if we are being completely honest, i think i needed a little time away from these bikes before sharing them with the world.

but what we have now is a nice bit of distance, and an interesting story to share. read on to hear of the tale of two brothers, and the 2013 philiadelphia show bikes…

so the two brothers are my dad and uncle. both of them more than a little responsible for my path to framebuilding, and each with their own specific take on the ideal bicycle. but it was a gift from my uncle to my dad though that precipitated the first of these show bikes-

i think pete (uncle) found it at mt. airy bikes, probably buried underneath years of cycling detritus, made a nice wooden box for it, and gave it to my dad for his 50th birthday. it was a beautiful part. intriguing. and it sat on the shelf for a few years without shifting anything.

in the meanwhile, pete (owner of the first frame i ever made) had a design of his own he was working on… the clubman!

a very slight update to the british bikes of the 30s (in that it has 700c tires instead of 27"), built to measure in the present day. in keeping with our own english heritage, this bike would be a hollingsworth, not a royal h. what had me puzzled was how to do an updated version of the thimble fork- the iconic raleigh front end that is quintessentially english.

my long time shopmate marty had been building his updated version of the new england style segmented forks for years, and it was only a matter of time before i saw my solution. old england meets new england! it was a perfect solution- with a little re-tooling and filing, and some welding help from marty, i had my thimble fork. i think it was our first true collaboration. the rest of the bike was truer to history- carlton birds eye lugs; reynolds 531 tubing; sturmey archer close ratio 4 speed internal hub. i didn’t know much about clubman bikes, but apparently in the 30s, the mindset in england was that these internally geared, fendered bikes were the way to go.

meanwhile, on the other side of the channel (we’re still back in the 30s), the french had their own take on what the best variable geared setup was.

at the time this was a hotly debated topic, and external derailleurs had not yet won the upper hand. but an idea had started to form in my mind- i was working on a vintage clubman bike, and my dad has this french rod shifter from deep in the past… why not make a french counterpoint to the british clubman?

my instinct was to of course begin immediately. i think a lot of framebuilders suffer from these bad instincts- where the allure of building an interesting one off outweighs the completely unprofitable nature of the project. but the idea of putting that rod shifter back into service kept me inspired- a once discarded part in the back corner of a shop ressurected. and it shifts like a champ- very clean and crisp. stainless steel pads on the seat tube act as the limit stops, and the actual shifting isn’t nearly as suicidal as the name suggests. the rear, slightly less crisp (you really need to muscle against that spring), but still completely functional.

in the end, neither project was 100% historically accurate- the clubman has a tig welded fork, the french bike for my dad has new reproduction rene herse cranks, an skf bottom bracket, and cane creek 110 classic headset. so i didn’t pull out ALL of my hair building these up. i work with steel and flame, and it was fun to build these frames in a similar way to the builders of yore.

and it made for a great story to tell in the booth at the philly bike expo- the tale of two lovingly competitive brothers and their difficult, vintage bikes. it was a lot of fun, and very rewarding to create two very unique machines, but it did take a certain toll. it’s only now, one year later, that i am sharing these with the world. like i said, i needed some distance. especially from those cottered cranks. these show bikes aren’t my bread and butter, but they are another reason to go custom. hopefully i’ll be able to share the 2014 philly bikes a lot sooner! check out the full photo shoot and nerd out on the vintage british and french parts on the royal h flickr , and stay tuned for philly show updates.

see you there!