Last Build

Well, it may be the last I do for myself.

The frame was made by 'Harris of Earlsfield' and is said to date from 1929. I have owned it for about 25 years, and it has already had two quite separate lives under my management, now I'm hoping it will have a new career.

There are a number of photos to go with this story, but I will start with just a simple side view. You may notice that for such an old frame it is not particularly shallow.

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This frame once belonged to Charlie Bowtle (Norwood Paragon), a well known South London trackman who I met as a Veteran-Cycle Club member in the '70's/'80's. He was also a prominent member of the Pedal Club.

I don't know whether he actually used it - it's certainly not a track frame, but here is the card he wrote when selling it as a complete bike:
(sorry , it hasn't loaded properly - I'll have to re-photograph)

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Thanks Not4Sale!

That last word on the card is 'rejuvenated'.

I'm not sure what he thought he meant by that, as I remember the equipment that came with it was neither original nor useable, so it's always been used with my kit since I've owned it.

Incidentally, there don't seem to any references to this maker - the nearest I've come to recognition was an 'expert', who said 'Hmm, that's interesting'. However, Earlsfield does seem to the right area for Charlie.

interesting story, norwood and earlsfield aren't a million miles apart...

It's wearing what I recognise as late 30's frame fittings, with regards to the long mudguard mounts on the stays, pump pegs and those dropouts, which I'm expecting to have pointy ends on them (not pointy Osgear tabs, just the ends of the dropouts). I don't know this as fact, but I thought a lot of that stuff hadn't been standardised by the late 20's - which includes the bottom bracket, headset and lugs which all look like standard parts on your frame. I thought a lot of that stuff was still made in the factory to their own specs until at least the mid 30's.

Earlsfield bit might not be far off. A lot of the classic South London bike shops we're familiar with weren't set up as far back as that. EF Russ was one of the earliest but even he was 30's. It might well have been that there was a works of some description in Earlsfield who were also able to make bicycles.

I don't know this as fact, but I thought a lot of that stuff hadn't been standardised by the late 20's - which includes the bottom bracket, headset and lugs which all look like standard parts on your frame.

I believe the frame parts you mention are all Chater Lea on this frame, which I guess is what Charlie meant by 'Chater lightweight'. I don't know when the practice began, but I've seen references to BSA or Chater components frames earlier than 1929.

Incidentally, I had a number of little mods done before I painted the frame. These included mudguard eyes on the rear fork ends (for a rack), Sturmey control cable stop on the top tube and a new seatstay bridge. Unfortunately (as mentioned elsewhere) I failed to remove the lamp boss on the front forks. In fact the front forks seem to be non original since the numbers don't correspond - something I only noticed yesterday - it's only too easy to come to false conclusions with something as old as this and which has seen a lot of use.

The weight of the main frame, excluding bearings, is about 4lbs 12 ozs, around 8ozs more than a classic butted 531 frame of this size.

As for Earlsfield, there was a strong frame building tradition in South London and I guess that any Norwood Paragonian going north of the river for a new frame would have been seen as a traitor!

Nice @clubman
What’s your plan for the build?

Earlsfield is in South London though

could it be Reynolds High Manganese tubing? I had an EF Russ that was apparently this (the tubing sticker said it was, but I think it may have been repainted so couldn't say for sure). From what I remember the weight was slightly heavier than a 531 frame of it's size, so that would seem to match yours frames weight

I guess it must have been whatever was good quality tubing at the time - it had been repainted before I first saw it, and as far as I can remember there was no indication under the paint.

What’s your plan for the build?

Silly of me, I forgot to mention this.

In it's new form it will be a tourer, with 26" by one and quarter rims and a Sturmey FM hub.
I would have used 700's (actual touring may require emergency replacements), but the front forks are so short that 700's can only be used without mudguards. This is the only prewar frame I've come across where this is the case, all the others could take 700's and mudguards, although some would only take 23 mm tyres.

Surprisingly, one previous use was as a TT, bike but more of this (with photo) later.

Tonight's progress: new bottom bracket bearing, and almost all new headset fitted.

BTW, I really started this thread in order to compel myself to get on with the job.

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Some more pics

1. Rear fork end with frame number - this doesn't tell us much, although presumably the 'H' is for Harris.
   
2. Bottom bracket (before fitting new bearing) The cup, which takes 5/16" balls is visibly bigger than standard.
   
3. Spoof head transfer - just one I happened to have when I was repainting. Don't always believe transfers!
   
   

Sorry, wrong order of captions, but I think they're self explanatory.

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A little progress -

A job which I wasn't looking forward to has proved easier than I expected.

The Sturmey FM hub I'm intending to use had an obsolete type of quick release on its connection between the little toggle chain going into the hub and the cable - I have converted it to take the modern screw on adjuster. This involved removing the tiny rivet at the end of the chain and replacing it and I was worried that because it is so tiny this might present problems.

In the event I just filed the head off the rivet, pushed it out using a pointed bradawl and replaced it with a small nail which needed slight filing to get it through the chain. In the end it can't have taken much more than ten minutes.

The first pic shows the connector as it was, the second as it is now.

Incidentally the slightly unusual looking sprocket has the old 12 spline fitting.

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cool - and you tapped (or died?) a thread on the nail?

Just bent it over - it's not going to fall out easily!

The thread you can see is just the standard Sturmey part which I have attached (with the tiny nail ) to the existing chain.

i meant at the pointy end, but looks like it's actually a ring shank nail?

Sorry, just too late, but I've edited my post - I hope that makes it clear.

ah right so the nail is the pin!

At last, there is some progress - I have been working on the basis 'why put off to tomorrow what you can leave until next week'.

Now the chainset has been installed, there's just the cabling, mudguards and tuning up to be done. I suspect the 'tuning' will take at least as long as all the other work.

The chainset did cause some problems. I had intended to use the Chater Lea set that I had on this frame in the '90's (see pic with rather grumpy looking young son on board). When I came to refit it I found that it was a poor fit on the spindle (too loose) and came so close to the chainstay I would have needed to get it almost perfectly true to prevent it from fouling on the stay. I really can't understand what's going on here, since I don't remember having this problem when I used it before.

I took the easy way out and used the BSA/TA set you see in the photo - this has the benefit of saving almost half a pound in weight.

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Here's a pre-war shot of Charlie Bowtle who wrote the description card further up this thread.

Apologies for neck straining position - I thought I'd turned it before uploading.

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Here's the 90's pic I mentioned above.

Sorry, picture in the wrong format, will correct and try later.

Another try with the 90's pic.
This is a photograph of a photograph, so I hope the quality is OK.

As you can see the Chater chainset seems fine. You can also see that the lamp bracket boss which I regret not removing was then in use.

The small boy is actually less grumpy looking than I remembered, but he was generally not happy near bikes. I'm happy to report that he went on a four day cycling trip with his mates this summer and came back saying he'd really enjoyed himself. It's only taken a quarter of a century!

This picture, although nothing special in itself, makes an interesting contrast with another showing a rather different use taken a few years later. I will post this soon when I can get it into a postable format.

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Got There in the End

The 'Harris of Earlsfield' is back in useable condition.

You may remember that my Duckett project was only partially successful - so I turned my attention back to the H of E and I'm pleased with the result this time. I've done about 50 miles on it so far and, although there are still a few little improvements to be made, it rides really well.

After some thought I decided to abandon the 26" back rim. Apart from the difficulty of finding suitable tyres there is also the difficulty of getting the tyres to seat perfectly on the rim so as to avoid low points where the bead of the tyre has not seated properly on the shoulder of the rim. I can get these right in the end, but it's a nuisance at home and worse mending a puncture on the road. So the back rim is now a 700 - unfortunately I've had to retain the 26" front because of the very short forks.

Gearing is 46 x 18, which with the Sturmey FM gives (approx.) 44, 59, 67 and 76 (inches, of course). These are perfectly adequate for the sort of riding I do now and I think would do reasonably well even for carrying luggage. If I have bigger gears than 76 I might well use them, but I don't see them as necessary.

Here it is:

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