1950's Harry Hall fixed speed tourer.

[Cavalol]

My latest chariot is this:

Apparantly a 1950's Harry Hall. The story behind it is that the original owner had it made to order and bought it for nine months wages! They used it for regular trips from Manchester to the Yorkshire coast and it was fitted with the saddle bag hopefully shown in the pictures.
Now, it's a bit of a mystery as I was told the bike was either late 1940s or early 1950s, but according to Harry Hall Cycles website they started trading about 1955 and this bike was (I'm told) built in their shop in a cellar in Manchester opposite the chathedral.

It's in need of restoration as can be seen but I'm undecided whether to try and make it as 'immaculate' as possible or just do the very basics to get it rideable as I love the patina and look it currently has. It's been hand painted a sort of powder blue, underneath is possibly silver but I like the current colour.
If anyone has any pictures of a similar vintage Harry Hall I'd be really grateful to see them as one thing I would like to do is get the correct decals made up for it. An internet auction site does show a couple but I'm not sure of the exact type they should be, again any information on any Harry Hall bikes of this era would be gratefully received, thanks in advance.

 

[Drago]

Lovely bike. If someone's already hand painted it if be inclined tovgovfor a full resto.

 

[biggs682]

must admit if it had been nearer to me i would have sneaked a bid on myself

looks great and well done

 

[Scilly Suffolk]

What a great buy: lovely and something a bit different!

Have you tried H. Lloyd for decals?

Ordinarily with a bike of that age I'd say "it's only original once" and prefer to see it unrestored; however it isn't (original) so that leaves your options open.

If you're undecided why not get it roadworthy and put some miles in while you decide: maybe the bike will "speak" to you (spooky)...

 

[biggs682]

scilly could not agree more re comments above

 

[Edwards80]

Looks like an ace project. As above, unless it's the original paint job on top then a full restore would be ace. I took on a similar project recently with a view to just getting it road worthy. Ended up doing a full restore rebuild job. As Scilly said, once you start it will start willing you in the right direction

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Rob3rt]

Pop into Harry Hall's and ask them about it, maybe they don't have the staff from that era any more, but they probably have some sort of historical reference or some old photo's etc. The staff are active online too if you don't have time to go over to the shop, both Vinny and Craignasty post on LFGSS occasionally.

 

[Cavalol]

Many thanks, folks. Not yet started on it as countless other bikes seem to jump the queue, sadly they're all (relatively) modern.
The idea of riding it and seeing how I feel is a cracker, the tyres don't look too clever and the rear wheel has a hole in it but, fingers crossed, some clever use of fibreglass (don't worry, short term only!) should mean it can be used for short journeys at least to see what it rides like if I can fix the punctured/flat tubes..

Excuse my ignorance but what is LFGSS please?

 

[HovR]

Excuse my ignorance but what is LFGSS please?

London fixed gear & single speed forums!

http://www.lfgss.com/

 

[Cavalol]

Many thanks, will have a look in there shortly.

Well, today I finally got off my not inconsiderable ar*e and got the HH roadworthy-ish. I recently bought an old, single speed Triumph ladies cycle which had reasonable wheels and tyres.
Swapped them over onto the HH today, pumped them up and job was a good 'un! A couple of really short test rides followed by one mile at a decent speed and, so far, all seems well.
Tomorrow's weather/tonight's (do I need the apostrophes there?] ale not withstanding I aim to give it a 15 mile or so workout tomorrow, the plan being to head up for a little car museum in the rolling Cheshire countryside and maybe go all 'old school' and take a picnic, just for a laugh.

 

[palinurus]

If you're undecided why not get it roadworthy and put some miles in while you decide: maybe the bike will "speak" to you (spooky)...

Woo- perhaps it'll be like in Billy's boots and the bike will impart the rider with special cycling abilities.

 

[palinurus]

The story behind it is that the original owner had it made to order and bought it for nine months wages!

That's quite something. The UK median wage is about £20,000 (it's higher if you take only full-time employees I think but let's go for the lower value), so nine months wages is 15,000 before tax etc.

I bought a reasonable fixed gear bike a few years back for about £400. If I had a custom built job then maybe £2000.

 

[ayceejay]

I think there is something amiss with those figures. In 1950 the bloke was lucky if he was earning 2000 a year was probably living at home with his mum and dad and had probably just finished his National Service.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

definitely. my 1951 claud butler was top notch racing kit in its day (the bike in the op looks more workmanlike) and would have cost the equivalent of a month's salary. more likely is that it took nine months to save for the original price of the bike.

 

[Cavalol]

Oh yes, it's quite probably a bit fanciful. The bloke I got it off was a nice enough old fella but probably got it wrong. he lived over the road from the original owner's husband who gave him the bike a while back apparently. It could well have been nine weeks wages (quite a difference from nine months of course!) so to be taken with a pinch of salt!
Anyhow the sun is out, I have a killer hangover to work off and a camera with fully charged batteries!