RVL's Ugly Ducklings

That's real nice

Cheers, I'm really starting to like the look of it. Weighs a ton tho.

The Stallard on the otherhand is insanely light for a 50's race bike, full 531 Double butted and 50cm frame.. Wheels are Rigida Chrina on Suzue BMX hubs.

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I've fitted a Suntour Honor rear mech of some sort which seems to be pretty puny on chain tension - I think the spring might be adjustable judging by the design
(slack chain pic attached)

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Bar grips are Glow in the Dark Oury's and they actually glow like radioactive rods...
I think I might need to cut back the bars a bit to move the brake levers onto the bend as there's not much pull in the current position...
(either that or get some straight bar brake levers)...

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Worked out that the derailleur was fitted with the jockey wheel/plate upside down. winding them up by 180deg created the required tension and now looks correct.
I couldn't find the original band on cable stop for the chainstay hence the tie-wrap.
(ordered one from Freemans though, along with replacement 5/32" bearings for the TDC headset)

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Ready to wrap up for Christmas

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All wrapped up and ready

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Ghetto milling on the shifter done

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I ended up going back to the original Dawes brakes as they function better and are more original
I also modified some P-clips to sort out the cable routing

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The double cable on the TT means I couldn't use a standard TT cable clip so I re-formed some bottle cage bands from an old cheapo bottle cage

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It's now rideable which I'm quite pleased about

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I think it looks pretty good.
The white cables are a bit in-your-face compared to the muted tones elsewhere but when I've fixed up the white mudguards it'll hopefully make more sense!

I'll also need to change the chainset, apart from being huge, it's not period-correct (off a 70's racer) so I'll replace it with a Williams soon.

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A few more detail pics.
A pretty good result really - Complete build came in for the cost of the tyres in the end (£25)

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Love it. Great work as always! Hope you & the family are all well. Happy new year!

All good this end thanks and happy new year to you and the family, hope you're all well too.

pretty good result really

Absolutely fabulous as usual! Bar the white cables obvs and my god man, white mudguards? Is this wise? Have you exhausted all other possibilities?

Haha, I’ve Just showed your comments to my wife who heartily agrees!!!
She’d been saying the same for ages and wondered what my options might be....

Percy Stallard

Here's a pic of Doug Collins (google if you don't know him) on his first proper bike in 1952.

The bike is a Stallard - Doug tells me he really wanted a Rotrax, but his dad's funds were limited and he chose to keep in his pocket the extra £2 the Rotrax would have cost.

As can be seen from his later career the Stallard proved to be no disadvantage!

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Sounds like a keeper. The wife that is, not the mudguards.

Brilliant, thanks

What a fabulous photo - thanks for sharing - is he a friend of yours?
I can also confirm that mine will never move as quickly as Doug's did

Und jetzt zu etwas ganz anderem...
I've been playing around on this over the christmas hols but bar spins in the road and little gravel paths around the neighbourhood aren't really justification for keeping it.... I'm thinking of making something a bit more practical for longer rides - e.g. a brake, more tyre clearance and a bigger gear...

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Nice. I like the sticker on the forks; very nostalgic.