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