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Another Winter , another Winter project ...

Picked up this rather unusual frame a couple of years ago , unfortunatly I know nothing of it's history or who built it . Columbus Max tubing , 127mm rear spacing , English threads and Reynold fork ends , suggest a British builder , late 80t's early 90t's . Frame no RT267MAX ,anyone reconise it ? would love to know it's history

Perfect size for me, for a steel frame , 59 cm c-t seat tube with a 56cm top tube. It's certainly a well built frame , fillet brazed throughout , using the lovely sculptured Columbus Max tubing and of cause the rear wheel hugging curved seat tube. There's a lot of attention to detail , especially in the way the cables are all internally routed through teflon sleeves and the extraordinary way the rear gear cable exit's the chainstay via a spoiler made from a build up of alumium ( problary 'Lumiweld' ) never seen anything like this before , very aero.

I'm guessing this was a full on time trial rig in it's day , with tri-bars , disc wheels etc. My plan is to build more of an aero road bike , using aero derived parts roughly from the same period as the frame , a rather nice example -

Had to attend to a few jobs before taking the frame down to Mario Vaz for paint.
Cold set the rear spacing to 130mm , as I'm going to be using 8 speed kit , this was actually a bit of a struggle, down to the stiffness of the frame , a quick alignment of the forks ends and hanger and job done.
At some point a front mech braze-on had been rather grudely removed,
so I smoothed off the mess with a dremil . Last job was to go round the frame looking for cracks none found,good.

Anyway it's at Mario's now , being refinished in , you guess it , Cinelli Laser blue . As I don't know the builder , It's going to be stickered up as a ' Columbus ' with some discrete graphics .

Subbed as well , good to see a project like this here , great stuff

Sold , cheers

Price Drop now only £39!

Really good Halo AeroTrack rear wheel in Ano silver.

Silver anodized AeroTrack 32 hole rim with braking surface , no dings or dents , some light marks , but being silver, these are hardly noticable

Stainless spokes

Halo hub with smooth sealed bearings, hollow axle.

comes complete with Halo 16t fixed sprocket and lockring , track nuts and rim tape

profestionally trued and tensioned

£39 collect from West Hendon NW9 or I can post for another £8 if you can pay by PayPal.

all sold , cheers

Price drop chainset now £39.00

Chainring sold

Nice Shiney Andel Chainset
170mm cranks
CNC machined 44t 1/8th Ring
Stronglight bolts
Hardly any wear, threads and tabers perfect , some toestrap wear on the cranks. Will come with new alan key crank bolts ( not shown in pic)

£45 NOW £39 collect West Hendon NW9 or I can post for another £4.50 PayPal

Velo Solo 46t 1/8th Black Chainring , 130 BCD ( Shimano) only used briefly £15 plus £ 1.50 posted SOLD

PM's please

Now sold to Timmah , thanks

Selling one of my race bikes from the 80t's.

**Frame & fork
**1985ish Shorter , build by barry Chick , 531db , nice lugs, cool flat top fork crown,Gipemme fork ends , all braze on's .

seat tube 58cm c -t
top tube 57cm c -c
127mm rear ( 7 speed )
Shiman600 alloy headset
Campagnolo seat bolt

Frame is nice and straight , one small dent on the right hand fork blade ( see pic) , paint still good , some chain scrapes a bit of minor surface rust in a few places , but as you can see from the pics , very good for it's age.
Wheels
Ofmega competion hubs , Mavic MA40 rims , SS spokes 36 hole,
Conti comp. tyres . New tubes.
Wheels are straight and tight , rim are showing wear from braking , fronts OK , rear less so but certainly usable.
Transmission
Mavic sealed bb , Shimano 600 Tri-colour chainset and rear mech , Shimano 105 front mech and levers , 14 speed index . Sachs freewheel and chain. Everything really good , but the cranks have ano loss and scratches.
Brakes
Shimano 105 with exage aero levers , new Jag wire cable set.
**Bars&stem
**Cinelli 1A Record 11cm stem, 43/40 bars, both very good , new Easton cork tape
**Saddle&post
**Campagnolo seat post 27.2 , no name saddle . Post is a bit scratched.

A matching bottle cage is included , I will also throw in a pair of pedals , either alloy quill or Shimano 105 Look delta .

Fully sorted and rides superbly

**£240

**Collect from West Hendon London NW9
or I can box and send by courier ( UK) for another £25 , PayPal payment if you want it sent

PM's Please , cheers

The Humber's finished ! To be honest it's been finished for a while now , done a fair few K's . I'm absolutely stoked with the bike , all that extra time getting everything set up perfect has really paid off . It's a real serene ride , no rattles or squeaks and the super slack angles coupled with the duplex forks and fat tyres means a super smooth ride . Kinda got used to the brakes , you just have to make allowances , like driving a VW with drum brakes. The only problem with the bike is , it just takes ages to get anywhere , not because me or the bike are slow , you just keep getting stopped my people curious about the bike , it does seem to attract attention .

Anyway , last batch of photo's for you , all taken by the Mrs , hope you like them as much as I do .

In the end I stayed with the inverted North Road bars , although I did narrow the width and shorten them . Then I wrapped the with white cloth tape , then 7 coats of shellac mix . This is much , much easier than some people would have you believe , you just buy a 240 ml bottle of brown French polish ( shellac / meths mix) from a specialist decorating shop , I got mine online for £3.95 plus PP, problary enough for 3 bikes , apply with a bit of sponge .The handlebar stops are wine bottle corks , from the wine bottle cork mountain in my kitchen .

The finished machine

Not finished yet , still some detail stuff to do , but a sneaky preview .

Back to business , namely brakes . I've fitted a genuine Edwardian front 'bobby dodger ' brake , these were fitted to path racers back in the day to make them road legal ,in a time when the feds could be bothered with such formalities.Well it's not exactly sophisticated or ergonomic , but it does work in a speed modulating sort of way.

Rear braking is taken care of by the rear coaster hub . Never used one of these before , pushing back on the pedals , like you would with a fix , doesn't do much , kicking back locks the rear wheel up , like someone sticking a broom handle through the rear wheel . Getting the hang of it now , after all , I want this bike to not only look like a 100 year old , but to ride like one as well .

Now Sold , cheers

Quality hand built 531 DB frame and forks , maker unknown and no frame number , but obviously well made , nice heart cut outs in head lugs and tidy seat cluster. Good semi sloping forged fork crown . Close mudguard clearance , road race geometry .

seat tube 56cm centre to top
top tube 55cm centre to centre
127mm rear axle
27.2 mm seat post
Decent Shimano 105 headset fitted
BB threads have been chased , and the seat tube honed.

Forks originally chromed, and this maybe retrievable , but the frame needs painting , hence only £50 collected from Hendon London NW9 SOLD

Good question - original intention was leisurely rides along the canal with the Mrs in the summer , but having had a first test ride today , i may well use it to ride to work from time to time , great fun ,certainly attracts attention and interest .

That's cool , and a timely reminder for me to get on with the project , kinda lost momentum recently , back on it now . Just fitted the front brake , slung a chain on and took it round the block , more soon with pics .
As to your question - Your bike is different than mine- it has smaller 26" wheels and caliper brakes . As long as your not fitting mudguards , I'd say 700 would fit
only way to be sure is to fit a pair and make sure there not to close to the frame / forks anywhere.

Price drop bump £25 collected , or £29 posted and I'll sling in some new toe straps!

A pair of Shimano 600 aero pedals , the pedals themselves are as new , toe clips (size large) are used with a few scrapes and minor pits ,also included are a pair of used back plates for spares . £25 collected Hendon NW9 daytime or £29 posted

You are so right about the Lauterwasser bars

Well here's my latest find ,well stoked with this, even though the plating is peeling off and its slightly bent downwards . A hand build stem , made from 531 , with fancy lugs , built by top 50t's frame builder Stuart Purves .

I'm still experimenting with handlebars , so far anything vintage I like goes for way more than I want to pay . Fitted in the photo, are a pair of cheap inverted North Road bars .These have been narrowed ,by bending the bars in a bit , and cutting 3 cm off each end . Actually look and feel about right , difficult to to tell with out riding the bike.

Some quick pics of the refurbished wheels . Front just needed truing up and new bearings and cones , finished off with some natty wing nuts .

Rebuild the rear wheel with the new coaster hub , using the original Stainless steel rim .Wanted to do this 4 cross , but couldn't find any 310mm spokes , so went with 3 cross . Because the rear hub flanges are thin and made of steel , I used brass spoke washers , this gives the spoke heads a lot more support and stops the spokes being guillotined

The more observant amongst you , may have noticed that the tyres have changed colour . A friend gifted these antique cream Schwalbe tyres and , as there in better shape than the originals , there staying , at least for the time being . Not sure which colour I prefer at the moment.

Nice Humber , top marks for keeping the original paint . Good move fitting alloy rims , lighter and you can stop in the rain ! Fantastic bit of detailing on the front lens , really makes the bike .

Of cause I'd love to see your restored Humber , thanks for Carnanba wax tip . Just finished building the rear wheel today , so expect an update soon .

I think that's a private seller on Nigel's website , not Nigel's own stock.
I'm with you on this one defiantly not a super , top of the seat stays look wrong for a start .