'51 Maclean Featherweight

[sherlylock]

My dad came home with one of these "from a bloke at work" when I was 12 or 13, 1973 or so.
He didn't bring the wooden rims (!) I found out later. It was Simplex 4 speed IIRC? Also had all the Simplex catalogs.
I was told the frame, "whipped" to help with speed, goodness knows but you could bend it considerably sideways with foot on downward crank pushing sideways. I sadly cannot remember where it ended up as I progressed (or not) to Carlton, Claud Butler and Bob Jackson.
There is a stunning one on Argos site, link below

https://argoscycles.com/items-for-sale/

Yeah that is a nicely finished example. The frame whip concept is quite interesting......

https://forums.thepaceline.net/archive/index.php/t-217010.html

Nice find. What colour respray?

No respray planned just yet. Just going to tidy up, service and ride for now. In the long term it probably deserves a refinish.......

That said I have got a Beugler striping tool and some One Shot enamels - and the opportunity to have a play on a bare frame was not to be missed. I'm not skilled enough to do double box lining yet (and some would argue not skilled for single box lining!) but I've chucked some gold OneShot at the lugs and single boxes on each tube. Pleased with how it's worked out......plus a coat of Polytrol and wax to protect the paint and corrosion its starting to look good.

Borrowed a previously homebrew nickel-plated Gnutti headset (exactly the same as what came off) from one of my '50s Clauds and the plated Resilion front brakes from my '39 Claud tandem......and it's starting to look less "shed-fresh".

 

[sherlylock]

Few bits and pieces done to the Maclean over the last few weeks. Nickel plated a few bits to tidy them up.....bottom bracket cups and seat pin bolt.

Fitted a set of williams cranks that I have in the spares box - as a stop-gap until the originals are re-chromed as they are properly rusty.

Bought a couple of bits - Bluemels Noweight pump and a BH Airlite large flange front hub to match the rear

I don't usually have mudguards fitted to my road bikes but the idea of having a set of the original Bluemels guards fitted is quite appealing. After giving the front guard a good scrub I spent a bit of time with the hairdryer to try and reshape the guard which has become distorted over the years. Worked out well - just need to attack the rear one now........

Rear mudguard fitted to show how deformed they'd become......

 

[Wheelnut]

A nice bike you have there. Most components are probably original although I suspect the saddle, mudguards, and pedals were later replacements. Unusual to see Resilion brakes on a 1951 frame as they had gone out of fashion by then, but a traditionalist would recognise their benefits. They were powerful brakes when set up right, but were heavy (compared with GB Hiduminium ones), complicated, and not easy to get set up right.

The Sturmey 4-speed, although dated later. may well have been a replacement for an earlier Sturmey hub gear as these were quite popular amongst club riders in the late 40s and early 50s (especially with the light alloy barrel).

Most club riders would have their frames refinished every few years and most good lightweight dealers would offer this service, so no surprise that the finish isn't original.

At 1990g for a bare frame of that size, it would be double butted tubing for sure, probably 531. Don't let the Accles and Pollock logo on the steerer tube fool you. An A & P steerer would have been supplied as part of the Reynolds 531 tube set. Don't forget that A & P and Reynolds were both owned by Tube Investments Ltd.

Reckon your Maclean should give you many miles of pleasure.

Murray Maclean (no relation) is the V-CC marque enthusiast and he might be able to help with model identification, although I think Macleans only produced one printed catalogue about 1956 so not easy to identify the earlier frames.

Could you post a pic of the head lugs? That may help with identification.

 

[Wheelnut]

Just seen the new post with more pictures. Nice lugs, with a design that goes back to the 1930s.