Retro Refurb!

The upcoming Tweed Run 2011 has inspired me to convert the purple bike back from hipster special to it's retro former glory.

The original frame is a c1953 Humber Streak. Humber were apparently one of the three main divisions of the famous Raleigh bicycle manufacturers. Here is a link to a short Wikipedia article on the Humber company; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humber_(bicycle)

Unfortunately there does not appear to be much information around anymore on Humber, however they were made in England in the mid 20th century and as such featured Raleigh's propietary threading (26tpi) as opposed to the more common "english" 24tpi used on modern bicycles. This usually creates issues when fitting modern bottom brackets and the original forks into a modern headset...

I overcame this issue by having the bottom bracket shell re-threaded and re-faced not only to make the threading english standard but also to shave 1mm off each side fo the bottom bracket shell, again to make it the standard 68mm width as found on modern bicycles today. This work was carried out by Hilary Stone, who supplied the frame and offered this service for £12! Hilary is a collector and supplier of vintage and collectable bicycle parts. Hopefully he doesn't mind me posting a link to his site here; http://hilarystone.com/

INSERT HUMBER CATALOGUE

I had the frame powdercoated at Armourtex in Hackney, North London, early last summer. In the end I decided on a deep purple colour with a metallic finish. Armourtex did a sterling job on the frame, it came out like brand new! The only minor critisism I have is that the metallic laquer is more glittery than i expected, but this is only noticable close up. Still better than a boring flat colour, and not too far from vintage (although the original colour of the bike was a flat dark blue)

As can be seen from the original spec of the bike given in the catalogue it came with fluted cranks, which I have managed to replicate by total coincidence with the Andel track cranks I fitted. To get around the issue with the original forks I fitted a new sealed 1" threaded headset and a pair of cheap black forks off eBay - I plan to change these to some shiny chrome forks shortly.

I fitted a Brooks B17 Standard saddle and Carradice "Barley" saddlebag to fit in with the original style, and also some perforated honey brown bartape to match the saddle. Initially the saddlebag was fitted to the seatrails and seatpost, however this put the bag too far forwards so that it rubbed on my legs and also swung around a fair amount, especially when standing to pedal uphill. I rectified this by fitting the Carradice Bagman Sport support rails and must say i'm more than happy with the results!

INSERT RECENT PICTURES

So 5 days until the Tweed Run, better get polishing!