Until the advent of the Nervex Professional lugs many framebuilders cut their own trademark lugs in-house.  This was obviously very time-consuming and relatively expensive.   Before the Professional many companies, including Nervex, produced pressed steel lugs of various designs which were used some as produced and some modified.

Until the advent of the Nervex Professional lugs many framebuilders cut their own trademark lugs in-house. This was obviously very time-consuming and relatively expensive. Before the Professional many companies, including Nervex, produced pressed steel lugs of various designs which were used some as produced and some modified.

On Monday, 27th December Patricia and I went to Diss to join Mick Madgett and the Flat Earthers on his ‘Post-Christmas Recovery Ride’. I took my 1959 Hetchins Magnum Bonum and Patricia was on her 1948 Gillott Spearpoint (as opposed to her 1951 Gillott L’Atlantique). Mick was on a very nicely restored 1954 Bates Volante which he had equipped with some very tasty components. The gear changing was by courtesy of Campagnolo’s very rare early 1952 Gran Sport – the one with the drilled pulley wheels and extended cage which was only produced for a very short time. The front changer was another rare piece, a Campag Sport with fore and aft moving lever.

The Gillott bronze-brazed frame.

Gillotts were making fancy stems from early on. I have seen Spear, Fleur de Lys and a Curly Cut  stem. Later on they had them outsourced with ‘Gillott’ stamped in a swirly oval on the clamp. The fancy lugwork was dropped, the stem looking very like a ‘Titan’.  Tandem stems were also available.  In the first 4 years they had to struggle with Vaughans lugs, full of hard carbon inclusions and porosity. They were dirty and tough to file. George Holt made a stainless steel mandrel for tweaking the angles which were decidely laid back and pre-war.  Everyone wanted the new Continental styles. Harry eventually persuaded them to alter the castings but shortly afterwards Oscar Egg fittings became available. I do think that the early fork crowns are more richly varied than post Oscar Egg. The lugs on 94636 have distinct Hobbs style but later Gillotts standardised their designs. On the way to this they offered the Curly Cut, four examples are known to exist.

For my twelfth birthday way back in 1960, my parents presented me with my dad’s old Raleigh Lenton Sports, refurbished with many new parts, including a Sturmey Archer AW 3-speed hub. As my interest in cycling (and especially touring and roughstuff) quickly grew, I began to question the received wisdom that “no one needs more than three gears”. Fierce local climbs like Yorkshill and Carter’s Hill near Sevenoaks, Hucking Hill near Maidstone and, slightly further afield, Ditchling Beacon and Steyning Round Hill in Sussex certainly suggested otherwise, particularly when carrying a saddlebag full of food for a self-catering hostel weekend. Being short of cash, and having to rely on a small amount of money earned on a paper round, I looked for a way of increasing my range of gears at minimal expense.