1983 Alan Richards (Tower Cycles Birmingham)

[sjcprojects]

I picked up this frame for £20 from a LBS, so I sort of had to go and build another bike...despite being in the middle of another build. The frame is Columbus and it's very light (lighter than the Concorde frame I picked up at the same time, even though it's larger ).

This being a side-project, it's a bit of a budget build, so lots of parts will come from a donor bike, included these wheels which are Rigida Score. Anyone ever heard of those? Can't find out anything about them. They seem okay, though not as light as something like Open 4 CDs, which I will eventually replace these with once I get a rear wheel (already have a front one knocking around). I hope these Rigida rims aren't as bad as the other ones I've come across when it comes to getting tyres on...

I know a bit about Alan Richards from Googling - he was a bit of a name on the race scene in the midlands in the 70s, and then went on to build frames himself under his own name and under the Tower Cycles name. This one has both Alan Richards and Tower Cycles decals, which seems slightly unusual, from what I can tell.

 

[chickendrumsticks]

Did the forks come with the frame? Whatever, it's still bargainacious! I look forward to following this build,

 

[sjcprojects]

The forks were bought on here, actually. Ideally I would have gone for Columbus ones, but as this is being done on a budget, that was not an option! The LBS I got the frame from were selling loads of frames, all for £20, some of which included forks as well - like a nice JF Wilson one (this being in Sheffield). Crazy, really - guess they really needed the space or something! Sadly missed out on that, but this (and the Concorde) were a decent consolation prize.

It's going to be a slightly unusual build, as you'll see when more parts go on...

 

[sjcprojects]

Shiny new cheapo (but surprisingly good quality, from what I can tell) stem, plus some Zeus bars with drilled holes for cables. Should make for a nice tidy cockpit.

 

[Old Ned]

And here's the man himself. At Catterick late 70's finishing a 25.



He used to heave some massive gears - and note the Cinelli early clipless pedals.

 

[sjcprojects]

He used to heave some massive gears - and note the Cinelli early clipless pedals.

You're not joking, that's a serious chainring....

I had a brief look for info about the Tower Cycles team, and the only thing I could find showed that they seemed to exist only for one season in 1970, but if that photo is from the late 70s, I guess that's not right.

Major Nichols apparently made at least one frame badged under the same Alan Richards/Tower cycles names - but I'd guess this one was made by Alan himself.

 

[Old Ned]

Somewhere I think I have the result sheet for that event so, in theory, can put an exact date to it. Alan was, under the then current RTTC regulations, riding 'officially' as an amateur for a sponsored club - which was sponsored by Tower Cycles (ie - himself!). I've got a feeling that Tower might have sponsored a professional cyclo-cross team (with Eric Stone?) for a short while which might explain the 1970 season only statistic.

But. as usual, I could be wrong..............

 

[sjcprojects]

Re:

Yes, that makes sense - the results for the 1970 season were all cyclo-cross - Eric Stone, as you say.

There's not really much info out there, aside from the fact that Alan started making the frames himself from the late 70s onwards, hence my guess he may have made this one - though perhaps there were other frame-makers who he used too, I really don't know...but interesting to see that the frame colour in the photo of him racing is quite similar to mine. It is a lovely shade of opal green...

 

[sjcprojects]

I've only just realised how low down the rear brake bridge is, which is a bit of a shame because I'd already bought some quite nice 105 brakes, which as luck would have it aren't the shorter drop versions :roll: So...I might make do with some Miche ones I have which aren't period-correct, but will do the job and are at least nice and shiny...

The donor bike had some decent levers, but with the dreaded white hoods...have tried pretty much every household cleaning product, plus degreaser, and they are now sort of ok...I think. I've read GT85 or similar can work well too, but I need to get some in stock first, then maybe I'll try again.

White hoods probably = white bar tape too? I'm not sure what else would work with this frame colour? Any thoughts appreciated!

 

[Nob]

And here's the man himself. At Catterick late 70's finishing a 25.



He used to heave some massive gears - and note the Cinelli early clipless pedals.

Standard gearing back then was 57 x 12-17 block