Impulse buy Holdsworth

[T4tomo]

Spotted this on ebay, located in my old home town. Mulled it over with a glass of wine and I'm now it's proud owner, although will be a while before I can collect it, so my brother in law is going to baby sit it for me.

Needs a bit of work, can see a stiff link or two in the chain, and if anyone has any Shimano 600 arabesque friction shifters for sale I'll be interested, to get it back to authentic.

 

[Illaveago]

It looks nice !
I bet the wait is agony ?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

More quality vintage steel machinery being kept on the road. Nice.

 

[GeekDadZoid]

That's stunning.

Oddly enough I was checking the parts listings on my local cycle recycling place this morning and had noticed these, they have the derailleur too.

https://www.ceracycloan.co.uk/product/shimano-600ex-sl-6200-arabesque-double-gear-levers/

 

[Gunk]

I like that

 

[Cycleops]

That should clean up very nicely.

 

[midlife]

Very smart . Does that say Special on the top tube?

 

[T4tomo]

Very smart . Does that say Special on the top tube?

Mistral, I think, as that's the model. 1980 ish

 

[midlife]

Mistral, I think, as that's the model. 1980 ish

Thanks, just curious as couldn't read it on the pics. I guess you know Norman Kilgarrif Holdsworth site should have the catalogue info for the bike

 

[T4tomo]

I do now thank you and shall be scuttling there to research! I like this site😁

 

[raleighnut]

Nice

 

[T4tomo]

I slightly confused after doing a bit of research. The Shimano 600 is either a later upgrade or it was bought as a frameset (not unlikely) as can't see anywhere a Holdsworth Mistral coming out of the factory gate with Shimano, its either Campag, which make sense given the pro team, or Sun-Tour Cyclone. Anyone recognise what the bar end shifter are?

I think I'm going to need to get the frame number and work from there to age it properly.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

When I was at school I had a Holdsworth 531 Special frameset only, this was getting towards the end of the "real" head-tube badge era and pre transfers.

It was built up with the previous version of the Shimano 600 to the Arabesque you have, rear mech and chainset, with Simplex plastic front mech and gear levers.

So 600 Arabesque and headtube transfer makes perfect sense timewise.

At the risk of being overly critical by this time Holdsworth was a still a big name but in decline, the UK based pro Holdsworth and Viking teams had, or were just about to close but the brand name still had a lot of credibility and enough of a distribution chain to get the frames into small independent bike shops.

So frame only sales were very common, as they were cheaper than, in my area Dave (edit, not Jack!) Russell and Mike Mullet, bespoke frames but still had "club cred".

At this time Campag was still THE brand but expensive, Suntour the best value for money was tainted, if you were even abit of a bike snob by being on lots of mass produced Raleighs and Carlton badged Raleighs leaving Shimano as one of the few brands with chainsets and more. The 600 and 600 Arabesque were the start of the rise of Shimano and the beginning of the decline of Stronglight, Simplex and other non groupset brands

Bye

Ian

 

[raleighnut]

Yep I was just thinking was it a 'Frameset. only then built up by the owner/shop

 

[T4tomo]

Yep I was just thinking was it a 'Frameset. only then built up by the owner/shop

I think that's right.

So 600 Arabesque and headtube transfer makes perfect sense timewise

At the risk of being overly critical by this time Holdsworth was a still a big name but in decline, the UK based pro Holdsworth and Viking teams had, or were just about to close but the brand name still had a lot of credibility and enough of a distribution chain to get the frames into small independent bike shops.

Yes that makes sense. My first racer bought either late 70's early 80's from the local Whitby "toyshop" was a Viking Warlord 10 spd. Pretty cheap (although it didn't feel like it saving up my pocket money to buy it!) "junior" model with 26" wheels and regular steel, defo not 531 frame!