Bob Jackson Cycles

Good news. I'm sorry I missed out before. I'm looking forward to their frames being available once again.

We've just sent this out to all of our outstanding frame inquiries, thought it might be worth sharing it here.

Greetings from Kirkstall Road Leeds, the home of Woodrup Cycles and Bob Jackson cycles.

Thank you for your interest in the future of Bob Jackson.

Following the decision being taken by Donald to close Bob Jackson back in 2020, we attempted to rescue the business in the existing location and setup. Due to circumstances out of our control this was not possible. There were reasons Donald had decided to close the business. In the end we bought the name, some old stock and a couple of bits of machinery, we then began thinking about how we could bring Bob Jackson back to life.

The Woodrup and Jackson names go back a long way. On their return from service in WW2 Woodrup founder Maurice and Bob joined forces, with Maurice investing in Bob’s existing shop on Harehills Lane. They then opened a shop together on Burley Lodge Road (5 minutes from our current location) under the JRJ Cycles banner. They proceeded to set up a factory on Hyde Park Road in a big old Victorian house, where the frames were built and enamelled.

Maurice built the frames while Bob dealt with front of house and sales. Over the years, the partnership faltered and they went their separate ways, with Bob keeping his Harehills store and Maurice keeping the Burley Lodge Road shop, setting up there as Woodrup Cycles. Maurice opened our Kirkstall Road shop around 1969 and we've been here, building steel frames ever since.

Since we bought the Bob Jackson name the bike industry has been on a rollercoaster ride, we’ve been doing our best to hold on tight which meant putting the Bob Jackson plans on hold as we focused on the day to day running of Woodrup Cycles.

As the bike industry has returned to normality we’ve been able to begin planning for the relaunch. We have decided to offer 3 classic Jackson frames, adjusted slightly for the modern world. We’ve tried to simplify the pricing structure by speccing each frame with appropriate braze ons and including single colour paint with down tube, seat tube, head tube and tubing decals. All prices are for frame & fork and the frames will be built with 1 1/8th ahead steerers. We are able to offer custom geometry and custom paint options and full builds if desired - price on request.

We’ll be offering a Vigorelli, an End to End / Audax, and an Olympus in set sizes from 50cm to 62cm. We’ll be building in 725 as a default, this offers significant improvements over 631 at a relatively small price difference. 853 will be an optional upgrade.

We are putting together a frame shop team and production will be headed up by Steve Woodrup, these frames will be hand built in Leeds where Bob Jackson belongs.

Audax/End-End in Reynolds 725 with standard lugs and all appropriate eyelets - £1585.
Vigorelli (singlespeed/fixed) in 725 with standard lugs will - £1550
Olympus (road racing) in 725 with standard lugs - £1585
Each of these frames can be upgraded to Reynolds 853 for £150

We have a limited number of Fleur de Lys lugsets (8 sets), possibly the last of these that will make UK shores. We will be doing a special run of Fleur de Lys lugged framesets with a special barberspole and panels paintjob which will add £500 – this can be done on any of the frame models.

All prices include UK VAT but do not include shipping, handling or customs charges.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this update and please respond if you have any queries or would like to place an order. We are currently looking at around 4 months lead time on frame orders however we expect this to increase quickly. We hope to have some new show frames built and painted with the next few weeks and we've already had our first Olympus 853 order come through.

We are really excited to begin this new chapter in Bob Jackson history,

Thanks

Tom

Bob Jackson Cycles / Woodrup Cycles
345-349 Kirkstall Road Leeds
0113 2636212

Vigorelli (singlespeed/fixed) in 725 with standard lugs will - £1550

Very expensive for 725 and not even custom geo

Fair question, I have one though, and it is a lovely frame.

£1585 for an audax frame? Does seem very steep. I kick myself for not ordering one before they folded!

Good luck with the brand, was almost unique in producing good value steel frames made in uk.

Good luck with your new venture.
There is nothing like a steel frame made to measure.

Best wishes, Tom.

I don't know how they manage to keep the price that low for building them by hand in the UK including paint.

Yeah, BJ were massively underpriced for years, they should have been charging way more, I think it was likely part of their demise.

I think it's partly that and partly because even now, they're only going to sell a few lugged bikes to older enthusiasts who care about the heritage. When you can buy a (half) 853 fairlight with disc brakes for the same price, they won't be attracting many new customers other than those who already own several bikes.
Change with the times or be left behind and all that

Genesis, brother, fairlight, kona, surly, all city… the steel disc market is flooded - why bother competing against investment and buying power?

Are there many other builders offering quality traditional frames built in the UK from the good stuff at this sort of price.

Because that's what consumers demand

Are there many other builders offering quality traditional frames built in the UK from the good stuff at this sort of price.

No, which is why I think the price is very good. I just don't think it's the way to go if you want to make any money.

Mercian seems like the main comparator. When I bought my BJ back in 2004 I also looked at them. At the time they were more expensive so I went with BJ, which were an amazing bargain (same price as a surly...)

Just looked at the Mercian website and their frames are in the £1500-2000 range for lugged 725 made in the UK. And similarly old school designs. So this new BJ seems very in line with that. Given Brother has just released a new canti frame it seems like there is a market for bikes that don't follow the disc brake modern vibe.

Wish them all the best with the new venture. Not easy to get something I've this going and I'm glad the BJ name is getting another lease of life.

Just wanted to say I am very pleased the Bob Jackson name is being kept alive (even though it's still on the wrong side of the pennines).

I hope to be a customer again at some point in the future.

I think the market for traditional frames is limited and diminishing, there is scope to evolve beyond, see our itialian friends.
Lugged steel columbus hss

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Good luck with the new venture! I love my Vigorelli.

Great to hear BJ will live on. Bravo Woodrup for doing this. Amazing that you have this shared heritage.

For one of these standard framesets an All-road / Rough Stuff/ Touring 650B / 29er (dep on frame size) could be interesting IMO. Maybe with a signature fork crown to stand out, disc & canti posts, huge clearances, zits for trad racks and new style bikepacking gubbins. To limit it to Road, Track, Audax seems like a bunch of very similar bikes, really.

Imagine creating a New Classic that became a cult thing to have (like a d.o.g.s.b.o.l.l.o.c.k.s., Sherpa, Overbury's roughstuff)... Bob Jackson looked like it could take over the world at one point (with the fixed explosion), there's a lot of goodwill for them around this parish for instance. Remember when BLB did a Jackson collab?

Course, I'm not a framebuilder and my ideas of what's cool and financially viable are bound to be skewed by being a div. Anyway like @pipwish and others, I wish Woodrup / Jackson all success with this standard frame idea.

Can't agree more with @wildwest and @Skülly

Sad to hear this.
Re-posting from another thread.
I bought this last year down in the West Country. Any ideas of the age? Model etc?
As you can see, she’s big and in decent shape.
Many thanks

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she’s big and in decent shape.

It's big and in decent shape.

I can't help with details, but like that yellow.

If you go up a few posts there is contact details for Tom @ Bob Jackson Cycles / Woodrup Cycles. Guessing they would know, (maybe for a small fee to identify).

Bob Jackson Vigorelli, Reynolds 631 steel track frame and threaded Fork with lug lining. The decals were the same when I bought mine around 2008 but they didn’t change for years. There may be a chart somewhere showing approximately how the Reynolds decals changed over the years.

🤢

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thats how the leather tape ages no?