Big Block

Mike, do you know who manufactured your handlebars? V-CC have the 1947 Reynolds catalogue available and the alloy ones are on pages 33-36. The Continental bend is on p36. 17" centre to centre. But it appears flat at the top.
The ones that curve up before dropping are generally referred to as randonneur bars.
Reynolds have the Grand Randonneur with either 16.5" or 18" C to C
Now I have the bar tape off, mine are, from the stampings, Reynolds Bindas.
As always, a joy to look at your photos.

Sir_Name 

Lovely bicycles.

Aimlessly poking around online I found these:

Hobbs of Barbican Lytaloy Pedals & GB Professional Toe Clips: 1940's English, RARE - Bike Recyclery

Quite $pendy, but someone here may be interested...of course I'm in no way affiliated.

icepick_trotsky 

^^ I bought some stuff from that seller at a local swap meet recently. He had lots of nice stuff.

Big Block

Peter Lowry, the V-CC Marque Enthusiast, has confirmed that mine is a Raceweight, and You are absolutely right... your frame was made in September, 1946, Hobbs used three different numbering systems and the numbering on your frame was used immediate post-war.


The Hobbs pedals are not period correct for the 1946 builds. They came out in 1947. [relief]

and started the cleanup; soaking and brushing pedals and brake callipers. At this stage I am not going to highly polish.

I picked up the test run of my latest folly
on the top tube


and on the chain stay

AZORCH

I've been off the forums for a few months now and this being a rainy afternoon thought I'd do a quick update on the Hobbs.



For now, it's built up as a rider while I continue my search for a "proper" crankset, bars, and stem. Riding fixed wheel has been a whole lot of fun, although it's a real bee-yatch if I don't have a head of steam up before climbing some of the longer hills around these parts. On Sunday mornings I've been taking the old girl out to the downtown airport to ride the 5km loop favored by the local urban cyclists who apparently enjoy riding in circles. I get a lot of looks, comments, and stares. I'm more than a little impressed at being able to hold my own on a seventy year old bike for a few laps. In all likelihood, the Hobbs will be my mount for this year's Tweed Ride instead of my three speed drop bar Raleigh that I've been on the past three or four years.

I will not be painting this frame. I like the beausage, patina, scratches - what have you - as it is. I'm also not worried about a wholesale restoration of parts either. They'll find me, or they won't. In either case, I'm enjoying the ride.

gomango

That's a real beauty.

Love the color.

Everything is spot on.

superstring

Man, what a fantastic job you've done! May I ask how you made those decals?

AZORCH

I use waterslide media. The graphic is printed in high resolution using archival lightfast ink sets. The graphic was recreated in Adobe Illustrator after very careful measurements for placement. I was fortunate in that some of the fonts (Gill) are in my fairly extensive font library, but both the "HOBBS" and the "Hobbs of Barbican" required custom lettering. The script lettering on the down tube was photographed from different orientations to compensate for the curve of the tube, then reassembled in Photoshop to minimize the distortion from the tube. That composite image was used to do the custom lettering.

superstring

Thanks for the reply, AZORCH. I'm very impressed!

Big Block

progress on my 1946 is being made.
all parts now sourced, the slowest part of any bike build.
It has been stripped of all components, each one cleaned, lubricated and assembly is now underway.
Hopefully I will pick up the built wheels soon and the 26x1 1/4" tyres are on their way from England.

the step by step diary is on its own thread

AZORCH

Lookin' great, Big Block - and I do dearly love those bars on yours!

Quiet Mike

So our Raceweights are very soon to be 70 years old!

rhm

So cool!

And it's always nice to see that there's someone out there who's crazier than myself....

Kilroy1988 

@AZORCH - most of the photos you posted of the Hobbs are no longer available! I just bumped into this thread and it looked like things were starting out lovely, but I can't view much of the progress. Could you re-upload the photos or redirect to the new links on Flickr? Would love to see more... Cheers!

AZORCH

Hmm. How weird.

Well, here you are - photos of the Hobbs. I'm still on the lookout for a period correct crankset, and maybe someday I'll find the missing parts of the headset, or find one complete. Even these photos eventually need updated because I've made a few adjustments since they were made.






Got lucky and found an NOS Bluemels frame pump in the correct length.

Kilroy1988 

Thanks, it looks fantastic! I think the full brake lever hoods make it seem a bit more modern than it is, and that using any cottered crank set would immediately make it look better than with what you've got on there - 1940s or not. The frame pump is a great touch, and I am really beginning to enjoy the down tube position that seemed to be common on the British Lightweights of that era. I look forward to seeing any future updates!

I also just realized you must be Mark from The Early Morning Cyclist, which I see is linked in your signature line. When I got back into cycling a few months ago I ran into your blog and read several entries, particularly concerning your interest in randonneuring and the Cycles Toussaint you've been riding. I really appreciate the time to take to share your thoughts. Cheers!

AZORCH

Yup, the levers and bars are mid-60's, but are pretty comfortable so I'm in no hurry to change. I'd really like to find myself a decent crank set, but just haven't come across anything that floats my boat. I've got several Nervar sets, but I'm determined to get a period correct component from the island. Meanwhile, the thing that's on there is functioning fine. It'll get yanked the second I come across what I'm looking for though.

dweenk

What are the fenders? They look good with the bike.

CuttersRidge

Lovely, I just happened to be reading on that brand at British Lightweights the other day:

Hobbs of Barbican

In Readers' Bikes too; maybe one could submit the ones in this thread to them.

https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/readers_bikes.html

That website has really vintage bikes, mostly 1960 and before.

Big Block

Peter has sadly stopped new entries in Readers Bikes.
But plenty more Hobbs that another Peter has over at
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/229926/newest/

CuttersRidge

Well, I know of a Peter K. (I won't name drop) who is into old bikes and Classic Lightweights has one of his.

I also came across this gent in New Zealand, he had a real nice collection of Brit bikes, they made (and make) some fantastic bikes, but there was a real golden age in the UK. I think the guy in New Zealand has a "Lang" and that was a nice bike.

AZORCH

Those are a pair of NOS Bluemels I had hanging around waiting for a build like this to come along.

By the way, there was a very nice Hobbs sold on the Bay a couple of days ago. I was sorry tempted.

AZORCH

My 1946 Hobbs of Barbican Superbe finally sports the Lauterwasser-style bars I had envisioned from the first for this venerable Brit time trial bike. I'm not in any hurry because the bike is very rideable with a few "not-so-authentic" parts, but among other things I'm still on the lookout for an appropriate crank set.

I've never had Lauterwasser bars before, but I have had mustache bars - which I didn't enjoy at all. Being as how there is a familial resemblance, I was taking a bit of a gamble on these. I think it might have been Mike Kone who mentioned how comfortable he found Lauterwasser bars to be, so I was banking on that to be the case for me as well. A couple mile spin this morning, and I'm happy to report that not only did I guess correctly on stem length for reach, but the bars are quite comfortable to ride upon. I'm curious to hear what other's experiences are.

By the way, these are the Soma repro bars, not originals.