Dawes Tartan Tourist / Clubman

[DrewSavage]

I've succumbed to buying something interesting-looking on eBay on spec again... a bit of googling suggest it's either a Dawes Tartan Tourist or a Dawes Tartan Clubman, but then for all I know they may be the same thing.

It's certainly made from Reynolds 531, thanks to Google images I'm pretty certain that that's what the sticker below the saddle will say.

It looks like it's in decent nick and might be quite an old bike, although it seems it's had straight handlebars and thumb shifters put on it, and possibly a modern rear derailleur as a result.

But does anyone know anything about them?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dawes-gents-b ... 1578273832

 

[Robbied196]

Re:

Its looks a lot like the mid 50s Tartan Club, they also did the Tarten 5 Star. The spec can be found in the V-CC library:

http://www.veterancycleclublibrary.org. ... ary%29.pdf

You might get a date off the chainset assuming its original. Sometimes the drive side got changed due to wear but the other side got left so its best to look there for a date. The paint looks in good condition but its a shame about the handlebars and saddle!

 

[DrewSavage]

That's wonderful, thank you!

 

[DrewSavage]

By virtue of the stars I've spotted on the top tube, I'm guessing it's a Dawes Tartan 5 Star. According to the catalogue, if it's the model I think it is, brand new it would have cost £26 19s 6d...

I wonder what the thing on the side of the seat tube is?

Am picking it up tomorrow. Quite excited about it now.

 

[Robbied196]

By virtue of the stars I've spotted on the top tube, I'm guessing it's a Dawes Tartan 5 Star. According to the catalogue, if it's the model I think it is, brand new it would have cost £26 19s 6d...

I wonder what the thing on the side of the seat tube is?

Am picking it up tomorrow. Quite excited about it now.

Good spot on the 5stars, I think you can be sure its a Tartan 5 Star, an expensive bike back in its day. Dawes had a good reputation for build quality and craftsmanship making them popular with club riders and touring cyclists. In the 50s their bikes were 'handbuilt' but they became more commercial through the 70s/80s. The thing on the seat tube is a lever type front derailleur probably Benelux or Simplex. A hand operated twist and lock system to shift the chain across the chainset. You have a good buy might be worth asking the seller if they still have the original parts

 

[keithglos]

I wonder what the thing on the side of the seat tube is?

Am picking it up tomorrow. Quite excited about it now.

Good spot on the 5stars, I think you can be sure its a Tartan 5 Star, an expensive bike back in its day. Dawes had a good reputation for build quality and craftsmanship making them popular with club riders and touring cyclists. In the 50s their bikes were 'handbuilt' but they became more commercial through the 70s/80s. The thing on the seat tube is a lever type front derailleur probably Benelux or Simplex.

Its a Benelux front changer.

Total rubbish about popular with club riders.
These were low end schoolboy bikes.
There were very few recreational and racing cyclists in the 50s/60s, not enough to support manufacturers such as Carlton/Raleigh Sun or Dawes.

Even Peter Kohler (Raleigh Specialist) has revised his similar opinions based on manufacturers catalogues of the time.

Keith

 

[Robbied196]

Total rubbish about popular with club riders.

I'm referring to the Sunday club riders like the CTC a la, sports cyclists not racing clubs Dawes never adopted anything in racing.

 

[Robbied196]

Good bit of Dawes history here:

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Britis ... s_main.htm

http://musicbicycles.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... econd.html

It may have been regional, but I have to disagree about there being very few recreational cyclists in the 50s/60s. I can remember my father and grandfather going out in the mid 60s around Manchester where 40+ riders would turn up. It always seemed to be a more popular pastime in Northern England.

 

[keithglos]

Hl Rob,

40 in a city of about a million?

Those memories of club riders buying standard bikes are wishful thinking not fact. They bought them as schoolboys or teenagers and a few became interested as a recreation, when the basic bikes were replaced bit by bit.

In post war UK we had purchase tax on complete bikes not on components.
Serious cyclists might start on a production bike but very soon realised they could do better with the money and bought components to improve and replace the standard bike.

In the early 60s I was a retailer of lightweight components in a city of half a million, and had the largest accounts with both Ron Kitching and Holdsworthy (the major components importers to retail) in the South of England, and was completely alone in the shop apart from a schoolboy on Saturdays.

This should indicate the size of the market.

When Carlton joined Raleigh they had sold 5000 bikes in a year, mostly schoolboy/teenage types, with a few specials. That is one bike per 10,000 inhabitants.

Keith

 

[DrewSavage]

I wonder what the thing on the side of the seat tube is?

Am picking it up tomorrow. Quite excited about it now.

Good spot on the 5stars, I think you can be sure its a Tartan 5 Star, an expensive bike back in its day. Dawes had a good reputation for build quality and craftsmanship making them popular with club riders and touring cyclists. In the 50s their bikes were 'handbuilt' but they became more commercial through the 70s/80s. The thing on the seat tube is a lever type front derailleur probably Benelux or Simplex.

Its a Benelux front changer.

Total rubbish about popular with club riders.
These were low end schoolboy bikes.
There were very few recreational and racing cyclists in the 50s/60s, not enough to support manufacturers such as Carlton/Raleigh Sun or Dawes.

Even Peter Kohler (Raleigh Specialist) has revised his similar opinions based on manufacturers catalogues of the time.

Keith

Interesting. I was born in the 70s so it's fascinating to find out a bit about the post-war cycling scene, all this is new to me. Would a bike with a Reynolds 531 frame in that era really be a low-end schoolboy bike?

Looking at that Dawes catalogue from 1955, it seems the Tartan 5 Star was one of the most expensive that Dawes produced at that time. Although (assuming it was a 8-speed with a Brooks saddle when new) I've put the list price of £26 19s 6d from the brochure into an inflation converter, and it seems that in today's money that would be £661.

I'd have thought a top-of-the-range bike would be more than that - but maybe it reflects that Dawes' most expensive bike in that period was fairly modest by today's standards?

Anyway, I'm off to pick it up shortly. It'll be interesting to see how heavy it is.