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By 'Roadster' I mean a bike with upturned bars, Westwood rims and rod brakes. They usually have seat stays bolted on rather than brazed, and rearward opening rear fork ends (you could hardly call them 'track ends' but it comes to the same thing). This machine does have brazed stays and forward opening rear ends, but it is still clearly a roadster; I don't think anyone could possibly describe it as anything to do with sport.
These machines developed in the 1890's and were still very common into the 1950's - in fact they were the most common type throughout the golden age of utility cycling. They were considered suitable for touring certainly up to world war one, and were still widely used for this between the wars - my Mum did an epic ride on her roadster in the late 30's. So although we may think of the 1930's as a time when people had desirable lightweights which we would like to own today, actually most cycling by most people was done on roadsters.
I wouldn't have considered riding one of these when I was racing, not even to go to the corner shop, but now I suppose I'm interested in trying to re-create a little corner of the lost world of pre-war touring. I hope the outcome won't be seriously disappointing.
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clubman
Interesting. You should have said you were on the look out for a roadster, i would have kept an eye out, this looks more like a town bike, doesnt it?