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

Roadsters

I'm glad that Falcon Vitesse and Crossedthread like this bike.

Perhaps it's so long ago that these machines were current that most people are now hardly aware that they were so common in the past. They were cutting edge in the Edwardian period and continued to be a basic English bike well into the 1960's. I suspect they are still widely used in India, Africa and elsewhere. There was a time when they were used by enthusiastic cyclists, but I doubt whether any club cyclists were still using them in the 1930's (except perhaps the elderly), so to use one for touring we're looking back the best part of a century.

What could be the attraction now? Well, one reason is that conditions for cycling have got steadily worse in the past 100 years, so riding an ancient bike may be an aid to fantasising that one is still (a tiny bit) in that golden age.

The Handlebars

May look modern, but they are not. In fact these are an earlier style than this bike had when new - it's possible that the tape hides this - I've never seen bars of this type taped. I had to remove the brake levers to do it, but it was necessary because my natural riding position on this machine is to hold the bars near the middle.

I'm being called away - I'll deal with brakes in another post.
Two pics : the 'cockpit' and the chainset - the BSA sets were once very common for track use, although not with a 44 ring which I'm using.

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