rhm

I have mentioned this frame several times over the last 2+ years, but I don't think I've ever devoted a whole thread to it.

The Holdsworth catalogs for 1975 and 1976 list, among others, a frame-only offering called the "531 Special." Kilgariff suggests it was "possibly" available in 1974 as well.



By the 1977 catalog, it was simply called the "Special," and it was soon offered as a complete bike, but I digress.

Anyway, at the Cirque du Cyclisme event in Leesburg VA in June 2014 I accidentally bought a very old looking frame, with many coats of terrible repaint, and a Campagnolo headset, for $50. I thought of it as a headset with a frame thrown in. The seller assured me it was a Holdsworth 531 Special. I don't remember if I took any photos of the frame, or if they just didn't come out. Anyway, the first photos I have show it after I'd stripped off all the paint.


Now, if you compare that frame to the one Holdsworth offered, you'll see some startling differences. The factory frame had distinctive lugs and an unusual seat stay treatment, which mine has, so the ID was confirmed. But mine also has a lot of braze-ons that the factory did not apply: top tube cable guides, down tube cable stops (for bar end shifters), two sets of water bottle mounts on the down tube, rack mounts on the seat stays, and two non-matching eyelets on each dropout. Pretty much every braze-on you can think of except BB cable guides and pump pegs.

Not sure whether it was worth much effort, I then built it up with parts on hand, and tried it out for a while. I found it looked pretty good in bare steel, and rode well... which was promising. To my surprise, it fit 650b wheels quite nicely.


So I took it apart again and applied some paint and home-made decals...

I copied the early Holdsworth head badge and decals, which I find more stylish than the horse headbadge they used later on.


And a month later, needing a touring bike, I set it up as a tourer and rode some 700 miles through upstate New York.


It turned out to be a pretty good touring bike! Interestingly, I'm not the only member of this forum ever to try one of these as a touring bike. But I had not intended it to be a touring bike. I soon turned my Holdsworth into an all-round randonneuring bike, and in this form (with occasional changes, and gradually deteriorating paint) I've ridden it since then, about 3000 miles total at this point. You've probably seen this photo before:

rhm

Alas, it's not perfect! The paint is not holding up well. The handlebar bag is unsatisfactory. The horizontal dropouts do not play nice with the fat tires (it's hard to put the wheel in, or take it out, no matter how low the air pressure). And so on. So... what to do?

Well, of course I asked @gugie what he would do... and now the frame is in Portland.

So I'm looking forward to periodic updates to show how the frame changes... again.

Hudson308 

Stylish, light AND versatile... what's not to love?

daf1009

Why change such a beauty? Sounds like a bike that you like to "play around with"...turning into different versions of itself...but...I like the rando version...

Chrome Molly

Almost any frame will have something that doesn't play nice with your ideals. We're it mine, I'd take it to a builder and have vertical drops refit, then add powder coating and your own lug lining. Maybe also custom racks. Still a utility infielder, but more to your needs.

Bikerider007

Nice find that looked great in many forms. That is the cool thing about a blank slate, you don't have to worry about any preconceived ideas and can get creative.

Look forward to seeing whats next.

nlerner

Just make sure you get mudflaps on the dang thing.

rhm

Vertical drops, yep, that's the first step.

Several years ago I trash-picked a crashed Vista 'Elite' that had Shimano vertical dropouts, which I sent @gugie along with the frame, thinking that he might be able to use them.



But once he removed the Campagnolo dropouts, it turned out the Shimano ones are too short @gugie's photo):


But apparently not a problem; there is something more modern that will work @gugie's photo):


I haven't decided about what the color; very likely I will have the powder coater match the existing color, and I'll do the same decals again. But I'm considering other options. Suggestions are welcome!

qcpmsame 

It should be very interesting to watch what comes out of @gugies secret workshop lair with the Holdsworth. I liked your touring version of that frame, the homemade decals were amazing to me. Too bad the paint didn't hold up well, now you get a second shot at bringing this frame back to life.

Bill

Dougbloch 

I too was impressed by the homemade decals. Thanks for sharing this great story!

gugie 

For those that are squeemish, look away:



I can only heat either the chainstay or the seat stay up to brass melting temperature, not both at the same time, so the dropout is hacked into two pieces on both sides.



Heat up each leftover bit with a very hot flame, quickly until it's glowing orange, but before much of the stay is overheated. Just enough to melt the brass and yank out what's left like a dentist pulling a molar.

Then it's clean, file, fit the dropout, and put it in. Might be a few days before this gets done, the day job is taking up much to much of my time this week. Pix posted from Portland as progress portends.

Lascauxcaveman 

Omigod, that's brutal. I nearly fainted.

I know the patient will all the stronger after the surgery is complete. Godspeed, Dr. Gugie.

gugie 

Frame work is like sausage. It is better not to see them being made.

gugie 

To be honest, the paint looks pretty good. There's some rusting at the bottle mounts, but overall I like it. The box lining looks pretty dang cool. If you get your eye up close and sight down them, they're not perfectly straight, but that's part of the charm.

The decals are fabulous! I might be looking to throw some commission work @rhm's way at some point.

rhm

True, but it's okay to inspect the ingredients! The lugs, for example, are Prugnat 62 S:



Colnago used a long point version of these.

Thanks for the kind words about the decals! As I mentioned in another thread, I think graphics are important.

noglider 

Wow, such good work! How do you do the box lining?

rhm

I discussed my box lining technique in this post. No doubt there are better ways ....

squirtdad

I think this is totally cool, take a frame of good repute, treat it like a living thing, and make it work for you, with a collaboration of BF people's skills and vision

CliffordK

I've been thinking of horizontal to vertical changes (because of broken dropouts). An option might be to push the seatstays foward just slightly. Tire clearance at the seattube may or may not be an issue, but many non-racing bikes had a lot of extra clearance.

I like the custom cut dropouts.

juvela

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Bulle Ogier in the 1970 Swiss film "La Salamandre" -




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romperrr 

As the owner of a Holdsworth Mistra, I'm eagerly watching this thread.

unworthy1

Just a thought (too late and maybe moot since you got those custom DOs from Gugie): my Holdsworth "Touring" frame has Campagnolo verticals...plus cantilever bosses. But obvious it's a different beast since neither those Prugnats nor the fork crown or stay caps match.

rhm

Actually, I don't believe it is too late!
The new drops have not been fitted yet, and NOS Campy sets can be had on eBay, maybe under fifty bucks.

But (assuming they'll fit better than the Shimano ones, which is not a good assumption) there's no obvious upside. They would match neither the front ones nor the catalog description, and anyway: this frame lost its "vintage cred" long before it arrived Chez Gugie.

unworthy1

what brand are the forkends? Odd that everything isn't Campy given the special relationship Holdsworthy had as official UK distributor.

gaucho777 

The built-up & loaded bike looks great. Glad to see gugie is making it more useful. I like the color and the box-lining even if not perfect. Of course, there are hand-held pin-striping tools with an adjustable guide attachment that is positioned on the tube. And check out how they used to do the pin-striping at the Raleigh factory (around 7:20 in the video):