I have recently discovered that the inside diameter of steering tubes is not completely standard. They are generally about 22 mm, but there seems to be typically a variation of about 0.5mm. This may not sound much, but it can cause the handlebar stem to be a poor fit in the steering tube.
I believe this was the cause of a frightening failure I had last year when riding my old Fletcher which had a headclip similar to this Holdsworth (and most frames of the period). The top of the steering tube broke off at the point where there is a lateral slot (put there to aid the clamping effect of the headclip). This meant I was suddenly riding 'no hands', but as it happened I was going uphill fairly slowly and managed stop stop without falling off. This was an incredibly lucky escape.
Apparently this failure was not unheard of back in the day when this system was the norm. I think in my case the stem was too small for the tube and this put undue stress on the area around that horizontal slot. I should say I had ridden the machine for many thousands of miles without trouble, but this type of failure is potentially so dangerous we should all be aware of the problem.
The stem shown in the picture may be a perfect fit, and if the expander bolt is retained it would make a breakage of this type more manageable. However I suspect that the basic problem of the fit is caused by the fact that English frames made at this time would have been made entirely to imperial measure, whereas almost all the stems you find now are metric.
Incidentally, rechroming the stem will almost certainly reduce its diameter.
The frame looks very attractive and I would expect it to ride well - just be careful with it!
** A Word of Warning**
I have recently discovered that the inside diameter of steering tubes is not completely standard. They are generally about 22 mm, but there seems to be typically a variation of about 0.5mm. This may not sound much, but it can cause the handlebar stem to be a poor fit in the steering tube.
I believe this was the cause of a frightening failure I had last year when riding my old Fletcher which had a headclip similar to this Holdsworth (and most frames of the period). The top of the steering tube broke off at the point where there is a lateral slot (put there to aid the clamping effect of the headclip). This meant I was suddenly riding 'no hands', but as it happened I was going uphill fairly slowly and managed stop stop without falling off. This was an incredibly lucky escape.
Apparently this failure was not unheard of back in the day when this system was the norm. I think in my case the stem was too small for the tube and this put undue stress on the area around that horizontal slot. I should say I had ridden the machine for many thousands of miles without trouble, but this type of failure is potentially so dangerous we should all be aware of the problem.
The stem shown in the picture may be a perfect fit, and if the expander bolt is retained it would make a breakage of this type more manageable. However I suspect that the basic problem of the fit is caused by the fact that English frames made at this time would have been made entirely to imperial measure, whereas almost all the stems you find now are metric.
Incidentally, rechroming the stem will almost certainly reduce its diameter.
The frame looks very attractive and I would expect it to ride well - just be careful with it!