Classic British Frame Builders Mapped - New Website

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Cambram

Well-Known Member
The building is still there... this may interest you:

View attachment 483265

I expect its changed quite a bit though :smile:

Yes. I did a G Earth search and found it roughly where I expected it. Changes are - the double doors were not there. It was a single domestic type at the RH edge of the present layout and there was a small window to the left of the door. Can't remember the upstairs window. As you entered into a narrow corridor the "office" was on the left. Straight ahead and down a step was the workshop area with the brazing furnace straight ahead. A couple of benches at the far end completed the room. Racks and stands for tubes were against walls. If I lived nearer I would be tempted to ask for a look around in a "Time Team" type investigation. Probably find some tube offcuts, lots of filings and rejected best French cast lugs. ^_^

Thanks for the memories everyone.
 
I'm not sure how far back you want to go but I just discovered this cycle maker ?
Thomas Millard. " The Pacer ". 38 Fore Street Trowbridge, Wiltshire 1898. They also had a shop in Frome Somerset .
They made quite a selection of cycles . Road Racer, Tandem, The Popular Pacer, Tricycle, Ladies Popular Pacer, Pacer Roadster, Path Racer.
They later moved to Guernsey.
 

RMFrance

Well-Known Member
I love Ephgrave bikes. Years ago the guy who got me into cycling had one - a metallic grey with amazingly intricate lugwork - and I was so jealous! I was thinking earlier that if the bikes in our club were still around today they would be worth a small fortune!

My mate John had one of these:

View attachment 460570

... but for some reason his didn't have the 'e' at the end of 'Speciale'. I wonder if they produced some for the British market perhaps?
Here's John's bike... notice the name on the downtube is in a slightly different typeface too (I don't think he had it resprayed).

View attachment 460572
Helyett was a major player in French competitive cycling events, and green is the classic colour. Later the company was purchased by Gitane, who used the brand for some of its otherwise mid-range models. I have one of these - look for the Gitane emblem on the fork crowns.
 

Kempstonian

Has the memory of a goldfish
Location
Bedford
Helyett was a major player in French competitive cycling events, and green is the classic colour. Later the company was purchased by Gitane, who used the brand for some of its otherwise mid-range models. I have one of these - look for the Gitane emblem on the fork crowns.
John's Helyett was green, I remember. The pic I took was in about 1964, so I would think it was before Gitane bought the company. I got the colour pic from the internet.
 

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
Ron Cooper built for many other builders, as well as his own rather fine frames. He claimed to be the only person who still knew the correct method for making a curly Hetchins-style stay.
 

AlexBacon

New Member
Hello

Can anyone help me with details of this bike @ all please ?

I believe it is a Dave Davey 531 built in 1963

Would this be correct ?

Im not to sure where to look for the frame number !

Any help would be much appreciated indeed.

Alex
 

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Hanlon

Active Member
Very good
Excellent work - fascinating viewing. Not sure if anyone has mentioned Vic Edwards. Think he built for Condor at one time but I met him in the early 80s when he operated out of his home workshop in Ilford (or Romford?) His frames were branded Rondinella and they were very nice too. He did a very neat repair on the rear triangle of my Pat Hanlon after I crashed it in a road race in Hertfordshire
 

avecReynolds531

Veteran
Location
Small Island
Excellent work - fascinating viewing. Not sure if anyone has mentioned Vic Edwards. Think he built for Condor at one time but I met him in the early 80s when he operated out of his home workshop in Ilford (or Romford?) His frames were branded Rondinella and they were very nice too. He did a very neat repair on the rear triangle of my Pat Hanlon after I crashed it in a road race in Hertfordshire
I nearly bought a Vic Edwards frame once, but was sold too quickly. It was really beautiful. There's a page at Classic Lightweights under his own name and for the Rondinella frames:
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/builders/edwards-pu-builders.html
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/builders/rondinella.html
 
In 1951 I started an apprenticeship in Luton. I was in digs, aged 16, and a couple of streets away I found AJ (Pop) Hodge Cycles operating out of an end of terrace converted house. My club mates in north Cambridgeshire all had Claud Butler or Holdsworth frames but I found that a Hodge frame would be a bit cheaper. I had a chat with delightful old Pop and found that he was keen to involve young customers, like myself, in the various stages of frame building. So decisions needed... Wheel size (27" was replacing 26" diameter), track or road - this determined bottom bracket height, seat tube angle and height, top tube length, head angle, fork rake, type of tubing (531 double taper of course), track ends or drop out, do you need mudguard and deraillier fixings, light brackets , type of lugs (pressed steel or best French cast lugs). Then chromium plated ends, colour choice (any colour), contrasting panels. Finished frames were sent out for plating and painting somewhere in London. Having worked through all this and wishing that I had ordered a Claud Butler or Holdsworth like my country dwelling clubmates there was another challenge. Pop, who was 74 at this time only worked in the evening along with two other men who I seem to remember were toolmakers at SKF bearings during the day. So I was called upon to come in the evening and the first task was to file the best French lugs to give a nice low stress-raising joint. I realised that I was to be given a bit of engineering training as well as getting a frame. Then cutting some of the tubes to length and putting everything together in the brazing jig to suit the size and angles specified. Done any brazing?, he asked. At this time I hadn't so the art of brazing was explained and I had a go on some spare steel. Fortunately the regular guys did the proper brazing and a few days later the frame was sent for plating and painting. After a week or so I went to collect the frame and it looked superb. Pop proudly showed the decals. A J Hodge Cycles on the head tube and down tube, Reynolds 531 at the top of seat tube, and another little decal saying World Champion 19?? . He explained that his frame was the only UK cycle to have this distinction. Sadly I can't remember the rider or the event. Pop was a pipe smoker and used Swann Vestas matches in regular relights. He showed me that the fancy border of his championship decal came from back of the Swan Vestas matchbox.

In his little office there was a sepia coloured framed photo on the wall showing a handful of cyclists on Pennyfarthings starting on a race. He pointed out that one of them was him in earlier days and that he had won the race.

Website View attachment 481975 shows a picture of Pop at about the same time that I bought my frame(s) from him. It captures him completely as I remember him.

Later I bought another road frame from Pop and ordered and collected another frame for a clubmate in the next couple of years.

I only saw him down-cast once when I called in. There was a cycle with bent front wheel and frame (yellow, I seem to remember) with some dried blood still on it. A promising young rider (Luton Wheelers, perhaps) had crashed into a stationary vehicle on an evening 10 TT and unfortunately had died. Pop said he couldn't bring himself to dismantle the cycle.

My photo, scanned from an early colour slide taken in 1955 shows my first Hodge frame.
View attachment 481976
Good memories!

Oh, I think the total cost of the frame was about £12 - 10 shillings.


Hi there
Pop Hodge was my great x2 uncle.

Here is a piece about him from my dad

My great great uncle. Dads great uncle on his dad's side

1938 A. J. HODGE TANDEM
Albert J. (Pop) Hodge (b.1877; d.1966) manufactured ‘Holly’ racingcycles and tandems from 1905. He had shops in Wood Green and Tottenham, London, where he was based until 1924. From 1933 to 1966 he was based in Luton where he was a very popular cycle builder.
Hodge is said to have inspired the likes of Maurice Selbach and Claud Butler with ideas such as tapered stays, steeper frame angles, wing nuts and fully brazed seat clusters.

In the 1920s and 1930s his cycles were used by many North London clubmen, such as Leon Meredith, with considerable success in time trials and road records. During this period he also had close connections with the phonograph and gramophone industry. Tandems were hugely popular in the 1930s as a means for couples to get out and enjoy cycling
and the countryside before motor cars became affordable.

THE COLLECTION’S EXHIBIT
It is rare to find a 1930s tandem in such good condition. This machine was originally painted white but was fully refurbished by Hodge in 1953 and has been in the same ownership ever since.

The Resilion front brake is a 1930s original while the GB Hiduminium rear brake is a 1950s replacement. It seems as if the Simplex derailleur was also fitted in the refurbishment to replace an earlier Simplex model, no doubt to upgrade from three to four gears.
When donated this tandem was in such good condition that it was ready to ride and only needed minor adjustment.
AJ hodge was my great uncle x2. His SISTER Sarah my great grandmother. He's quite a celebrity in Luton, at least was. My dad said that he was a lovely man, very well thought of.
 

Paul_Smith SRCC

www.plsmith.co.uk
Location
Surrey UK
Cliff was my colleague, next door neighbour and friend, I spent many enjoyable hours in his company both on and off the bike. Watching him work was wonderful, a true craftsmen, even watching him use a hammer was therapeutic.

He had a gullibility and sense of humour that endeared him to many; me especially. I recall one time he had a poorly foot and he read somewhere that a farmer once had lame cows, but he relocated them to a new field with a stream running along the side and the cows would drink this water, after a few days mysteriously they were no longer lame and the famer thought the water contributed to this phenomenon and started to bottle it an try to sell some! Cliffy being Cliffy bought bottles and bottles of it, but surprise surprise it didn't work and sure enough they remained piled up on the corner of in his garage/worksop collecting dust. I would often shoot the breeze for hours on end in there as he tinkered with another frame and one day I mentioned that this pile of bottles looked bigger, "Yes they didn't work of course Paulie boy;...... so I thought I had better buy some more :tongue:"

Another example of his quick humour was on a scorching hot day I bumped into him outside our flats in the communal garden and could see he was grumpy and he confessed that not only was it to hot but he couldn't get his hair cut which made him feel even hotter! I clip my own hair as I am pretty much bald, so I volunteered to have a go at cutting his in the communal garden; much to my surprise he agreed! I bought a stool from my kitchen outside, to give him an old fashioned barber experience I placed another chair next to it with a few magazines of the variety that were often sold in old fashioned barbers back in the days when I was a lad, and of course a box of condoms; Cliffy didn't spot the latter. We were quite the attraction as naturally in spite of my best efforts I was totally destroying his hair with each pass of the clippers then trying to rescue it by going shorter and shorter! Near completion our neighbour walked past chuckling as she could see the horror of what I was doing to his hair, her chuckles turned to laughter when she spotted the condoms which turned to hysterics when she screamed "they are sooooo out of date"; quick as a flash Cliffy came back with "It's OK Annie; I only know out of date women":laugh:

I'm sure many of us have wondered how we will end our days and I dare say said to ourselves "I don't want to go like that..." (fill in the end that we dread as appropriate). I know Cliffy did; he actually died on his bike on a club run, one second he was cycling and the next to use an expression of his "biff boff I'm off"; a fitting way to go and one many of us would choose over "sitting in a care home hitting my Jelly with a spoon"; that being another one of his sayings!

I miss him terribly; a class human being on every level ❤ :notworthy:

556018
 
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