Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
07/09/2021 - I've just worked through re-hosting the images. Please note some are missing and the formatting might be a bit screwy...
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Where to start on this...
Well it's a long story. A long time ago a colleague at work gave me my first fixed wheel bike. We could never identify the original frame but it rode like hell and appeared to be a mix of bits with an old roadster frame with relaxed geometry and a fork with an awful lot of trail. It didn't ride nicely at all and after I donated it on, it eventually found its way back to me missing a few bits. I saved the handlebars, brakes and the rear wheel which was a rusted 40-hole 27" rim with a particularly nice old alloy fixed/free hub laced into it. And that's where this project begins, because from there I always wanted to build a classic bike with 32-spoke front / 40-spoke rear combo. I looked for ages for a 27" rim but they rarely come up at a sensible price, and then I cut my teeth on tubular tyres - for which there are stacks of really nice alloy 40-hole rims for next to nothing. So that hurdle made, it wasn't long until a 40-hole wood-filled Scheeren rim was hanging on my wall and the project had officially started, mentally.
Scroll forwards a couple of years and a couple of guys in the Road section were drooling over a bit of potential wall art on eBay, a 24-hole sprint rim with a machined down Campagnolo hub and no dust caps. They weren't buying it so I took punt and snapped it up quickly. That meant I needed a frame and then this Parkes popped up. If you've seen any of my other bikes, you'll know that I tend to build lower budget riders rather than show pieces, so a bit of rust is usually welcome. Well I took a risk on this one, because it looked really snotty in the pictures, but I kept my fingers crossed that some of the chrome would be hiding under the grot and it paid off. I've put a bit of elbow grease in and it seems to have come up better than I was expecting.
So it's a 1937 Parkes Lightweight (16/03/2016 edit: now confirmed 1938/39. The serial number begins with E). The frame wears a very old Reynolds 531 transfer and though the seatpost is 26.4mm it does feel light enough for me to believe that. I don't know much about Parkes at all, other than they were originally lightweight builders and formed a mainstream part of the company which became Sun. The Parkes brand remained only for FC Parkes' handbuilt bikes, which I think this is one of.
This is a bit of what I've been up to with it so far. Mainly rubbing down the chrome with aluminium foil and a bit of oil to clean the scale off it. You can see a bit of before and afterage here:
I can't really justify finding genuine 1930s kit for this, so it'll be an 'in the spirit of...' build and will mainly be wearing 50s-60s components, but I guess most people won't be able to tell.
It's going to be fixed gear, like most of my bikes are. I have a Williams chainset with fluted cranks:
[lost image]
I've got some French bars on a Philippe stem. It's 22mm but seems to fit in the steerer ok:
[lost image]
This is the front wheel. I have to lace the rear with new spokes so I may re-do this one as well, to be on the safe side:
And finally the headset. It's set up for a headclip, which are like hens teeth and go for ridiculous money. If I can't find one then I've got a roadster headset which I might try to adapt to fit:
[lost image]
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Where to start on this...
Well it's a long story. A long time ago a colleague at work gave me my first fixed wheel bike. We could never identify the original frame but it rode like hell and appeared to be a mix of bits with an old roadster frame with relaxed geometry and a fork with an awful lot of trail. It didn't ride nicely at all and after I donated it on, it eventually found its way back to me missing a few bits. I saved the handlebars, brakes and the rear wheel which was a rusted 40-hole 27" rim with a particularly nice old alloy fixed/free hub laced into it. And that's where this project begins, because from there I always wanted to build a classic bike with 32-spoke front / 40-spoke rear combo. I looked for ages for a 27" rim but they rarely come up at a sensible price, and then I cut my teeth on tubular tyres - for which there are stacks of really nice alloy 40-hole rims for next to nothing. So that hurdle made, it wasn't long until a 40-hole wood-filled Scheeren rim was hanging on my wall and the project had officially started, mentally.
Scroll forwards a couple of years and a couple of guys in the Road section were drooling over a bit of potential wall art on eBay, a 24-hole sprint rim with a machined down Campagnolo hub and no dust caps. They weren't buying it so I took punt and snapped it up quickly. That meant I needed a frame and then this Parkes popped up. If you've seen any of my other bikes, you'll know that I tend to build lower budget riders rather than show pieces, so a bit of rust is usually welcome. Well I took a risk on this one, because it looked really snotty in the pictures, but I kept my fingers crossed that some of the chrome would be hiding under the grot and it paid off. I've put a bit of elbow grease in and it seems to have come up better than I was expecting.
So it's a 1937 Parkes Lightweight (16/03/2016 edit: now confirmed 1938/39. The serial number begins with E). The frame wears a very old Reynolds 531 transfer and though the seatpost is 26.4mm it does feel light enough for me to believe that. I don't know much about Parkes at all, other than they were originally lightweight builders and formed a mainstream part of the company which became Sun. The Parkes brand remained only for FC Parkes' handbuilt bikes, which I think this is one of.
This is a bit of what I've been up to with it so far. Mainly rubbing down the chrome with aluminium foil and a bit of oil to clean the scale off it. You can see a bit of before and afterage here:
I can't really justify finding genuine 1930s kit for this, so it'll be an 'in the spirit of...' build and will mainly be wearing 50s-60s components, but I guess most people won't be able to tell.
It's going to be fixed gear, like most of my bikes are. I have a Williams chainset with fluted cranks:
[lost image]
I've got some French bars on a Philippe stem. It's 22mm but seems to fit in the steerer ok:
[lost image]
This is the front wheel. I have to lace the rear with new spokes so I may re-do this one as well, to be on the safe side:
And finally the headset. It's set up for a headclip, which are like hens teeth and go for ridiculous money. If I can't find one then I've got a roadster headset which I might try to adapt to fit:
[lost image]
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