In the last Edition of Lightweight News we posted a request from the grandson of H E Green, the well-respected builder of lightweights in the 1940s and 50s who wanted to acquire and restore a frame and rebuild it in memory of his Grandfather. He has emailed to say that he now has the frame thanks to our advert. What a beauty!

Since the last edition of Cambridge Lightweight News we have attended two exciting rides for classic lightweights. The first is the perennial Reading Lightweight Ride which we have attended for the last 20 years or so, only missing the odd one or two. When we first joined the then organiser Terry Pearce was providing one of the only events organised for lightweights in the UK. As a result of this the entry was often around the hundred mark. Over the years the numbers dropped a little but then picked up again to settle around fifty or so riders. Nowadays there are several rides each month for lightweights in the UK and sometimes they even clash with the Reading event so numbers are bound to be affected. What has not dropped though is the standard of bikes ridden and on this ride you would see an example of just about every desirable classic produced.

Some sad news since the last newsletter – Dave Keeler, who many readers will know was a hero from my teen years passed away on 25 July at the ripe old age of 87.

Our first lightweight ‘away’ fixture of the year is always the Hampshire Section ‘Start of Season Fishbourne Ride’ starting at the Roman Palace, Fishbourne on the edge of Chichester. Hampshire seems to be the epicentre of the lightweight movement in the UK and this event always attracts a good turnout with superb machinery. This year was no exception and I think it was probably the best ever.

Another year has slipped by and to my surprise I managed to clock some 8.5 thousand miles, albeit mostly on modern bikes – I know, I will wash my mouth out with carbolic soap! However, I ride five days most weeks and three are with groups of riders much younger than me so I need every help possible to keep up. The other two rides each week are with Patricia at the weekends and are at a more civilised pace. Having said that I have not resorted to an electric motor yet although I watch each new addition to that market and feel that they are slowly getting to what I would consider.

I suppose we should be holding a publisher’s party to celebrate this, the tenth edition of CLN but we will have to put the champagne on ice until we can all get together. Perhaps everyone could do the Rotrax Ride in the New Forest on 21 September!!

Back in the good old days, I always had the ends of my gear and brake cables soldered to stop the cables fraying. Being the world’s worst solderer, I could start with a coil of solder and a join to make; within minutes I would have run out of solder with ne’er a drop on the wire or cable I was working on. I would by then, however, have the best pair of metal toecaps on my shoes which had caught all of the ‘drips’! Luckily my father was a wireless ‘ham’ and could be press-ganged into sealing the cables. On reflection, this is about all he ever did for me as he was into amateur radio above all else, and I was into bikes so our paths rarely crossed. It does amaze me that I used to build up bikes from scratch using a handful of very basic (hammer featured a lot) tools I wouldn’t give garage space to now.

Just before CLN 35 went online we took a long drive down to Somerset to join Peter Lowry for his second annual Hobbs Ride in the Glastonbury area. Patricia has a lovely 1948 Hobbs Superbe with Simplex 10-speed gears and I have a 1951 Hobbs Raceweight which was shod with a particularly nice pair of 26” Conloy rims on Airlite large-flange hubs, double-fixed rear, with 15/17 spokes tied and soldered. Surprisingly for a 1950s frame it was built for 26” wheels, hence the choice of rims.