A.S. Gillott owners & appreciation club

You're welcome.

Another

Seeing this thread appear again has reminded me to post these pictures

This is now my main fixed wheel bike. It's a Gillott 'Atlantique' frame with an eclectic kit of parts.

I believe the frame dates from 1950 - the number would make this more certain but it was probably on the rear fork ends which have been changed. If I ever renew the headset I may find a number on the fork steerer (which I think is original).

I couldn't say what the frame was originally intended for, but it was modified in the 1980's and was a clubmate's training bike - hence all the brazed on cable guides, Campag lever bosses and fork ends. I guess it must originally have had 26" wheels, which is why it looks now as though it was intended for 700's (as I have mentioned many times elsewhere). You will notice that the Weinmann 500 calipers have the brake blocks just about in the middle of the slots.

For me, this is not collector's museum piece -it's a normal working bike, and for this reason I don't feel obliged to try to keep to original equipment. Someone may wish to do that in the future!

It certainly rides very well - but most bikes would feel good with those wheels - they're 28 spoke Airlites with light tyres. It makes me feel 20 years younger than I do on my Sunbeam.

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Another pic.

I hope you can see that the Top tube is oversize, which was a feature of these frames. I expect we're all aware that the lugless fillet brazed construction is said to have arisen from the post war shortage of lugs.

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Front end, showing fork crown and position of brake blocks.

I stove enamelled this frame in the 1980's (long before I owned it). I know it's one of mine because I recognise the colour - RAL5000- 7-084 blue. It was a colour I used for instrument panels for one of my major customers.

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Very nice, I haven't seen many lugged Gillotts, there quite rare and a bonus to get a vintage frame not built for 27 11/4.
Is yours the "Atlantic" model?

Another Gillott

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One more pic. I'll post more on this shortly.

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This large blue Gillott (above) isn't mine, but it's my younger son's hack bike - naturally I found it for him and I'm responsible for maintenance.

It's a fairly standard road frame dating from about 1960, but the previous ownership does have some interest.

It was built for Dave Stalker (Chequers RC, Feltham RC and Pedal Club) Dave is by far the classiest thing that has ever been connected with Feltham in any way. In his day he was a top class competitor with many road race and tt victories to his credit, but he was also a highly efficient adminstrator for the sport. He is still around, but now lives in Majorca.

I don't know how long this frame served as his main road bike, but it ended up as his ride to work hack, which involved about two hundred miles most weeks, so this must be a very high mileage frame . I've run out of time tonight, but there is an interesting connection between this frame and Ron Brown,the legendary one armed hard man, so I will continue this story tomorrow.

That's a lovely frame, and that stem looks interesting too.

As we're sharing our hack Gillotts here's mine.
(It's timetriallist/Olympian Charly McCoy's old bike as discussed elsewhere)
Still debating whether to renovate it properly.
There are a couple of annoying issues: The seatpost should be 27.2 but I've had to bodge a coke can shim; and there's loads of stuff (mitre?) rolling around inside.
However with the big tyres it's v comfortable and if I find some nice mudguards to put on then I could use it all year round.

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so I will continue this story tomorrow.

The man's a professional raconteur!
Always leave the audience wanting more.

Tell us more about the Ron Brown connection.

First, a picture of Ron. He's the one on the left
I think you can just see that his right sleeve is empty.

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Now a couple more Gillotts.

This is another Alantique This was my bike for the 2012 L'Eroica . I built it for the Italian trip - the frame was borrowed and has now gone back to its owner.

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Here's my clubmate (and companion) Jeff Marshall's Gillott. I don''t know anything about this one except that it had a Vaz respray and was also specially assembled for the trip.

This is the best picture I can find atm - if I can find a better one I'll post it later.
This was taken by Brad Sauber, who managed to take some brilliant pics while riding alongside us. I think he was a bit impressed by our bikes which happened to match for colour and maker - what a pity our jerseys didn't match!

More later - this computer is giving problems.

Jeff knew Ron well and rode with him. He also started his racing career on Gillots

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Wonderful pics and bikes

It needs a very careful restoration.

@benjaminbunny has it in a nutshell. If you want someone else to do the work, maybe you could sell it on, as is, to someone here? If you’re commendably keen to do the right thing, but need help ...

Pat Skeates - Nice frame with odd mish mash of parts - far too expensive though.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392818129407

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Terrific photo, great story and obviously the bikes speak for themselves.

Cheers @Skülly I've started a clean up, tempted to have a go at doing it myself. Will at least do as much as I'm able to, then make a decision depending on how costly/difficult it's likely to be

Here's a better pic of Jeff's 'Eroica' Gillott.

I don't know anything about the history of this one - I think the frame came from one of Jeff's old mates. When I get a chance to speak to him I will see what he knows - also I need to check some Ron Brown facts with him before I offer them here.

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Another, slightly better I hope:

Sorry, not really any better.

If you can't see it because the pic is not sharp, this frame is built with standard Nervex 'fishtail' lugs.

You may note that while Jeff kept within the Eroica rules, he has not been strict about period stuff. Obviously the saddle is wrong, but you can see the back wheel has only 28 spokes, which no one would have dared to use on rough roads back in the day. Surprisingly (to me) it gave no trouble at all. Naturally we used wired on 700's which also gave us no trouble - not even any cuts - whereas we saw a lot of punctured tubs.

The inner chain ring is a 36, which proved very useful on the day and much better than my 43. However I'm sure that anyone using such a small ring in the 1950's would have been seen as a hopeless wimp!

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you could so easily mistake it for a modern bike particularly in that silver, it looks superb and those wheels set the frame of nicely.
Lol tyres (tubs) always seem to be the afterthought when it comes to building up a vintage bike

The Ron Brown/Gillott connection

I’ve just had a chat with Jeff Marshall about this.

Ron was a charismatic figure to young West London cyclists when Jeff came into the game in the late fifties. Born 1922 he had been a longstanding Calleva Road Club member, had contributed to team victories for that club in its golden period in the forties and had got close to the twelve hour competition record of that time. Although Ron would have denied this, the fact was that his successful racing career was made remarkable by the fact he had no right arm. Apart from his ability on the bike he was both intelligent and wise, in addition to being a clever and resourceful bike mechanic.

By the late fifties he was working for Gillotts and had joined the Hounslow after the Calleva folded up. It is not surprising that when he said to ambitious young riders ‘If you come along to Gillotts, we can fix you up with a good bike’, they started saving! This was how Jeff came to ride a Gillott. It wasn’t his first racing bike, but it was a big step up from the Holdsworth he started out on. He says this machine was ‘beautiful’ in every way, including a great finish in silver and chrome with club colours in what he describes as a ‘diamond’ pattern on the seat tube. I’m not quite sure what this means, but we may find out since he’s gone off to look for photographs, which I will post if they turn up.

Jeff tells me he used this frame for many years, and although it was essentially a road race bike he used it also for continental touring and time trialling. If anyone had any doubt whether this was an effective mount, it certainly proved its worth in the Rapier RC 25 of 1962 when Jeff (then aged 21) recorded a long 54 at a time when Dave Bonner held comp record with 54.28 ( I’ve asked him for ‘official’ confirmation and he has promised to check his diary – more later, perhaps).

The Easter Welsh Tour

Ron was an old style no pain no gain man, and his idea of an Easter weekend away went something like this: meet at the Travellers Friend (just west of Hounslow, sadly now a Macdonald’s) at 2.30 am on Good Friday, ride to Aberystwyth (237 miles if you went by the M40). This took about 14 hours, and Ron(single arm, single gear) would start with six or seven young hopefuls, ride almost non stop -Jeff remembers stopping in Banbury and eating hot cross buns, but the rest of the way they just ate whatever they had, as they rode. He would arrive at the B & B with perhaps two survivors (Jeff and his chum Barry), have a shower and an hour or so’s rest and be fully refreshed when the stragglers turned up a couple of hours later. There were other destinations, but these Easter rides went on for several years. Apparently Ron’s charm was enough to make up for the hardship, because I’ve heard this story from other riders (contemporaries of Jeff) and none of them regretted going.

I hope you are beginning to see why so many West London riders had Gillotts. Ron’s style of salesmanship may have been unorthodox, even possibly unintended, but it was certainly effective: join the elite riders – own a Gillott!

Great history /story @clubman and those Easter rides sound punishing. Let's hope Jeff uncovers some photos.