Holdsworth The Second

Hurrah! Another lovely Holdsworth to build, courtesy of @marceljourde (and hat tip to @doubleodavey for bringing it North of the River for me to collect.)
Frame number makes it 1973 and by my reckoning a Super Mistral - has the diamond brake bridge details and the shim inside the bridge.
Cleaned up the chrome and on the rear triangle it's really pretty good.
Fork is a little dull on the crown and tarnished on the inside faces, but pretty sure is original and it sort of looks good all the same.
Ding on the TT but that's ok, all the decals have long gone but the headbadge is lovely. Some nice lining work at the tops of the wrap-over's as well
Campag dropouts front and rear, looks like may have been the five-speed model (no cable guides for an FD and not signs of clamps there?)
The Miche BB seems well and truly (and I was warned it was!) stuck in and that's got to go. Trip to Pankhurst I think to see if they can 'persuade' it off, as I don't want to jump down the caustic slide of paintwork death.
Pics to follow, can't seem to upload them from the laptop.

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I'm looking forward to seeing it finished

Hmm. Been doing some measuryments.
It’s the return on the deeeeeeeeeep brake drop problem again, especially on the front.
So, centrepulls, here we go again.

Frame is lovely looking forward to seeing it finished. How deep is deeeeeeeeeep?

Winnyman 730 deep :(
Got a set of lovely Universal 68’s and they’re too short. Don’t want to have to buy 27 wheels (well, have no funds now)...

Like so...

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Nice. :). Looks like the early 70's trend of no braze ons (apart from the one on the drive side chain stay). We thought it was just cost cutting but the manufacturers said it was so you could use the campag cable clips and band on shifters ......

Thats deeeep. I was gonna suggest the brake drop gizmos that go behind the pad holder but they only droo about 4mm.
Good luck

Maybe have trawl through bankruptbikeparts and see if they have any dirt cheap 27"?

I think it’ll be band-on-full-parade. Going to cannibalise the (too small) Mercian I think, has everything I need to get this running while other decisions are made...

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Ah, good call.

i once had this problem on an older frame. I purchased from spa cycles a
pair of 'big dog' calipers. I think the drop was 73mm. Dual pivot too. certainly, they worked better than weinemann. I wish I could tell you how well they performed long term but some lowlife nicked the bike!
Good luck with the build.

The Tektro ones? Just having a look now.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s100p149/ALHONGA-Deep-Drop-Brakes
I've been using these on my commuter for the last 12 years. They work really well.

Good value as well, cheers for the link.

Right, I’ve asked nicely. You only have yourself to blame.
Bottom bracket be gone.

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Are you putting costic soda in or plus gas?

It’s caustic time. Well and truly seized in. Well, not for much longer mind.

Seen any action or bubbling yet?

Has been fizzing away merrily, needs another dose by the looks of things. Not as fireworks as I’d hoped but seems to be working. Doing a fine job of stripping the paint though :(

Troublesome bottom bracket bast*rd be gone!
Well, that took two 500g packets of soda, and about 10 changes of solution to get the thing dissolved but it worked. Properly wrecked the paint but has also cleared the insides! So, onwards...

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Ouchy.....

Perfect excuse for a respray mind :)

Wet-n-dry time...

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Down to the metal, needs fine finishing next, plus now sub 2kg :)
Dent on the TT is quite prominent now - fill or leave?

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