Condor Superbe

Images from Ebay item # 170839836982

Avoidance strategies

Condor, Ron Cooper, Ritchey Swiss Cross, 1995 Benson, Ritchey fixed gear, GT Peace 29r

This weekend I have to assemble road bike from  box of parts so that CTB can ride it next weekend.
A simple enough task that I figured I could swap the Brooks Professional saddle off my '59 Condor onto the Ron Cooper before I got started.

Replacing a worn out Brooks Pro with another, more salubrious, example presented no great challenge; and nor did replacing it on the Condor with a nice 1960s Brooks B17.
The B17 looked a bit grubby, so I gave it a scrub with saddle soap, and when it had dried, a slathering of Proofide.

After lunch, other, similar, tasks seemed to become pressing.
My red road bike appeared unconscionably dirty, as did my Ritchey Swiss Cross. The Ritchey fixed gear bike was streaked with wintry road muck, unused since Gayle decreed she would be riding gears on our next ride and I, bringing only the blunt pocketknife of my athletic ability to that particular gunfight, followed suit.
These cleaned, it was apparent the the 29er singlespeed, neglected since my last visit to Rotorua with CTB, could not remain encrusted with dirt.
My vintage Ritchey missed getting photographed, but got a wash and had its tubular wheels swapped for a pair of nice clinchers.

Eventually I got CTB's Giant into the stand but I needed a beer. Fortunately, tomorrow is another day.

More Condor

In response to Oli's question in the comments on the last posting:

When the Condor frame arrived on Tuesday, I had collected most of the parts I thought I would need, and even built up a nifty pair of suitable tubular wheels.
Some of them have worked out, and some others caused me a bit of grief in the attempt to get the bike rideable for the SOLO bunch ride on Friday morning.

First up, the frame needed some love before any parts went on.
At some time the BB threads have been stripped, and rebuilt with bronze, so I ran the Campag taps through, and faced the shell.
The headtube had never been reamed, and is splayed from having oversized headset cups pressed in, so I reamed and faced with the Campag tool, skimming a couple of millimetres off the overall length to accomodate the still-low stack height of the Campagnolo Gran Sport headset.
The forkblades were bent to the right. I did a fair job of straightening them, using my Hague fork jig as a reference, but I may yet ask Oli Brooke-White to get them perfect on his world famous VAR fork straightening jig.

The drivetrain went through a few iterations.
The Campagnolo Record derailler that I wanted to use didn't have the capacity for the 52/42 rings and 14-26 freewheel, so I swapped it for a 1970 Nuovo Record, which turned out to be too worn to use.
Third time lucky, I degreased an '81 Nuovo Record as an interim solution.
Eventually, I'll get the drivetrain configured to work with the Record derailler.

The Campagnolo crankset, bottom bracket and pedals are all temporary.
I have a set of Campag 'con denti'* track pedals in need of a home, and a lead on a set of TA Professional* cranks.

Where I can, I use Suntour Ultra-6 freewheels on bikes with 120mm dropout spacing, but on the Condor the chain catches on the seatstay when shifting from the smallest sprocket. I dug up a nice looking Suntour Perfect 5 speed freewheel, but one of the sprockets was too worn, so I am using the largest 5 sprockets on an Ultra-6 14-24 until I can get an IRD 5 speed 13-24 from the House of Dogboy.

Most of my English bikes have centrepull brakes, so I was planning to use a pair of Universal Super 68 sidepulls, until I found a set of unused Universal Extra calipers lurking in a box of Trademe acquisitions. These are the 'period correct' Universal sidepull, so the 68s can wait for another project.
The gold Universal brakelevers are undeniably a taste crime, but I want to milk the last mileage out of their perished and tattered gum hoods before I swap them for a pair in plain aluminium.

Headset________________Campagnolo Gran Sport
Bottom bracket__________Campagnolo Record
Crankset_______________Campagnolo Nuovo Record 172.5mm
Chainrings ______________Ofmega 42/52
Brakes_________________Universal Extra sidepulls
Brake levers____________Universal
Shift levers_____________Campagnolo Record braze-on
Front derailler___________Campagnolo Record 1st Generation with cable stop
Rear derailler____________Campagnolo Nuovo Record PAT. 81
Hubs__________________Campagnolo Gran Sport 32/40
Freewheel______________Suntour Winner Ultra 6 14-24
Rims__________________Fiamme Red label tubular
Saddle_________________Brooks Professional, butchered
Seatpost_______________Campagnolo Nuovo Record 27.0mm
Stem__________________Cinelli Mod.1 steel 13cm
Handlebars_____________Cinelli Perfection 42cm

*John Barron photo

The Condor is landed

Words to follow
MORE PHOTOS HERE

Wherein DB blows a trip to Buck House

Gordon Brown called earlier today.
As the man in charge of a major economy headed down the gurgler, you would think he had better things to do, but he said he was calling to thank me for singlehandedly boosting the British economy by the purchase of the 1959 Condor frame below.

Now, anyone who has ever read this blog will immediately realise that I was motivated by not even the slightest flicker of altruism but by a relapse of my chronic CBAD , induced by the curly-lugged fabulosity of this fine specimen of Bill Hurlow's work; however I didn't want to upset Gordo and so let him prattle on a bit.

After a couple of minutes of waffle, he cleared his thoat, hummed and harred a bit, then blurted out that I might like to contribute a similar kings ransom to the British Labour Party, and that in return, he'd fix me up with a knighthood.

I was gobsmacked, and let Gordo know it in no uncertain terms: " You miserable Scots Git, for the price the Condor, I'd expect a peerage"

Fortunately for my personal economy, a quick inventory of the shed reveals a suitable Classic Hits selection of components- 50's Campag Gran Sport wide flange hubs that Simon Kennett rustled up from a recycling centre; 1st generation Record front derailer from John Rhodes; and, just arrived from Wayne Davidson, a Record rear derailler.
If the cable stops under the top tube are not offset to the right, I will use Universal Mod 68 sidepulls, otherwise there's a nice set of Dia-Compes that will serve while I look for some Weinmann or GB sidepulls.

MORE PHOTOS HERE

Holdsworth Professional

P1010026
Originally uploaded by bensondoc

An unexpected addition to the stable.
I traded this, plus a yet-unseen parts package, for my Condor Italia loaner.
Like CT-B's Holdsworth Italia it was built by Reg Collard for the F.W Holdsworth retail shop.
The lack of chrome and brazed on brake cable hanger suggest 1968 or 69.
Despite the italian influence that held sway at F.W Holdsworth, this frame is a laidback Luxo-Cruiser, with 103cm wheelbase and parallel 72.5 degree angles. It has a full set of braze-ons, including downtube guides & stops for bar end shifters.

I should point out that I don't have any secret knowledge about these frames- everything that I think I know comes from Norman Kilgariff's excelent Holdsworth website, especially the pages on the Holdsworth Campagnolo professional team, and the Holdsworth Professional.

More Hurlows- updated

In the absence of my Hurlow frame, apparently scheduled to arrive early July, I googled up a couple of others:

This super-spanky 1969 Hurlow is featured at the V-CC New England Section blog.

Over at Fixed Gear Gallery, the lugwork on Adam Schwarcz' Stan Miles track bike is unmistakeably by Hurlow.

Some more Hurlow factoids and a couple more examples of his work at Hetchins.org.

Over at Bike Works NYC's bikecult site, a Hurlow-built 1962 Condor Italia, and a 1968 Condor with Hurlow's Superbe lugs.

Ebay relapse

Today I planned to buy a Ron Cooper frame on ebay from a guy in Texas, but ended up buying a W.B Hurlow from English collector Hilary Stone.

The Ron Cooper would have been a nice match for my Gillott, but I fumbled my last-second bid.
The Hurlow looks very similar to my 1963 Condor Italia, but with the advantage that it is my size. I maintained my bidding resolve by surfing through photos of Kevin Krugers similar '72 Hurlow on Wool Jersey.

Hilary's auction spiel:
'Offered for sale is a very original 24in ctt W B Hurlow frame from 1969. Top tube length is 22in and rear dropout width is 124mm. This beautifully built frame was built with Prugnat lugs. Bill Hurlow was one of the very top framebuilders in the UK during the 1950s to 1970s period. There are some other lovely touches - the curved chainstay bridge and reinforced seatstay bridge for example. The frame is in very sound condition though the finish has detoriated somewhat.

Bill Hurlow links:

• Vintage Lightweights UK
• Classic Rendezvous
• Kevin Kruger's '72 Hurlow Bike, with photos from Hurlow's workshop
• Kevin Kruger's Hurlow-built Condor track bike
• Bob Freitas' orange & yellow Hurlow
• John Pergolizzi's fancy lugged Hurlow
• Pergolizzi's Hurlow-built Condor, which has some interesting features.
• Pergo's S.W.Cotten is said to have been built by Hurlow too.

A confluence of fanboy obsessions

A couple of photos from Eric Clapton's Japanese tour blog show that his long standing passion for Cinellis is unabated.

Google turned up a couple of older photos of Clapton taking delivery of a new Cinelli from Antonio Colombo in 1987, and con Cinelli in Milano, October 1988.

Antonio Colombo shares Clapton's love of the blues- his stand at this year's Milan show had a non stop blues soundtrack, which caused me to linger long after I had lost interest in what was on display.

The Condor on the cover of the first edition of Richard's Bicycle Book is rumoured to have been Clapton's. After attacking the Condor with a 10" adjustable spanner and crushing the brake cables, I guess Richard didn't get an invite to feature any of Clapton's Cinellis in later editions.

1963 Condor Italia

Frame serial #6305

Not my size, but at NZ$72 on Trademe I couldn't help myself.
I suspect that the fork isn't original, but I'm sufficiently charmed by the British Cycling Federation stickers on each forkleg not to care.

As purchased there wasn't too much to get excited about except the frame, which has faded but original paint, a good headbadge and exceptionally sharp lugwork.
Although it is blue/grey now, unfaded paint under the clamped on fittings is a rich purple.

The lugs seem to be sandcastings, which must have been unusual by the time this frame was built. The ID of the seat lug is stepped to allow the top of the seattube to be cut square, a common practice with modern investment cast lugs.
The Campagnolo 1010 dropouts have no eyelets, suggesting that a single purpose racing frame rather than a generic English clubmans bike.

More photos
Condor page at Classic Rendezvous

Headset________________Campagnolo Gran Sport
Bottom bracket___________Stronglight
Crankset________________Stronglight
Brakes_________________Mafac 2000 (Mafac Racer pictured)
Brake levers_____________Mafac
Shift levers______________Zeus Criterium
Front derailler___________Zeus (Campagnolo Gran Sport pictured)
Rear derailler____________Zeus Criterium (Campagnolo Nuovo Record pictured)
Hubs__________________Normandy
Rims__________________700c clincher
Saddle_________________Brooks Professional (Ideale Mod 90 pictured)