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

I was wondering the same thing, got a residual memory that 700c size were referred to as 27” tubulars. Might have imagined it.

I like that seller’s Jack Sibbit but looks like the forks aren’t original. [Doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in the seller that’s not mentioned.]

Please can no one bid on this, its the perfect match for my Blue Riband and I REALLY want it :)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hobbs-of-Barbican-Blue-Riband-tandem-frame-/194040327165?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

if they're like the ones I had for a while 700c. I think so called 27" tubs = 700c. Careful though-i think they develop splits easily around the spoke holes when building up-mine had these...

I have laced my constrictor rims up and it turns out there is a tiny split in the front rim by one of the spokes.
To my eye those rims on eBay do not look like a set.

Bates -Needs rescuing
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224427438395

1 Attachment

Do these actually take 700c tubulars?

Were 27” tubs a thing?

As Veloham suggests, there never was such a thing as 27" sprints and tubs and this muddle is just another example of metric/imperial problems. Originally, as we know, the Britsh sizes were 26" and 28" and it seems that the bike trade believed that the British cycling public was incapable of understanding anything that was not measured in imperial. Aside from anything else we were so firmly wedded to the concept of gear sizing in inches the idea that the outside diameter of a tyre should be in anything other than an exact number of inches was completely beyond the pale; this is the reason why 26 x 1 and 3/8" and 26 x 1 and 1/4" need different sized rims. Dunlop and Constrictor presumably managed to grasp the fact that the rest of the bike racing world was never going to buy 26" tubs, so they went over to the continental size (although there certainly were 26" tubs pre- war). I know the 700 size was sometimes referred to as 27", but I guess that was just because they couldn't bring themselves to mention millimetres.

This led to the bizarre situation where people who really should have known better (I'm talking about the riders and journalists) quoting racing gears as if tubs were actually 27", so they would refer to 48 x 16 (a very commonly used TT gear in the 50's) as an 81" gear when, on tubs, it was about 79.5". This difference might seem trivial, but remember you have to rev very fast to do a 59 on an 81" gear, let alone 79.5!

Another point here is that for a medium gear event it was assumed that the 72" gear required would be achieved by 48 x 18, but on tubs this will actually give about 70.6". I found it was quite possible to use 49 x 18 (about 72.1"), but whatever advantage I gained from this stratagem it was nowhere near enough to allow me to win. Bugger!

However I'm convinced that in the highly competitive world of 1950's time trialling, a lot of the contenders were severely undergearing and, in addition, subtracting about 1 1/2" from the gear they thought they were using by underestimating their tyre size.

All good stuff.

When did officials at TTs start checking gearing by rolling the bike between two marks on the road?

As far as I know this was only ever done for medium gear events, and for those it was normal practice - but my 49 x 18 did pass.

There was a time when juniors were restricted to 86" for road racing, but I think that was checked just by looking at the sprockets (48 x 15 being usual).

Going back to 1950's TT results, which may be of some interest here because they were achieved on the sort of kit that people here desire to own, it is a bit of a puzzle why they were so slow. Or, to put it the other way round, why they had already got so much faster by 1991 when the new position (clip on bars) came into use. It would be very easy to imagine that the increased speed was the result of better kit, but I think most of the 'improvements' had a very marginal effect. If we accept that fixed (given a suitable day and course) in as fast as gears, the only thing I can see that really made a difference was lighter spoking. For all the fuss that was made about Alf's bike (the 48 minute one), was it really any faster than the one he was using in the '50's?

I believe that the main factor was that bigger gears became the norm. If you think that 81" is a good gear to race on, you'll probably always be impressed any sub hour 25.

Of course, competition is also a big factor - if you know you need to do a 56 to stand a chance of winning, you won't be aiming to do a 59. All the same, I wish I still had the power to go well enough to demonstrate the proof of my argument.

Holdsworth Gents Bicycle Restoration Project. Condition is "For parts or not working". Vintage W F Holdsworth Ltd La Quelda model (dates from 1936-1954) . Includes wheels and original saddle. Collection ONLY, Cash ONLY. Sold as seen. No Returns.

£75 BiN in Bedford.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Holdsworth-Gents-Bicycle-Restoration-Project/114772686237?hash=item1ab8fc359d%3Ag%3Az4UAAOSwDRFgfUAV&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=4

Gone already! Jeez...

Yeah I hit the button. It's an hour and a half from here and looks my size and quite great patina.

I even waited like a minute or so :-p kinda hoping someone else would go before me.

Ha ha! I was in a meeting and just saw it lol

Another proof meetings are bad!

Meetings are saving me from myself and having to find extra space to store* bieks :)
*hide

Indeed, now that I hit the button I kinda regret it for those very same reasons!!
Means something gotta go.

Let me know if you decide to pass on it? I could do with another Holdsworth project ha ha!

Nice,It looks great.

Looks like a bargain to me @anidel well done and a great looking project.
Enjoy it.

Hope to go pick it up this weekend.

Will let you know :)

You didn't even give anyone else a chance! hmm, what's going? Anything interesting?

I did. People had 40 mins since the post above and I gave them a couple more too :)

still, lovely project. Look forward to seeing what you do with it (hopefully not much beyond a gentle clean..!)

No repaint, no worries. She's enwrapped in a lovely patina.