Thursday, October 19, 2006

Early Rotrax


Got this bike as a frame and forks from a member of the Classicrendezvous list a couple of years ago. Turns out that the company that made it were still in business back in Southampton, England (they have since closed). So, I call them up, and it took them about one minute to tell me that the bike had been made in February 1951, and that it must be one of the very first of its type, as they only actually started making them in January of that year.
It's in pretty good shape, especially for its age. An obvious repaint, I had to get the rear dropouts filled in with filler-weld as someone had over-zealously tightened the rear wheel too many times. It has that classic English look to it: reasonably ornate lugwork, lots of cutouts in the lugs too, really small diameter rear stays, and a nice spindly, well-raked fork. Mmmm...

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