I thought you may be interested in my latest project, I found this in a French junk shop recently for €10. It’s an Elvish child’s road bike with proper grown up components but it’s tiny, it has 550 wheels about 22”. It dates from the late 1970’s
Elvish were created in 1883 and were made in Southampton. The factory was destroyed durning the First World War and a Frenchman bought the rights to the name and had bikes made in Bordeaux. They were popular with local racers. They were also made for a long time in Pau, in South-West France near the Pyrenees.
First challenge was getting it home in our Golf which was already rammed with four of us, two bikes on the roof and a boot full of luggage. I managed to cable tie it to the bike rack between to two bikes and got it home from the Dordogne to Oxford without incident.
Once home, on closer inspection it’s not bad, it all works, the drive train is rusty but restorable, the tyres are scrap and unobtainable but I got lucky and found a new old stock set on eBay, I also sourced a saddle stem and a nice 1970’s Peugeot saddle which is a little bit too big but fine for now and it was £6!
The plan is to just carefully refresh it, give it service and keep it, it’s just too nice to sell, plus I’ve never seen another this small!
I’ve now fitted the seat stem and saddle, and today I cleaned the front wheel with wire wool and Autosol and fitted the new tyre (the old one was a pig to remove as it was welded to the rim) I also fitted some vintage style rim tape to the handle bars which I know should really be the last job but I couldn’t help myself!
Next jobs are the rear wheel and tyre, clean the chain set, service the drive train and brakes, true the wheels, and strip the wheel bearings. I’ve not set a target so I’m just doing bits when I can fit it in. Hope you enjoy the progress!
Elvish were created in 1883 and were made in Southampton. The factory was destroyed durning the First World War and a Frenchman bought the rights to the name and had bikes made in Bordeaux. They were popular with local racers. They were also made for a long time in Pau, in South-West France near the Pyrenees.
First challenge was getting it home in our Golf which was already rammed with four of us, two bikes on the roof and a boot full of luggage. I managed to cable tie it to the bike rack between to two bikes and got it home from the Dordogne to Oxford without incident.
Once home, on closer inspection it’s not bad, it all works, the drive train is rusty but restorable, the tyres are scrap and unobtainable but I got lucky and found a new old stock set on eBay, I also sourced a saddle stem and a nice 1970’s Peugeot saddle which is a little bit too big but fine for now and it was £6!
The plan is to just carefully refresh it, give it service and keep it, it’s just too nice to sell, plus I’ve never seen another this small!
I’ve now fitted the seat stem and saddle, and today I cleaned the front wheel with wire wool and Autosol and fitted the new tyre (the old one was a pig to remove as it was welded to the rim) I also fitted some vintage style rim tape to the handle bars which I know should really be the last job but I couldn’t help myself!
Next jobs are the rear wheel and tyre, clean the chain set, service the drive train and brakes, true the wheels, and strip the wheel bearings. I’ve not set a target so I’m just doing bits when I can fit it in. Hope you enjoy the progress!