1947 R O Harrison Lyta

I would have gone with the tobacco flam as well. Though any of those colours will look anazing I have a frame painted with Argos Crimson red and the depth of colour has to be seen in the flesh to really appreciate.

@veloham Any updates please

@SideshowBob oof it’s a slow burn :). The colour turned out fantastically, and the work Argos have done. Many other aggravations but I’m getting through them. I’ll try and post some teaser shots this week ...

Can't wait to see the colour, Thinking of using Argos for a 47' Holdsworth of mine.

You won't be disappointed

Agree with @falconvitesse I'm local and it's great to go in and see the colour samples and frames hanging up. Not sure if/when that will be possible again. The green flam 'candy apple' is great, the 'Peter Lowry' purple flam - see pic, (I think it's a flam) midnight blue if you want something more dignified :)

I would say listen carefully to their suggestions, they're not forceful in telling you what you want isn't a good idea. Also make sure anything you want done is on the worksheet. As with most things - it's good to listen to the experts and make sure what you want is specified carefully!

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@veloham Thanks for the advice and will call Argos to discuss some ideas. I do like the green flam colours, Both candy apple & forest green and need to seek their advice on seat tube contrasting colour and whether it's best to match the lug lining with the contrast seat tube or match the lug lining to the down tube decal colour.

@SideshowBob cheating a little photographing it in the sun this time :)

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Wow - Looks very good!

Thank you :) Yep the colour is great and all the work Argos did is great, very nice finish. I am hoping to change the decals, these are a bit thick. I had wanted to do that, sort the head badge, headset and seatpost collar before posting pics ... nearly there but all have been a real drag.

I finally got round to taking some pictures of the old down tube. As far as I remember they cut the middle section out, hung a weight from the stub of tube joined to the lug and heated the brazing for it to drop away. Sounds reasonable anyway :) You can see a heavy bit of tube was welded inside to fix the cracked tube, think it was Mark at Argos that suggested it could be a bit of steerer. So probably a pretty decent fix, glad it's gone though! Nice new Reynolds 531 tube in its place.

N.B. this really is flippin typical, I thought it was going to be an easy / cheap one - no chrome, no special paint scheme ... . I had planned a Lytaloy headset for this one, and had it already, but when Argos came to fit it turns out the crown race was from a different incompatible set. Diddled on Ebay 50% of the time, also flippin typical. I finally got the right bits but the races were index/brindled - sent them off to be hard chromed and ground but that has understandably been delayed by lockdown. Races should be with me this week, but I now plan to use that headset on a Hobbs, so on the lookout again. Ah well, a lot of fun to be had in the hunt :)

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Some more exciting pictures ... I think these hubs will be gracing the ROH. I absolutely love the look of these Blumfield hubs. I do like a large flange, but these are pretty tasty none the less. The rear is nos and I haven't serviced it yet, the front was fairly well used but no bad dings. I've given it a gentle polish and serviced - one of the cones is pitted which is a bummer. I can't really feel it by hand, so might get away with it. On the lookout for a cheap ratty front to cannibalize or please let me know if you have one going spare.

The anodized track nuts make me a bit weak kneed. Pretty pretty rare, there's pics on the internet of green ones and blue on an amazing Ephgrave on classiclightweights. I asked Hilary Stone if he had any, not expecting any luck, but he had nos gold ones! At a reasonable price too. They are probably just for pics, not sure about 70 year old alloy threads!

I have some Cyclo 'True Track' chain adjusters for forward facing dropouts and some steel Chater Lea track nuts, so think those will be for riding.

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Oh I meant to say, I couldn't find a cone spanner to fit the front. 11.something mm, couldn't find any imperial ones, even 12mm seem to not really be in production anymore. Then this Blumfield stamped spanner came up on Ebay. Small bit fits the front perfectly, big fits the rear. The other end appears to be a lock-ring tool, so pretty handy. Wish I had a second!

Those hubs are superb!

Loving those hubs!

Thanks both, I'd gotten a bit bent out of shape working on the front. Coming back to them now to take a few pics I'm over it :)

Hi veloham,
Just a note to say that I raced on the track in the 70’s on a old Dan Genner frame at Harlow , Calshot etc steeply banked tracks only to find that the frame chad cracked seat & downtubes that had been repaired in similar fashion!
But showed no sign of it until I decided to redo the paint work!
Cheers
KP12.48

Any updates?

@user118122 thanks for the info! Yes it looked like it had been ridden like that for a long time.

@SideshowBob no not really, too many projects on the go so when I get demoralised with one I fertle with one of the others! I do have another slightly worse front Blumfield, haven't had the heart to check the cones yet! Fingers crossed. I do now have waterslide transfers to go on this when I've got the headbadge done and found a suitable headset.

@SideshowBob playing my post back in my head it sounded pretty pretty weak. So I checked and the replacement front cones are good! Wahey, these hubs shall go to the ball. Started servicing the rear now too.

I’m thinking of putting 26 1/4” rims on these hubs and trying the Compass Elk Pass tyres. Not sure if anyone has tried them? Is putting in an order anytime soon?

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^ ignore the Elk Pass chat, just checked and it’s a folding bead - so I guess no good for period clinchers without hooked rims.

Good news that the hubs /cones are sound.

I’m thinking of putting 26 1/4” rims on these

You have some already? Or what rims are you searching for?

@SideshowBob I’ve got some nice Constrictor Asps. Just been having a look at them tonight and they’re nicer than I thought - I had it in my head they were the heavier Boa and I had been thinking of building with the wideish Sturmey hub we’ve discussed. [That said, these Asps seem pretty robust, seems like it would need to be a fierce pothole to trouble them.] Need to figure out some spokes now!

They sound good and would look great.

I was very tempted to have another go at the black background but I think I just have to say this is the best I can do. A fair amount of trial and error to get here. Some spots are better than others but in places there is barely any profile to the star and border, also the letters are not very deep and dents and dings didn't help.

I'm not sure how this is done in production - I guess when new, the profile is much better. I'd be interested if anyone knows!

Following tips on another forum I used chrome 'Bare Metal Foil' to mask the star and border and airbrushed the black background. I found it really hard cutting the mask, as I say there was barely any profile to run the knife along. Before this I hadn't used an airbrush before and even this final attempt isn't perfect - I think I needed to thin the enamel a little more to avoid the few bubbles.

I did the background first thinking the lettering would be easy, but it was a royal pita. I thought a flood fill and wipe would do it, but the curvature of the badge, shallowness of the letters and dings made it really tricky. I pretty much had to do one letter at a time and clean up the edges with toothpicks. [Cotton buds were another mistake along the way :)] Needless to say I effed up the background while doing the lettering so had to do that again afterwards.

I did a final polish with Autosol and applied a matt lacquer but think I might have buffed off most of the lacquer. Dunno quite what to do, the brass dulls pretty quickly, maybe I'll give it another coat.

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