My 1973 Jack Taylor Tourist

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Nola Wilken

I seem to be on a 70’s Brit-bike craze! But it has lasted a while, as I have had this Jack Taylor Tourist Mixte for about 8 years. At the time I purchased it from Hilary Stone, he thought it was a 1960s model. After the bike safely made its crossing over the Atlantic, I disassembled it for cleaning and was able to read the matching serial numbers at both the rear dropout and the steerer tube more clearly, and have now dated this bike to 1973.

The build quality of this bike is classic Taylor brothers, with incredibly smooth brazing at all the joints. It is made, of course, with Reynolds 531 double butted tubing, and features Campagnolo dropouts, hand-hammered fenders, through-the-frame dynamo wiring, and those beautiful and colorful Jack Taylor logos. The Taylor brothers followed the practice of building their mixte frames with a single sloping standard diameter top tube fillet brazed at the seat tube with the two extra mixte stays of fairly narrow diameter. Having ridden all kinds of mixte frames, I have to say that this method is likely not the most ideal in terms of adequate frame stiffness. On this bike, the head tube feels somewhat independent from the rest of the bike. Mixte frames are best, in my opinion, when built with twin lateral sloping down tubes that extend to the rear dropouts, or if a single tube is used, extending the mixte stays beyond the seat tube also helps keep the frame adequately stiff, such as this design by Peter Weigle.

This is one of the few bikes I have ever ridden that was geared too low for me. It was set up with a Stronglight 99 crankset carrying a single drilled 36 tooth ring (pictured first), mated to a Sachs-Fitchel Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub with a 6 speed cassette ranging from 14 to 28 teeth. The hybrid internal hub is meant to take the place of the front derailleur (or add to it, if you are Sheldon Brown and want 63 gears), and it provides a direct drive, and one lower gear that is about 25% lower than the direct drive. So, with this set-up, the lowest gear was around 24 gear inches – wow! Unfortunately, the gearing topped out at 65 gear inches, and that meant that I didn’t have much in the way of a comfortable cruising gear, much less any way to power up to speed on a sprint. Since I didn’t want to change out the Stronglight 99 crank, I replaced the 36 tooth ring with a 38, (pictured second), and that helped a bit. Even so, I rarely engage the lower internal hub gear, as I really don’t need it, so I ride this bike as a 6 speed, for the most part.

The photo above shows its original configuration as shipped, but it is very likely that the Sachs Orbit hub set up was not part of the original build, but was added later. I don’t think these hubs were made until the 1980’s, and the 27 inch (yes, not 700c) rims do not match, with the rear being a Weinmann and the front rim remaining unbranded and probably the original wheel built by Ken Taylor.

This is one big mixte! The seat tube measures 54cm and the effective top tube length is a whopping 55cm. With its large wheels and big frame, it cuts an imposing shadow. The bike came equipped with no-rise French-sized mustache bars shimmed into a Milremo stem.

So, I changed out the bars and stem to bring them closer to me using a tall no name stem with very little reach and some Soma Mustache bars. I also swapped out the Madison leather saddle, which was pretty worn, with the Ideale Model 75 saddle pictured above. Unfortunately, while looking very pretty, this leather saddle, though vintage, is still hard as a rock and needs some breaking in. Here are photos of the rest of the components:

Suntour V-GT rear derailleur

Mafac cantilevers, of course.

Milremo front hub with very stylish wingnuts.

Soubitez dynamo

Constructeur racks front and rear, mounted only to the fenders.

Seat stay brazing, nice and simple. The paint now looks great after weeks and weeks of cleaning and polishing.

This photo was taken before cleaning and polishing.

Original French mustache bars. SunTour Stem mounted shifters.

Another broken reflector

She’s a beauty! I commuted on this bike for a few years, but haven’t ridden it much lately, as I still have not made ergonomic peace with it. With spring coming, I think I will dust if off and see if I can’t make this ride a bit more comfortable for me.

A 1972 Mercian

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Nola Wilken

I recently purchased this Mercian on eBay. The seller described it as a 1960’s model, but with its Shimano dropouts, I suspected it was actually made a bit later.

The bottom bracket shell seems to indicate this is a 1972 model. A name appears to be etched above the serial number, but I can’t quite make it out. Perhaps this was the owner’s name. Having looked through the available Mercian catalogs on-line, and after taking frame measurements, I still don’t quite know what model this is.

However, given that it has decent length chain stays (44mm), and single eyelets front and rear, it is possible that this is the Campionissimo or Olympic model, off the shelf frames designed for light touring and randonneuring, but with no customizing available except choosing the color.

The lugs are ornate, and unusually shaped, although not a great deal of time was spent filing them. The frame is equipped with pump pegs and a full set of cable stops. The pump pegs are mounted slightly off center below the top tube, to prevent interference with the cable stops also mounted slightly off center on the opposite side.

I measured the frame and took some preliminary angle readings. It is a 49 cm x 51 cm frame (or, speaking British, a 20 inch frame – which the company measures center to top). The angles appear fairly steep, at about 74 degrees for both the head tube and seat tube. Of course, there is a margin of error using this method, and once the bike is built I will re-measure the angles using a level to correct for errors. I also checked brake reach using 700c wheels (I think the frame was built for 27 inch wheels). It looks like I will need about 65 mm of brake reach to use 700c wheels with this frame – that is definitely doable.

However, the biggest challenge will be determining whether the paint damage and oxidation to the top tube will mean having to re-paint the frame, something I am loathe to do. If the paint damage is just at the surface level, and there’s no rust underneath, I’d like to preserve the beautiful patina of this nice Reynolds 531 hand built frame.

Thankfully, it was a rainy, stormy day today, not suited for riding. A perfect shop day. I got out my various cleaning products and began to experiment on the back side of the fork legs, so that if I did something irretrievably bad, it would not be so visible. As it turned out, the most effective product was an automotive paint cleaning compound. Applied vigorously, and polished vigorously afterwards, this product was best at removing the years of neglect. I was worried about taking off too much paint however, and I only gently cleaned the Mercian logos. I definitely did not want to damage these as they were all in great condition. The photos above show the frame after several hours of cleaning and polishing – there is a definite improvement! That gave me the impetus to start working on the top tube. I figured that no matter how hard I rubbed, I couldn’t make it worse than it already was. I really wanted to see what the damage looked like underneath the oxidized paint.

The good news is that underneath the oxidation was nice silver-colored steel, with no rust visible at all. The bad news is that the top tube looks pretty funky, still. I will probably clean it up a bit more and then apply some clear paint to protect the exposed areas. After more cleaning, I will also apply many coats of wax to the entire frame, just to make sure that it remains protected in the elements. You’ll note from the above photo that I also removed the California bike license tag. While I usually keep these kinds of artifacts intact, this one really detracted from its appearance. Underneath was the original frame color – a very vibrant red. Well, now the bike is a very cool orange color!

It’s now time to start thinking about the components. Since the frame has such a vintage look, I think it would be best to build it up with period components. Fortunately, the old Mercian catalogs will provide a lot of information about how these machines were typically configured. I have these GB 88 brakes which would be from the period, and which have just the right amount of brake reach. My crankset collection includes two Stronglight candidates. The crankset at the left is a Spidel/Stronglight set from the 80’s – meant to be a copy of a Campy Super Record Crankset, and the one at the right is a 1970’s model with the star shaped spider that I love. I will probably go with the more vintage look. The frameset came shipped with a TDC headset, probably orginal, and a Sugino bottom bracket, which may or may not be original. By this time, Shimano and other Japanese components were beginning to be considered on par with the best French, British and Italian component makers of the time.

I have been wanting to find the right home for this beautiful Dura Ace high flange front hub with its smooth as butter cups and cones. It is laced to a 700c Araya rim. I might decide to use an unusual rear hub, such as a 2 x 6 Sachs-Fitchel hub, or even a Sturmey Archer, in keeping with its British heritage. That is part of the fun – envisioning the many interesting ways this frame can be configured. I look forward to riding it and getting this great old frame back out on the road.

Riding the Old Peugeot 650b Mixte

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Nola Wilken

I have put off making some final adjustments to this vintage Peugeot 650b mixte, knowing that I needed to dial in the Jeay brakes and work out the other little bugs that always come up during a frame up build. But with today’s unnaturally warm weather, I decided to take the bike out into the wiles of Portland. Even though this Peugeot is positively a city bike, Portland’s traffic scene and “bike culture” are in no way conducive to safe and leisurely riding on this type of machine. So, a weekend trip along Springwater corridor and through the Eastbank Esplanade is the most enjoyable way to learn the handling characteristics of a new ride such as this.

I am not sure why it is so tempting to think of a 70 year old bike as clunky and incompetent, but riding this machine today reminded me again how well the cycling industry had developed by the time the Germans occupied France in 1941.

First of all, this is no clunker. It weighs 28 lbs as pictured (without bag), and that includes the fork mounted dynamo, fenders, and heavy Gauthier leather saddle. Not bad! The frame is made with Vitus Rubis tubing, which was used on higher end models in the 30’s and 40’s. The front end had no unpleasant “wobbly” feeling as can exist on some mixte frames, and handling was easy at all speeds. Maybe the long wheelbase and super slack seat tube angle provide for the comfortable ride – but it is really fun to corner on this bike. Kind of like riding on a roller coaster. Whee!

The Simplex Tour de France rear derailleur works perfectly out on the road, with accuracy, and no trimming. Of course, there are only 3 gears here. And what big gears they are, ranging from 54 to 75 gear inches. I have to wonder about these giant gears on older machines that I encounter. Were people stronger then? Did they simply walk up the hills? Is France totally flat? Ha. I can lower the gearing a bit by going up to 24 teeth, which is the maximum that this derailleur can handle. Or maybe I’ll just tough it out for now.

It is very difficult to find builder information for bikes manufactured in France during the occupation years. Based on some reading, I have learned that the cycling industry in France actually experienced a “bike boom” because petrol was unavailable to the populace, so driving was no longer really an option for most people. And, there is a lot of shame surrounding those businesses who benefited financially during those terrible times, even though they may have been among the resistance on a moral and intellectual level. The disruptions to normal business practices during the Nazi occupation, as well as this shame and possibly the need for secrecy has meant that it is nearly impossible to determine what exactly was going on in some of the cycling shops in France during the time. I have found it interesting that there were sudden innovations (Simplex derailleurs) and new companies emerging (Mafac) right after France was liberated. I suspect that research and innovation was in fact occurring during the occupation years, but went on, undocumented. (Jan Heine has an interesting blog post about this topic here.)

Correctly dating this Peugeot has been challenging. Peugeot catalogs during the late 30’s and 1940’s cannot be found. There is very little information about what was happening at the Peugeot factory during the occupation, with the implication that they actually shut down. Some websites claim that the factory did shut down during the occupation, but I think they may be referencing only the automobile factory, as by this time the bicycle factory had been separated out as a distinct division, located in Beaulieu (Mandeure), France. So, my best guess based on its original components and on the frame characteristics is that this bike dates to sometime in the late 30’s through the 1940’s.

I was worried that the wood grips, which are very comfortable, would fly off the handlebars during vigorous climbing, as they are connected to the bar only with a conical cork insert located inside the grips, which I tapped into the bars with a mallet. They held fine. The Gauthier ladies leather saddle was shockingly comfortable – no changes were needed there. I was also concerned that while the brake levers are quite lovely, the shape would inhibit emergency braking, with their slight arc in the middle restricting the movement. As it turned out, braking was quite noisy! This alerted others to my presence. I had installed Kool Stop orange pads on the front, but had left the old funky Mafac pads as is on the rear. Big mistake! This bike needs Kool Stops front and rear, plus a complete cleaning and sanding of the rims to eliminate braking squeal, which I have now done.

Peugeot 650b resting at home

Thank you to Shawn at Adventurepdx, for this nice old Carradice bag which goes perfectly on this Peugeot. I don’t use saddlebags much, and was shocked just how much you can jam into this thing. It is the perfect addition to the bike and adds all the utility needed to make this a useful commuter and weekend rider.

Restoring Vintage Bicycles from the Hand Built Era

Portland, Oregon, USA

Category Archives: Bicycle restoration

My 1973 Jack Taylor Tourist

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A 1972 Mercian

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Riding the Old Peugeot 650b Mixte

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