A.G.Duckett (1920's)

Here is a project, but it's not really the bike. It is to ride to Oxford and back on this machine, in late December, carrying luggage.

Pah! you will say - Oxford is an easy trip, and it even sounds as though he's going to take two days over it.

Well, I'd like you to take into account that the combined age of the rider and bike is something like 170 years, and the only gear change available is to turn the back wheel.

Here's the bike as it is this evening. It's just a question of finding all the bits and fettling it for the trip.

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combined age of the rider and bike is something like 170 years

:D

Respect, madman clubman

It's got rather a nice head badge.

You may detect a mixed braking system. The Resilion on the back is my addition, and it's modified to use a normal cable with a Mafac style straddle cable. I have a separate pic. of this if anyone's interested.

The Handlebars and stem are original, but the bars were intended to face the other way. This makes the bike unrideable for me, because I bang my knees on the bars if I ride out of the saddle.

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Thanks, Hippy.

Bike now back on the road. I did 30 plus moderately hilly miles on it today (Stevenage to Allingham and return) and the bike and I seemed to go reasonably well.

As shown in the photo, it weighs about 25 lbs. and it's better than one might expect for climbing, although obviously it's harder than a modern fixed bike. It feels so different from my relatively modern road bike that there's no danger of forgetting which bike I'm on and trying to freewheel.
It is noticeably more stable on descents than a more modern steeper frame.

Just needs a few minor adjustments and a luggage rack and we'll be off!

P.S. There wasn't really enough light for the photo - I'll do some more in daylight.

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That’s really nice. Those wooden(?) bar ends? What’re they like to use?

The handlebar grips are not wooden, they're rubber. These 'Shockstop' grips were quite widely used in the past, and as you may be able to see from the picture they were a good quality product. This pair are not very old - I can't perfectly remember the story, but I think Doug Pinkerton had some made and these came from him.

The other pic shows the Resilion brake conversion. These brakes do have their problems, and the cables are a real nuisance. They can be made up, but it's expensive and the new cables are usually not quite as good as the originals. This conversion overcomes the problem and can be done with stock parts. The other end of the straddle cable is held with a solderless nipple, so all you need are two standard pear nipple inner cables, a bit of outer, a centre pull hanger, the solderless nipple and a couple of springs - I used Campag rear fork end adjuster springs.

The front roadster style brake does work, but you would need courage to rely on this alone.

Originally I imagined I was the first person to think of this, but it turns out this was quite a well known bodge in the past.

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Confession

I chickened out of doing my Oxford ride on the Duckett.

The re-assembly went well and I got it into a condition that made it reasonably good to ride, but after doing quite a few miles on it, I came to the conclusion that, with the addition of twenty pounds of luggage, it just wouldn't be much fun to do the ride on it. I'm confident I could have managed to get there and back, but I owe a duty to my hosts not to arrive speechless through exhaustion. Also I had in mind my clubmate Martyn Roach's comment that " a racing man's greatest asset is his enthusiasm". As you know, I no longer claim to be a racing man, but I want to nurse the enthusiasm I still have, so struggling back through the western suburbs of London could easily have been a damaging experience.

So I took the (relatively) easy option and used my Sunbeam (see pic below). This unlikely looking machine has proved to be a surprisingly efficient mile eater over the past few years. It's a long way from perfect and it has no pretensions to speed, but you can just put your leg over it and go.
The only preparation I did, apart from a general check, was to change the wheel with the Sturmey AM for one with an AW to give a bottom gear of 48" as opposed to 57" with the AM.

Originally I had thought that I could cope with the climbs on fixed (carrying luggage remember), by walking where necessary and blaming my age. Possibly this wasn't a great strategy since walking isn't much fun whatever age you are, but I found that in practice it would not have been all that practicable, because there is no provision for it. After West Wycombe on the climb up towards Stokenchurch (which is a category one climb for me!), there is nowhere to walk except in the road - walkers are directed to take to the old road, which is much steeper and obviously unsuitable for tired old blokes pushing laden bikes. I didn't particularly notice what provision there was on the other climbs, but I don't suppose it's any better.

So, originally the combined rider/bike age was going to be 170, if we can be permitted to take the age of the Sunbeam from the age of the frame (not really correct in view of the kit) we still can boast of a combined age of about 150 years.

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I chickened out of doing my Oxford ride on the Duckett.

Nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes, like you say, it’s more important to be realistic!

Hi Clubman, I remember you riding the Sunbeam on Hounslow Wheeler Club rides. I had just spent a lot of money on a trendy Ribble frame. You dropped me on every climb! I learn't my lesson, it's not the bike, it's the person riding it!
I stopped wasting money on the latest trends after that experience. Happy memories!

Thankyou Greytyke,

Your post made me smile - not so much because it is rather flattering to my modest abilities as a rider, but because you have put my philosophy in a nutshell.

I seem to remember some one, some time saying: 'It's not about the bike'. I don't know what aspect he was referring to - possibly a medical programme - but I think that the more cyclesport is about the bike rather than the rider, the less interesting it is.

So, that's one thing that Henri Desgrange and I have in common !

Going back to your post, I hope we waited for you. HDW clubruns are not supposed to be about dropping anyone - although, as mentioned elsewhere today, training runs were another matter.
Anyway, if you've kept up your riding since the time you mention, I suspect our positions might well be reversed now.

Not so sure about that. You were about 4 stone lighter than me!

" I'm confident I could have managed to get there and back"

I got near to proving this last week when I rode the Duckett nearly as far as Oxford: Radlett, Ivinghoe, Radlett (just under fifty miles). Of course, it's much easier in the summer and without luggage, but I think this route probably involved more climbing.

The Bike

I have improved this a bit since last year. The steering was too heavy - I traced this to the crown race which was slightly too tall and was fouling on the cup of the bottom lug of the head tube - not a problem I've come across before, but a slightly different (smaller) crown race cured the problem.

The front brake was also unsatisfactory in that it caused juddering. The cause was an imperfect rim which was slightly dented - that is, not perfectly round. This has always been a defect with rod brakes - they are sensitive to defects which would barely be noticeable with calliper brakes. I've now found a better wheel and braking is much improved, but although I'd like to remove the back brake (which would make turning the back wheel round to change the gear easier) I really don't fancy relying on this ancient method of stopping.

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Gasped around 10 miles today on a triple bike at least 3x younger, and me at least 2/3rds your age
Just amazed really

Here's an advert I've just come across by chance. I happened to be reading Cycling for 27th June 1924 (as you do) and I found this:

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£9 and 9?
Absolute scandal over pricing ;)

That's £9 and 9 shillings, 9 Guineas or £9.45p.

I think that was fairly expensive by the standards of 1924.

Another Try

I've resolved to have another go at my Duckett/ Oxford project next month.

I'm altering the back brake set up so that it's easier to turn the wheel - it still remains to be seen whether it will work well enough - road test due soon.

Meanwhile I thought I'd like to show you how the machine (probably) looked in its original form.
After removing the existing back brake and cable it was only a few moments work to reverse the bars to their old position. It certainly looks better like this - the only problem is that I can't ride the bike with the bars facing backwards (see above).

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I would have thought it would have had a much shorter rider back then. The fashion was for much less seatpost showing so it must have had a more upright ride than how you have it for your legs? With the saddle down it looks like a pretty conventional riding position for a shorter gent.

Intrigued to see what you do with the brake. I don't know if it helps, but you can get inline cable breakers from SJS Cycles. One could fit either on your straddle cable or there might be space just before it:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cables/jtek-cable-splitter-for-gear-inner-wire-black/

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cables/jtek-cable-splitter-for-inner-brake-wire-short-black/

Saddle height

As with so many things in cycling fashions have varied, but there was certainly a time between the wars when it was normal to have a small frame and a lot of seat post out.

I'm fairly sure that the s/post on this bike is original, so that suggests that it wasn't unexpected to have a lot of it showing. Looking at pictures from the period it certainly seems that although utility riders would often have their saddles flat down, the racing men did not.

Here's a picture from Cycling for October 1924:

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Braking arrangements

I am certain that Jonny69 would have created a more elegant solution to the problem than I have done (see picture below).

Since I first acquired this machine I've learned that it was common practice (although perhaps not a good one) to use a calliper brake with a Westwood rim. Obviously there isn't really an adequate braking surface on the edges of the rim as they are both narrow and rounded, but I've just road tested this set up and it works reasonably well. The rim is painted, not chromed which does help, and I happened to have some leather faced brake blocks which are said to improve braking on steel rims.

Why bother with a Westwood? Well it's what it had originally, and for me those rims are part of
the bike's 'character'. Also the Endrick rim I was using is knackered whereas this Westwood is pretty good. The Resilion brake shown further up the thread has the problem that the long brake blocks go inside the seat stays and so it is impossible to get enough clearance to get the wheel out without deflating the tyre - a bit of a hindrance when turning the wheel to climb.

I might have drilled the seat stay bridge and mounted the calliper in the normal way, but I was reluctant to do this because the bridge itself is quite slender and the necessary hole wouldn't have left much material to support the brake, also it would have detracted from the originality of the frame.

The brake lever is the original one which came with the bike.

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I have wondered whether the 'practical' handlebar position (as shown above in post #13) was ever used in the past, and now I have the answer: yes. So my use of it now is not completely anachronistic.

I found this picture while looking for seat pin positions in response to Jonny 69's comment.

So, once again we can see - originality is undiscovered plagiarism.

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^ This is excellent!

Project Completed

I've just done my London- Oxford ride on the Duckett as proposed at the top of this thread.

Not a big step for mankind, but I feel pleased about it.

The ride was a bit slow, but not difficult.

I'll give a better account in a day or two when I have the time and energy.

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Well done, a wonderful thread.