Pre 1950s rides of LFGSS: old bikes, vintage rats, classic lightweights

Ah. You’re right I didn’t get your meaning.
And yes, I noticed the nationalism in the list of equipment, Anquetil still riding (and winning) on simplex push rod in 1961! I’m sure the pills helped.

Re FB large flange rear hub ... I guess you saw the one on Ebay for £50? 40h fixed/free flip-flop. No bids yet, 5 hours to go, seller might take lower if it ends without selling.

Anquetil still riding (and winning) on simplex push rod in 1961! I’m sure the pills helped.

Sorry this should be a reply to Absurdbird.

The reluctance of Simplex to abandon their pull chain design is an excellent example of French conservatism combined with rejection of ideas seen as 'foreign'. Their adherence to the Priority to the Right rule at road junctions is similar - but it's a rule that's so compromised with exceptions that it makes even less sense than it did originally. It's also strange that when Simplex finally did produce a parallelogram mech, they messed it up with Delrin. They shot themselves in the foot just at the wrong time and were unable to resist the Japanese challenge, so whatever dope Maitre Jacques took was effectively wasted so far as the French bike trade was concerned.

What I would like to know is: how good or bad was the Juy 60, which I think was the final development. In the advertising drawings (Rebour) they certainly look as though they would be better than the earlier versions, not least because they look robust enough to survive the bike falling over on its right hand side. I have the impression it was a disaster from the sales point of view - even though I was riding* when they came onto the market, the first one I actually saw was a couple of years ago at a Ripley jumble. Hilary Stone had two of them - he wanted £300 each which, considering the rarity, I suppose wasn't completely unreasonable. Interestingly Hilary told me they had been worth even more a few years before, but someone had turned up a little treasure trove of them, which had flooded the rather limited market.

*N.B. I was very young at the time!

Begun listing some stuff on ebay again. Check out the 1934 Granby!

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Also a E.F Russ Frameset!

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Hobbs https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254893756640

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Definitely a shame.

Uhh the famous Russ pattern forks.

Good luck with the sale's, it's so difficult to know what anything will go for so I hope it's loads...

30s Tandem and sidecar - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254891982937

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@SideshowBob I saw that, how cool is that?! Almost worth having another kid.

@clubman re indexed headsets ... I've been meaning to ask, how bad does it have to be before it's noticeably notchy? Totally agree that ~ 50% of headsets I get my hands on are at least slightly indexed in the lower races. I should try one and see how it feels, never really fancy fitting and removing a headset (in a nice frame) for laughs though.

I have had a couple of crown races ground at a machine shop and they did a great job. Took ages though, almost like a £30 job was a bit of a faff :)

Edit - should have said clubman or anyone else :)

@Nbenja3 re Duprat hollow cranks ... here you go, lovely crankset https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Bicycle-Rare-Duprat-Crankset-Hollow-Arms-1930s-1940s-1950s/224378664050

It really depends what you can put up with. If you’re used to this so called Chris King level of headset smoothness then you’ll notice just a little bit of notchiness. Personally, I don’t mind a slightly rough headset, but I don’t like a tight feeling headset which won’t centre nicely; and I also don’t like a headset which has worn itself badly in the middle position. That’s your headset indexing. At that point, it can feel like it’s springing itself into the straight ahead position and it can make the bike feel alarmingly unstable at low speed.

There’s a quick bodge/dodge/fix though. The divots are worst in the straight ahead position and directly above one another where the balls sit. If you pop the cups out and turn them round a bit, you’ll move the divots out of the straight ahead position and it’ll stop trying to spring into the centre position. They also then don’t line up and some of the notchiness is reduced.

I keep meaning to come up with some kind of a tool for lightly re-facing headset races. I’m sure it would work like lapping in valves on an engine, with a couple of grades of grinding paste.

That’s great, thank you. Good tip turning the cups.

I can’t remember exactly what the machine shop needs but pretty sure it’s an annular something or other. Not a huge surprise! Didn’t seem like many places have one when I was looking.

As far as I know lightly refacing would be fine, I think the metal under the bearing surface is softer though isn’t it? That was the question with mine - could it just be re-faced or would it need hard chroming as well. Starts to get a bit pricey!

Please put my name down for one of your tools!

Dayum! Let's see where the bids go..

Cheers! 😁

I wonder what the cranks weigh (with the hollow arms), I bet they’re pretty light. I’ve always admired them. Need to be on a pre war bike though.

They are unbelievably light, the non drive side I have here weighs 159 grams!

I feel like I’m an agent for Hilary Stone with no commission, might be a hint that I’ve spent way too long on his website ... https://www.hilarystone.com/Chainsets%20single.html

I love that chainring.

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As far as I know lightly refacing would be fine, I think the metal under the bearing surface is softer though isn’t it?

Depends on the headset. The frames I’ve had with integrated headset cups and drop-in races (e.g. roadsters, anything with a headclip), the races have been machined from high carbon steel. They’ll be the same hardness all the way through. Pressed in cups, I guess, were case hardened? They’ll be softer underneath.

I would intend to literally only dress the surface. I’m pretty sure you could make the headset 80% better with 20% work; at the least make an unusable headset usable again, but not perfect.

Can anyone here offer me one or two brass headbadge rivets? Ideally with a 5mm head?

And give me an idiots guide as to how to put them in? Do you clamp something down the headtube behind the hole so it bulges as you punch it through? Assuming I will need a domed punch? Or just press it through and do something destructive to the shaft once it's through?

OK Google is telling me they're course threaded, not smooth shafts.

Does anyone in Imperial land know what the guages on this product means?

https://www.paigntontools.co.uk/engineering-supplies/hammer-drive-rivets/electroplated-brass

Smooth rivets were definitely available from Lloyds a while back. I bought some.
They’re a PITA to fit though
I’d go with coarse threaded, I’d also be tempted to go a size up and redrill the holes make sure of an A1 fit.

Having said that I’ll probably use the little copper plain rivets on my Gillott because authenticity
Hopefully Argos will fit them for me for free (😂) and provide them.

I can’t help with gauge sizes but google will know.
🙄