart, but not much. Also from memory these were mainly re-decaled low-end Japanese trade frames with components one step up from entry-level. Have seen a couple with SunTour and centre-pulls.

Nothing special

[Clydesdale Scot]

have a read of this post I wrote

[10speedsemiracer]

have a read of this post I wrote

Yep that would make a lot of sense..

Oddly enough I just picked up a Leisure Cycles Aus frame in Tange 900 which has been de-stickered, probably a Ricardo....trying to decide what to do with it.

[uart]

have a read of this post I wrote

Thanks CS, that was an interesting read. So this probably is an Aussie made frame from the early 70s, made in an Adelaide factory that was later taken over by Riccardo. Also very interesting to learn how Repco eventually bought them out for the *sole* reason of shutting down the last Australian bicycle manufacturer - just so they could get tariffs dropped on their imports. That was pretty underhanded.

[uart]

I have seen a few others in my Gumtree/eBay travels, and from memory were the sort of thing that got stocked in sports stores like the Sportsworld and GX-Sports sort of thing. A small step up from K-Mart, but not much.

Yes this frame is nothing special, with fairly modest looking tubing (don't know what it is, but definitely not Ishiwata or Reynolds or Columbus or the like). However this is a well made frame with fairly nice lug work, and has survived roughly 50 years in reasonably good condition.

I think that you may be over estimating the quality of K-Mart bikes of that era. As someone who owned a k-mart 10 speed "Roadmaster" in the very late 70s - early 80s, I can tell you for certain that even the most entry level of the decent brand bikes like Apollo were head and shoulder above those old k-mart things. I stopped using my Roadmaster in the early 80s and within about 5 years it had basically turned itself back into iron ore under the house. The tubing was really just "landfill grade".

I've got an old 1979 Kuwahara (Japanese) "Apollo I" frame here that I might eventually get around to building up, and as modest and lowly as it is, I still couldn't even compare my old Roadmaster piece of garbage to it.

[10speedsemiracer]

I have seen a few others in my Gumtree/eBay travels, and from memory were the sort of thing that got stocked in sports stores like the Sportsworld and GX-Sports sort of thing. A small step up from K-Mart, but not much.

Yes this frame is nothing special, with fairly modest looking tubing (don't know what it is, but definitely not Ishiwata or Reynolds or Columbus or the like). However this is a well made frame with fairly nice lug work, and has survived roughly 50 years in reasonably good condition.

I think that you may be over estimating the quality of K-Mart bikes of that era. As someone who owned a k-mart 10 speed "Roadmaster" in the very late 70s - early 80s, I can tell you for certain that even the most entry level of the decent brand bikes like Apollo were head and shoulder above those old k-mart things. I stopped using my Roadmaster in the early 80s and within about 5 years it had basically turned itself back into iron ore under the house. The tubing was really just "landfill grade".

I've got an old 1979 Kuwahara (Japanese) "Apollo I" frame here that I might eventually get around to building up, and as modest and lowly as it is, I still couldn't even compare my old Roadmaster piece of garbage to it.

Agreed, but these were the sort of bike you might find in the 1970s Indie equivalent of today's Rebel stores, and maybe comparing to Apollo/Shogun/Repco is probably a bit unfair to the gaspipe CBC..

[uart]

The bike as it stands, roughly 56 cm square (C-C), is about 10.7 to 10.8 kg. This includes everything shown except for tyres, tubes, racks and mud guards, which are currently removed. I'm guessing it would come up to around 12 kg ready ride.

I gthink that's in line with the "nothing too special but also nothing too nasty" theory.

Seat tube diameter is bang on 25.0 which is interesting. The only other bike I currently have with that diameter is an old Peugeot Mont Blanc with their "Mangalloy" tubing.

[uart]

Update.

I've just got this thing fully pulled down, and as expected the frame is far from anything special.

Comes in about 3.8 kg for the bare frame and forks - Id guess "hi-ten" at best.

[bellaone]

Hi all, I've just stumbled across your forum and this article on CBC Bicycles whilst researching my own queries relating to another bicycle.

For what it's worth, I have a bit of information on this company and range of bikes, albeit around 40 years ago when I was working in our family bike shop at Dee Why Northern Beaches NSW.
We were selling this brand in the late 70s/early 80s but I don't remember this model coming with alloy components as displayed! they were more a family bike range with affordability in mind, also around this stage they were mainly assembled by The Royal Blind Society.

Early 70s garden variety bikes all had steel cotter pin cranks, where as this bike pictured has alloy cotterless cranks which became more prominent around the very late 70s, probably this bike has had upgraded running gear added over the years? I doubt they would have had down tube Dura Ace shifters, 600ex brakes, alloy wheels and cranks on such a model.

Just another opinion though, Cheers Mark

[WyvernRH]

also around this stage they were mainly assembled by The Royal Blind Society.

That's interesting, IIRC the Blind Society used to assemble and market a range of bicycles under the 'Lighthouse' brand. Nearly bought a second hand one when we came over to Oz. Did they move on to assembling for CBC or was this done as well as their own marque?



Richard

[Tanami13]

Hi,
Just found this thread. I have a CBC 'Built for Two' tandem bike. I bought it in Canberra in the early 90 for my wife and I to ride around Canberra. It came with a sturmey archer gear hub which I converted to a derailleur system and mountain bike rims. Since moving to the Blue Mountains my son and I have taken it on fire trails and done the Woodford to Glenbrook run. Recently, I have dragged it out of the shed for a bit a refurbishment and clean up.
This tandem is a little unusual as the rear seat is quite a bit lower than the forward seat. While it is good ,height wise, for my wife, see looks at the centre of my back. Unfortunately I can't get her into the front seat so she ends up looking to the side. Anyway we continue to use it on occasion and look forward to returning to Canberra to ride the bike paths again.

Cheers

[Clydesdale Scot]

get a dashcam, mount that to your handlebars. Then strap a monitor to your back, or if you wanted to go hi-tech, get her some virtual reality glasses and stream the vision to the glasses.

[WyvernRH]

This tandem is a little unusual as the rear seat is quite a bit lower than the forward seat. While it is good ,height wise, for my wife, see looks at the centre of my back. Unfortunately I can't get her into the front seat so she ends up looking to the side. Anyway we continue to use it on occasion and look forward to returning to Canberra to ride the bike paths again.

Cheers

This is not uncommon on tandems. In the old days the stoker was brought up close to shorten the frame and make it stiffer, even on touring tandems. Racing tandems went to even more extremes. You had to be really good friends on some track tandems I have seen!
Here's an 1950's-60s French touring tandem with a bit of space for the stoker but all the other weird french tandem stuff like the drive coming from the front chainset and an un-braced frame.


From the 1980's onward demand from tourist riders and improved frame design lead to longer frames and more room (and vision) in the rear 'cockpit'. Try out some the modern stuff that is for hire these days, the stoker can be so far away that inter-bike communication in traffic becomes a problem!

Richard

[shanepatrick]

Custom Built 10. Picked up hard rubbish. Nothing special having some fun with it. Nice lug work. Iv'e replaced the forks with spare forks I had laying around. A previous own presumably John Forwood must of had problem with original front wheel. The front wheel on the bike when I grabbed it was a 1940's BSA wheel which has longer axle and to make it fit the forks were bent wider irreversible damaging the forks.

[uart]

Custom Built 10. Picked up hard rubbish. Nothing special having some fun with it. Nice lug work.

Interesting Shane. It looks similar to the one I had, but the lug work on yours looks a bit more intricate.