RVL's Ugly Ducklings

Wire brush again? Autosol?

Stalled for a range of reasons.
writing business plan, going on me holidays, and last but very much not least, bloody headset stacks so high I've no space for the locking nut...
A couple of options to be explored...
1) somewhere in the bomb-site of my shed there's an old shimano 600 h/s - lowest ever stack height 1" threaded...
2) swapsie the original principia aluminium forks back from my bro.

I've got another CP on the go whilst this one emerges...
My mate Dave used to race CX back in the 70's /80's
He had a TT biek built for him by Colin Cape in Swindon and some time later got it converted for cantis by Pearson who took the opportunity to livery it right up.
Too small for me and too tight for modern CX tyres so it's been sat in my shed waiting till my youngest daughter will fit it.
It's a bit of a stunner - lovely feathered lugs, fastback stays, 531c, super light, Sugino BB, Mafac cantis and a early 600 headset (not the low-stack one).

How did you get the shine back man? Looking to do similar to a bike I have...

Anyway - my nephew in Kenya is a bit of a speedy mtb-er who's been saving his pennies for a road bike, they were visiting on Saturday so I let him loose in the shed of horrors and he unearthed the Cape - It made sense to give it to him and we found some Campag Avanti 8speed wheels with Omega V clincher rims down the back of the shed too.
The plan is to clean up the frame and do a 1x8 gravel-ish road bike suitable for African roads in time for his next visit (Christmas or summer hols).

mostly just fine emery cloth and polish, but I do have a secret weapon
A polishing mop on a bench grinder is dead useful for bringing scratched and dull components up to mirror finish

Looks a bit like this

Ahh brilliant, I thought it must be something like that. Will try the emery cloth for now before the upgrade to the power tools ;)

Thought I might resurrect this thread with a new project.

Percy Stallard zakopane 531
19" frame from 1951
The build will be for one of my daughters, it won't be period correct at all but it'll hopefully be pretty.

I don't think the paint is salvageable... My girls don't really go for the ratbiek look.

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It's s double butted 27.2mm seattube and weighs in at a svelte 1700g

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Full frame shot...
Frame# SZ4162. Early 50's I think.
I was given the frame ages ago (2013) by an eBay seller who'd sold me some wheels and was going to bin the frame.

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Found some forks in the shed with suitably short steerer... Pantographed by Harry Hall.
I used a wire brush on a bench grinder to strip the paint this evening, apart from some deep pitting on the crown they came up OK

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Frame came with period correct BB & H/S.
Once the pink paint was rubbed off these came up ok

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Brampton alatet

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Looks like the original finish was flamboyant green

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All right, love this thread and happy to see it resurrected.

+1

@Regal & @russmeyer - Cheers gents, nice to be bike faffing again.
I'm a bit less busy right now as I'm working my notice so I thought I'd put my lunchtimes to good use before the new-job-onslaught...

Hillary Stone's sold a couple of these frames over the years, and there's one (frame# SZ80576) on the readers bikes page of classic lightweights It's a very nicely finished frame- I'm quite impressed and once I've cleared the crappy pink paint off I'll get some lug-shots

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Rather like that dusty pink metallic colour.

It is quite nice, think I'll probably play safe and go with silver though!

Understandable. :)

Found one in the original green flamboyant on retrobike. There's some very poncy brushwork going on here... There'll be none of that nonsense on mine, not even lug lining!

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A rather nice example was offered on ebay in 2017 for a rather hopeful $2000. Again quite fancy paintwork and a decent specification...

The listing gave some history

Top of the range was the Zacopane road race model (featured here) introduced in late 1949 and named after Geoff Clarke’s Katowice – Zacopane stage win in the 1949 Tour of Poland on a Stallard machine. This bicycle featured 72/71.5 frame angles and 10 speed Simplex gearing, probably the first catalogued British machine to do so. Available direct from Percy Stallard, to special order and from limited stock, or through a network of approved dealers as a frameset or complete cycle.

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Heres my Zakopane in a very plain original silver:

I will be starting a project thread soon.