1930's Freddie Grubb tandem info wanted!

[DrAStav]

Hi all.

I'm after information on Freddie Grubb tandems from the 1930's. As a family heirloom, we have this old girl.

The tandem is a double gents Freddie Grubb serial number A[D or B??] 826. She dates from around 1936 or at least some time after Freddie went into liquidation and restarted as FHG Ltd in 1935 - thanks to NKillgraff. Vintage-Cycle Club Library also has some of the catalogues hosted too which identifies the tandem as possibly an Eagle, Pullman or Streak.

Don't be fooled by her wheels and some of her fittings because this has been a work horse in our family with a well used history, changed parts and repairs. What my aim is, is to strip her back and rebuild her over the next 18 months or so using 1930's period parts where possible. So my first tasks are identify which one I have and then find the spec she was likely to have had.

I can provide a lot more information, but for now, are there any databases which holds Grubb serial numbers or where I can add this to (a la Mercian)? Are there any other resources or places I should be looking? Anyone else got a 30's Grubb tandem that they have restored??

Many thanks!

 

[keithglos]

Re:

The Williams chainsets may well have date codes on the back, and could have been original.

Probably had a 3 speed TriVelox gear.

Is it Brampton or Chater lugs and fittings.

Keith

 

[DrAStav]

Thanks for the reply.

> Probably had a 3 speed TriVelox gear.

Yep. looking at the frame, it has all the mounting points for the TriVelox gear system - two holes on the rear drop out and spring attachment point behind stokers bottom bracket. My Dad has said that the hub that came with the bike (mid-1970's) had a 3-speed cassette which moved sidewards and a huge drum brake so that marries with the adverts I've seen. The frame would have had a hub-braked Tri-Velox transmission from original built. The front hub brake is a later (1970's) addition as there is no original mounting point on the front fork for the hub brake arm.

> Is it Brampton or Chater lugs and fittings?

How would I know the difference between the two? The lugs on the Grubb are fairly utilitarian - no fancy scalloped shapes - however the bottom bracket do have grease ports. I know Grubb was rather proud of his "patented grease injection system" in some of his literature. I've attached a couple of lug images. I had a search through Google images and can be swayed either way. Did Brampton or Charter have a distinguishing feature which I can look out for or is it material selection based?

> The Williams chainsets may well have date codes on the back, and could have been original.

I'll have a look into this.