> Classic Lightweights UK Readers' Bikes

Rotrax 'La Premiere' - 1957

Owned by Peter Underwood

Frame	24” seat tube; 22½” top tube; 17¼” chainstays; ??? BB height; Frame number 57 408 (1957); No. is at along one edge of BB; Nervex Type 45 lugs and fork crown; oval to round fork blades; dark green with ‘Rotrax’ head badge, down tube transfers and seat tube transfer. Agrati rear ends. Brake cable eyes (+ one cable guide) under top tube; Gear cable guide BB and eye on chainstay, also lever stop under down tube; lamp boss RH fork blade; carrier eyes on seat stays; mudguard eyes on ends.
Wheels	Weinmann 27" HP 40h rim Airlite rear s/f double-fixed hub. Dunlop Light Alloy 32h rim on Blumfield s/f front hub; 15/17 DB spokes; Continental 27 x 1 1/8 tyres.
Chainset	BSA 5-pin chainset with 46T x 1/8" ring, 6½” cranks; TDC bottom bracket
Pedals	Lyotard Marcel Berthet platform pedals with Christophe clips and toestraps
Gears	Single-speed fixed with 19T sprocket (65.4") or 20T (62.1")
Brakes	GB Coureur Plus levers and stirrups with rubber hoods
Stem/Bars	GB alloy spearpoint stem 3½” with GB alloy Maes bars with ferrule
Saddle	Brooks B17 Swallow on alloy 27.2 seatpost
Extras	Mudguards when fitted – white Bluemels. This is now my 'wet-weather' fixed-wheel machine being the only one I have with mudguards. Having been threatened with a visit from the Somerset Style Police (C.O. Peter Lowry) I have re-taken these images with the BSA ring in the correct place on the cranks, i.e. the 'S' opposite the crank.

Above right and left, Nervex 45 head lugs from side and front
Centre: Seat cluster

rotrax1-pu-rb5

Drive train - BSA 46T 5-pin chainset with ring mounted in the correct way in relation to the cranks!,
Lyotard Marcel Berthet pedals, 19T fixed sprocket Christophe toeclips and straps

rotrax-pu-rb6

Wrong, wrong, wrong!
'S' should be opposite crank as above