Bob Jackson Cycles

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