Originally Posted by
Wildwood
Thanks [MENTION=202349]SpeedofLite[/MENTION],
Kudos for the link to this thread. You organized folks and long-time cyclists are a true joy of the forum.
I own an '80 (?) Holdsworth Special that came to USA thru the Irish company Harding Cycles (and decaled as such) of Dublin and Cork; probably imported to Los Angeles by Charlie Harding for his shop. The only difference (I have detected) from a Holdsworth Special is my lack of eyelets (fork & dropouts). I got it as a bare frame and fork In 58cm from a shop in Colorado - affordably. ¿Who ever heard of a Harding?
Has been through more than a couple of rebuilds (during last decade or so) - road tires and standard 52/42, or gravelly 46/30 gears and 33 cyclocross tubulars. Now on winter trainer evaluating narrow handlebars that flare to 38cm in the drops. Long stem gets acceptable reach.
It finished Cino 2016 without so much as a flat tire, running knobbie 33 cyclocross tires.
But it accels as a road sport, for pleasant, neutral handling.
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purchased me first "tenspeed" from Charlie Harding at his shop on Westwood Boulevard in Westwood (Los Angeles) California about 1966
it was a white Peugeot U08 and cost about eighty dollar
he had some topline Carltons he was "closing out" at about one hundred seventy dollar, a staggering sum to me at the time
had a part time job as a college student which paid a whopping dollar sixty-five per hour
after payroll deductions would have had to work at least one hundred twenty hour to purchase such a machine
Charlie's loft was a real treasure store for vintage enthusiasts with quality fittings going back into the nineteen fifties
iirc he retired about nineteen ninety and returned home to Eire
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