Something I haven't seen before

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Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
.... Hello, I am in the middle of FINALLY restoring my Humber Roadster or Sports model (I am not sure how to tell the difference, and I never did get round to contacting the VCC. I will have to now), and so have been looking at Ebay for pictures and also spare parts.

Anyway, I saw the listing for a beautiful ladies' Humber Olympia from back in the day, and it refers to the wheels being black (which I knew) but with a red stripe down the middle.
Never in all the pictures I have seen have I glimpsed, or at least noticed this.

My question is, was this red stripe a common but fairly ephemeral feature of the original finish, or was it only for certain models.... Or, as I have discovered in the past, was it presumably a custom feature supplied by Humber??

Thanks:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=162239327136&globalID=EBAY-GB
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
You have to get that Olympia, its a beaut. Looks like its had little use as the rubber pedals are hardly worn.
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
Thing is, with the Humber I own, seemingly some previous idiot owner got it all stripped back and painted matte black. Short of carefully stripping it back to see if there are any original bits preserved (which I probably will do just to be safe when the time comes) this means that I can probably get it all repainted back to it's original condition, seeing as there will have been nothing destroyed by me at least.

The other thing is that, presumably the same idiot let the wheels rust away, leaving nothing but the hubs. Unless I find a pair of original wheels in good enough condition, I am seriously getting a new pair built using the existing hubs by the wheelbuilder on here, the name of whom I forget right now, sorry.

The result? I could get them painted as I bloody well like - Black with flames around the edges anyone?? :laugh:
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
Got this message from the seller:

Hello, thankyou for your kind comments about my bike. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information available, but I know that sunbeam and hercules did a similar thing on some of their models, the black band runs around the centre of the rim and is about 1/2 an inch wide including a red pinstripe either side of 1/32" (.8mm) width.
Good luck with restoring your bike.
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
Ok, 'fess up, who has bid for the Humber Olympia? :notworthy:

By the way, does anyone know of, or have any pictures of the wheel rims as they were originally described as above?

Thanks.
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
Got this message from the seller:

Hello, thankyou for your kind comments about my bike. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information available, but I know that sunbeam and hercules did a similar thing on some of their models, the black band runs around the centre of the rim and is about 1/2 an inch wide including a red pinstripe either side of 1/32" (.8mm) width.
Good luck with restoring your bike.

Thing is, looking at the pictures, there appears to be a wider red stripe than they are saying. :wacko:
 
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