SPECSStatus: In Progress Made in London, England Size: 56cm Frame & Fork: Reynolds 531 Groupset: Campagnolo Record Bars: Original-Gerry Burgess (GB) Stem: Original-3ttt Wheelset: TBD BEFOREThis bike comes with a great story. I went to Vernon, BC to see a guy about a Specialized Stumpjumper FS (see blogs 19 and 20) and ended up buying two bikes from him. When he found out that I liked to rebuild vintage bikes, he said that I had to meet his neighbour, Gordon. Gordon had been given this Holdsworth as a project. I suspect it was because Gordon seems handy and is British. Gordon was way to busy for another project, especially one like this that needed a lot of work, so I ended up taking it home. What a lucky day that was! I went home with three bikes in the car and a lot of excitement about this Holdsworth. I found a Holdsworth Facebook group that has many people in it who know a lot about Holdsworths, including a few people who are former employees of Holdsworth. They directed me to a website and spreadsheet and were able to help me find out about this bike. Based on the serial number (69473), which is found on the bottom bracket and the fork tube, the bike was a Shop Special, meaning it was made in their shop rather than their factory, and is likely an Italia Sprint. AFTERThe paint was in horrible condition and I really wanted to repaint it to look like the Holdsworth team bikes, so it had to be orange and blue. I stripped it down to the bare metal and that revealed the beautiful brazed lugs and Campagnolo dropouts. This was my most challenging paint job to date. It had two colours and the world championship decals were very challenging to apply so that the coloured bands matched up perfectly after wrapping around the frame. The painting/decal process took me 10 hours. In the end I was really happy with it, but there is a mistake that I will have to correct before I build the bike this winter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMike the Bike Archives
May 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed