Rhythm Thief
Legendary Member
- Location
- Ross on Wye
This one doesn't come out often, and I don't use it for much other than pottering about the town, but this is my Humber Clubman from (I think) 1949. This was part of my late father in law's extensive collection of vintage bikes which were sold off when he died suddenly in 2021, but I was given this one as a memento, along with a nice 1980s Saracen mixte frame which I built up for my wife.
The Humber features a 4 speed Sturmer Archer hub, which (annoyingly) jumps when pushed hard in first gear. I like this bike as it harks back to the days when the keen club cyclist would use it to ride to work Monday to Friday, then whip the mudguards off for Saturday's time trial. The annual holiday could have been spent aboard this machine too, maybe touring around the Yorkshire Dales with a saddlebag. Anyway, it harks back to a simpler age when we didn't need ultra-specialised bikes for every discipline. (And yes, like most of us I do own a lot of bikes!)
Personally, I don't like the stick-on lug decorations and would have removed them by now if they weren't such a pig to remove. If I rode it regularly, or for any distance, I'd probably put proper drop bar levers on it and maybe even Weinmann centre pull brakes, which I know would be a bit out of the time period for this bike. But for the moment, I like this one as it is.
The Humber features a 4 speed Sturmer Archer hub, which (annoyingly) jumps when pushed hard in first gear. I like this bike as it harks back to the days when the keen club cyclist would use it to ride to work Monday to Friday, then whip the mudguards off for Saturday's time trial. The annual holiday could have been spent aboard this machine too, maybe touring around the Yorkshire Dales with a saddlebag. Anyway, it harks back to a simpler age when we didn't need ultra-specialised bikes for every discipline. (And yes, like most of us I do own a lot of bikes!)
Personally, I don't like the stick-on lug decorations and would have removed them by now if they weren't such a pig to remove. If I rode it regularly, or for any distance, I'd probably put proper drop bar levers on it and maybe even Weinmann centre pull brakes, which I know would be a bit out of the time period for this bike. But for the moment, I like this one as it is.
