Late father's T J Quick - advice please
 

I have recently had my late father's T J Quick rebuilt.

He was ill in 2001/2 and stripped the bike in May 2002, labelling the components as he did so, to have the frame resprayed. Unfortunately he passed away before the he had the chance to rebuild his bike.

Some 13 years later Madgetts cycles of Diss, who organised the original respray, rebuild the bike for me using the labelled components. It has a Sachs rear deraillier, and Stronglight cranks, whilst the frame is made of Reynolds 531 tubing.

A few things puzzle me and I would appreciate advice on the possible age of the frame, as the straight fork style seems unusual, and maybe some thoughts on why the frame is built to run cantilever brakes (cyclocross style), but has very tight rear wheel to frame, and front wheel to fork, gaps.

He did live in Deptford (South London) in the 1990's and also left me a Witcomb frame (which was in bad condition, but is being restored), suggesting that he bought from local hand built frame makers. Both have similar fork styles, so does this suggest it was a geographic thing or a 90's frame style?

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=459274

My guess is that the fork is a product of the times. Do you know if the bike was specifically made for your father? The cantilever brake set-up on that definitely is uncommon. I think either the builder, or the person it was built for must have had some strong feelings about that.

What size tires are on it?

I agree with everything Zorro said...

Nice bike. I hope you will keep and cherish it.

Perhaps in the mid 80's or early 90's, the manufactures were experimenting with Cantis, and chose to build a few road bikes with them.

It doesn't look like it was outfitted with rack mounts for use as a touring bike.

Looks like a time trial bike, but the brakes are odd.

Interesting bike. Thanks for sharing it.

WRT to the cantilever brakes on a racing bike: it has been done before. By Jacaques Anquetil in 1961, on his TdF time trial bike.

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Grotefoto-3KBDQWKI.jpg

fwiw - I have a virtually identical fork on my 2000 Bob Jackson.

Good morning and thanks for all the input. Your comments, and discussions with others, along with thoughts from my youth would lead me to believe that the frame was built for him to his specification.

In about 1991, whilst living in Deptford I recall he had a few bikes stolen from his garage, along with a Specialised Rockhopper MTB of mine. I think he probably replaced the stolen ones with the frame above and a Witcomb, who had a shop less than a mile down the road.

From memory, track and time trial were his favoured cycling disciplines, more to watch than compete, but I suspect this influenced the decisions behind the frames he bought, built up, and rode. I also suspect that T J Quick's location to Herne Hill velodrome influenced heavily the frames he built for the customers he served. The Witcomb is similar in fork design, but is built for conventional brakes.

So I believe that both frames are probably early to mid ninties, built for him, with influence from the builders themselves, and probably tailored to the stock of components in his box of kit at the time.

Again thanks to all for your inputs and here is a picture of the Witcomb before it was sent away for refurbishment.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=459844

Time trial? Road Bike? The absence of a FR and bottle bosses and the presence of Cantis make it look a lot like a Cyclocross bike to.

Beautiful bike!! I love the fork. I think a few builders used them but Colnago is most common user.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...4&d=1434727277

PS this post was done before reading the OPs second post.

This looks like a nice frame too but in desperate need a respray.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...4&d=1434966355

Not a lot of clearance under the fork crown and bridge for CX.

Looks like it has 30mm tires on it already, plenty for CX.

Beautiful bike, at any rate.

OH OK I only saw the one pic and didn't see any of the crown/tire clearance.

Great looking Time Trial bike!!

The rims are black, by Alesa, with 700 x 23c tyres. The clearance on the rear bridge is less than 8 mm with the forks even tighter. I think this confirms a time trial frame with "odd" brakes rather than a cyclo cross frame. Again thanks for the helpful comments and compliments. It is a keeper and ridden out in his memory.

Here's a side view picture of Anquetil's bike in 1961. Both pictures were taken on day one of that year's Tour de France, I believe, as he's not in the yellow jersey. He won that jersey on day one and wore it till the end.


http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Grotefoto-EFTMYGVJ.jpg

The Witcomb is back from Madgetts. Really pleased with the result.

Good on you for taking care of your dads bikes! I'm sure he has a big smile on his face :thumb:

That Whitcomb is a real stunner!

I think T.J. Quick is Tommy Quick (great name for a Bike Builder). Who worked for Holdsworth at the Putney Rd Shop where they made the high end team Bikes. You can see the Holdsworth influence in the rear brake cable hanger. After Holdsworth folded he opened his own shop.

Love the chromed fork & stays.
Thanks for updating the thread.
Not sure if my son or son-in-law will have any interest in my bicycles.

Restoring Dad's bike
 

I too am restoring my Dad's TJQ (Tommy Quick) frame ... only mine dates from the 1950s (the Herne Hill days, rather than the Forest Hill ones ... although I did visit the Forest Hill shop once where they dutifully logged the frame number in their 'big book')! Just taken it in to Mercian Cycles, who I think would make a good job of it, but desperate to find an image of the original decals ... very different from the later ones that you can see in a few places on the web. Just labelled T.J.Q. rather than T J Quick and with an Olympic rings style logo on the head tube and the down tube. If anyone, anywhere has any photographs that might help??

Sadly the originals were lost in a previous 'respray' about 25 years ago.

H.Lloyds has a headtube decal
looks to be the same as the ones on that ebay ad that you recognised
H.Lloyds should be easily make up the downtube lettering based on that photo. Basic gothic font. They have the tube decals as well.

Do you have any Pic's ? The 50's sounds kind of early for a Tommy Quick.

2 eras of TJQs ... early ones from the 50's and 60's when Tommy was working in Herne Hill after which (I believe) he took a break from frame building and returned to it when he mover to Forest Hill/Catford in the 70s. No doubt that mines a TJQ;

- Tommy built it for my Dad in Herne Hill.
- It had all Tommy's decals on it when I inherited it in the 70s
- They checked the frame number against their records when I took it into Tommy's shop in the 90s.

Oh, ye of little faith!!

If you read back up this thread, then you'll earn more of the history If you find the link to the e-aby auction of a 1960s TJQ and follow the link, you'll find some excellent pictures of an incredibly preserved early TJQ ... and mine looked just like that (few very minor differences) only black and cream rather than red and white. To be honest the cream might have been faded white ... but close enough.

Trying to find the early style decals for a proper restoration if anyone knows of any???

Decals
 

Just spotted BigBlocks extremely helpful link. Yep. That's the one ... how did you even know??? Having mastered that ... any thoughts on what to do about 110mm rear fork spacing if I actually want to keep it a ridable machine! I have the original GB 'Coureur' brakes that almost certainly have enough adjustment for a 700C rim ... but finding a hub to build a rear wheel onto looks to be something of a challenge!

Thanks once again, I'll fire off an order and see wha happens ... and let you know!