A.E.Elsegood

Apologies for late response. I've started to assemble a catalogue of interesting photos, but I keep getting interrupted by holidays and other stuff. My Dad left me over 6,000 35mm transparencies, all boxed up, including continental holiday when we travelled to France and Italy and (unbeknown to me) the ulterior motive was to follow the Tour de France or the Giro on the Alpine stages. He's also got loads of stuff on York Rally, but in order to get to it, I'm having to scan all the images to digital, which takes about a minutes for each slide, and then I'm cataloguing them. Why? Must be bonkers. Anyway, please bear with me and I think we'll have some good material.

Regards, Alan Elsegood

6000 slides? Wow that sounds amazing, there will be some stunning pictures in there I'm sure.

You are bonkers, but definitely in the right way :)

Cheers

Rob

I have finished restoring the A.E.Elsegood, the frame date from the 1950’s and I have finished it in burgundy and ivory, with decals supplied from World Decals, with gold lug lining, All done by my own hand with a final coat of 2K lacquer applied by my local car body shop. Previous post can be found here; http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=291502.
The frame is light, weighing in at 1937g and forks 752g and is fitted with Simplex dropouts that date from 1952.

The bike was previously restored in the 1970’s and I have kept the Viscount hubs and Weinmann rims and rebuilt them with DT swiss DB spokes and fitted some 27 X 1 1/8 “ Panaracer Pasella tyres. These hubs are cartridge bearings and run as smooth as the best.
The gearing is a 1950’s Campagnolo Gran Sport and Campag shifter, I have managed to fit a 6 speed block that gives me a useful range of gears, the clearances are tight but all works well and runs silently with a new chain. The chainset is a Campagnolo GS with a NOS Williams 48t chainring. Pedals are an ongoing subject, but I have a pair of Chater Lee pedals that may well end up on this bike.
Brakes are Universal 68 with matching levers and new Scott Mathauser blocks.
The stem is a CB/GB with some very nice bars from GB.
The saddle is a Brooks Competition B17, the 26.8mm seatpost is unknown ( as photo ), but I have found a Triplex Areo post that will do until I find something more suitable.
It rides like a dream, even better that I had hoped for and I have ridden many bikes.
This post can also be found on Retrobike!!

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That's Wonderful ^ great work Boscarn, especially on the paint, it looks absolutely stunning.

It's good to see you've kept yours period, with some great parts, unlike my mish mash :) I'd be keen to know what Alan reckon on your resto too.

Did you even find out any more information about the unusual brake bridge on yours and what 6 speed block did you use, I can't fit any more than 5speed on mine with the 126mm spacing?

Cheers

Rob

Rob,
Sorry no info on the brake bridge, looks the same diameter as the top of the seatstays, I wonder if it was made from an offcut.

For your info, I aslo tried several blocks before finding one that was suitable.
the Maillard 700 compact fitted well but the ratios made the gearing to high for me. I ended up using a Sach 8 speed block with the two smallest cogs (12 & 13 t) removed, the gears are 14-24, the block body just misses the rear mech hanger plate that resides inside the dropout. This is an unusual block, what is your rear hub?
Regards
Boscarn

Aaah, cunning.

My hubs are early 60's Record high flange jobs.

I could get a 6 speed Regina TT block on but as you say, the gears are too big for normal/club run use. Especially as I have 53/39 on the front. (Not at home and I can't recall the rear blocks range offhand).

The 5 speed Suntour block fits well (similar clearances to your block) and actually runs near faultlessly with the 8 speed DA Shifters.

I might have a play with some other blocks and remove a few rings as I did 82 miles on mine at the weekend on a fast clubrun and although it was fun giving done of the carbon boys something to think about, it was bloody tiring!!

Have found this on retro bike same block that I am using! http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=298642
Don’t know if it will work with your 8 speed DA shifters, if you are happy with your gearing and it works, I would leave alone.
If you are interested, I have some record rear hubs and a box of various blocks, will have a look to see what will fit.

8 speed freewheel, rare as hens teeth!

I had a seven speed one that wouldnt fit so I'm guessing that that wouldn't either, but if your inclined to have a go to see what would fit on 126 spacing that would be really useful info.

I'm going to leave the bike as it is until next summer, then I'll probably strip the DA off and run it in 'period' set up with some old record bits I have. That will probable be the time to look at the block and hubs, as I'll put the wheels back to 27's, but then the rear block should only be a 5/6 speed really :)

Hi everyone, sorry to burst into this lovely thread, but was wondering if this frame I recently acquired could be an Elsegood one as there are some similarities to some frames here (albeit not that many :( ):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anidel/sets/72157646205155488/

Thanks!

Could be, some of the lugs look like @Boscarn 's Minster.

@alanelsegood is the one man who might be able to shed more light on it.

Out of interest, how do you know it's not a Holdsworth?

Of all the Holdsworth I myself saw in the flesh and over the Internet none of them had those spear-point lugs, even the older ones.
Also the older ones had a head badge, not a sticker and that sticker looks more like the one for the seat tube.

Fair enough! Not messed around with holdsworths much but I suspect my track frame may be one. I found this site useful when it works http://www.nkilgariff.com

If your frame is an Elsegood (and it would be ace if it is!) then I'm sure Alan will let us know.

Oh sure, I do peruse that nkilgariff.com a lot.

I hope it is too :) but I have my doubts.

I searched all over the place, but those spear-point lugs are no were to be seen!

I'm not an expert on Holdsworth but pre war downtube transfers had W F Holdsworth and post war just the word Holdsworth, although the font wasn't quite like the one on your frame which means that yours might have been re sprayed at some point. Possibly with the wrong ones. If the badge was missing the holes could had been filled and painted over (you can only know by rubbing off the paint).
Many frame builders stamped their initials under the BB. I've got a Holdsworth Cyclone that has got a frame number stamped and CR23, just like yours has. It's been suggested to me that these could be the initials of Chas Roberts, who built for Holdsworth. Whether this is the case or not I cannot confirm but mine being a Holdsworth with the same stamping might put yours there.
I've attached a picture of the BB.

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GR23 V LS seems to be just referring to the BB shell. In my case it has British Made and seems quite a common BB shell in Australia.

I still have to look for the frame number. That my shed some light. Off to clean it more and take better pictures .

I've never bothered to research the CR23 stamp before but a quick search now brought a few results suggesting it could mean the presence of chromium on the bb shell.
So not Chas Roberts and probably not Holdsworth either.

Exactly. Doesn't help in identifying the frame. Albeit some eBay auctions were selling Holdsworth with this BB shell.
It seems more G than C though.

Wouldn't these BB shells have been part of the full lug set the frame builder used (like nervex)?

@Boscarn 's BB shell is similar to the 'holdsworth' so it might be worth trying to work out the lug set? @alanelsegood might have remembered the brand Arnold used? :)

From my reseach those BB shells where quite common, but not sure if they were part of a full lug set.
I found some BB shells which looked similar to this frame and to others, but yet they had very different head tube lugs and seat cluster ones.

Someone in Australia, in one of their forum, said that that BB doesn't tell much about the frame builder :(

By the way, I just send my money to join the VCC club (lovely!) and will try to contact the Holdsworth Marque Enthusiast and see if he can shed any lights.

Even Hobbs of Barbican used them: http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/926579-hobbs-barbican-race-weight-advice-please.html

.

Aaah Vcc membership, we'll all be borrowing your membership number in the future :)

I'll be interested to see what their specialist comes up with as I've always wondered if it was worth joining.

:)

I was contacted by one of the members regarding this frame right here on the forum and I might be passing the frame on to him if it remains unknown.

I also got stopped on my Holdsworth from a nice chap who also is a collector of nice vintage bikes (complimented him a month ago while he was riding his lovely purple Holdsworth Whirlwing and we had a quick chat yesterday when he spotted me again while riding his Flying Gate!).

Showed him the pictures, but he couldn't help. But also mentioned the VCC club and the Holdsworth marque enthusiast.

The joining fee is only £23 a year, so why not? :)

Yeah, should really bite the bullet on the £23.

That chap sounds like he's got one hell of a bike collection. I'll get a flying gate and a Galibier one day :)

I guess he does!

Also met a couple of chaps on my ride around the West India Docks who were on a vintage ride and one of the guy I spoke with was riding a lovely La Perle almost all original (and claimed he had 39 bikes in total including a Hetchins [which, he stated, will never be ridden]) and another chap a great Phillips tourist bike.

Forgot to show them the pictures though :(