Boscarn
rBotM Winner
Many years ago I had a hankering for lightweight time trial machine, but could never afford one. As a young lad I would ride too local bike shops, like Dave Russell’s in Slough market, Mal Rees (Hayes) to name a couple and drool over the fast frames/machines on offer.
My humble race bike was based an old unknown Holdsworth frame that was found abandoned (I must add that it was all above board and I was given permission to remove it), I re-sprayed it Silver and with the help of other keen racers who gave/ lent/ sold me many of their old parts and I managed to assemble something I could race. I was a happy young man and I kept that bike for many years before it got nicked.
Since then I have owned a multitude lot of bikes and now I have a desire to build another lightweight testers machine.
I had a look in the parts boxes and I had some nice parts already, so a search for a frame started. Keeping an eye open for a suitable frame, Dave Russel, Ken Ryall, Pat Hanlon, Shorter (they seemed to be what the fast men rode then) or anything from the early 1970’s, alas nothing suitable turned up, however Hilary Stone had listed a 1969 Holdsworth Shop Special (Cronometro Ultralite) frame for sale. Holdsworth had a long tradition of building specials in the back of the Putney shop. This was formalised in the 60s and Reg Collard built for some time all the Specials which took on a distinctive character of their own. This one is rather unusual in being fillet brazed and obviously built for time trialling with just a braze-on for a rear gear. It became mine.
From the pictures the paint work look the worse for wear and I was looking forward to stripping it, leaving it in a brushed finish to show off the fillet brazing, then a coat of lacquer to protect it. On arrival, the paint was not that bad and a clean and polish with Halfords rubbing compound, the paint had survived and I felt it would be a crime to strip it of the original paint.
The worst area that needed attention was around the bottom of the headstock and with a little effort and crossed fingers, an acceptable repair was achieved. A set of decals obtained, a little more paint in the scratches, job done. A Tange Levin alloy head set takes care of the steering.
S/n 69677
Frame 1838g
Forks 737g
Tange Levin headset 110g
I had always loved the look of the bike inside the front cover of the 1981 Bike riders aids, this was a shop special, also know as the Cronometro Ultralite and I had nearly all the parts to make a good copy.
Then the weightweeny in me took over, a never ending spiral ending in utter madness to save the odd gram or two. But I had to rein myself in, with no milling machine in the shed and a limited budget I looked at changing parts to make it reasonable light, the target sub 18Lbs.
To be continued.........
My humble race bike was based an old unknown Holdsworth frame that was found abandoned (I must add that it was all above board and I was given permission to remove it), I re-sprayed it Silver and with the help of other keen racers who gave/ lent/ sold me many of their old parts and I managed to assemble something I could race. I was a happy young man and I kept that bike for many years before it got nicked.
Since then I have owned a multitude lot of bikes and now I have a desire to build another lightweight testers machine.
I had a look in the parts boxes and I had some nice parts already, so a search for a frame started. Keeping an eye open for a suitable frame, Dave Russel, Ken Ryall, Pat Hanlon, Shorter (they seemed to be what the fast men rode then) or anything from the early 1970’s, alas nothing suitable turned up, however Hilary Stone had listed a 1969 Holdsworth Shop Special (Cronometro Ultralite) frame for sale. Holdsworth had a long tradition of building specials in the back of the Putney shop. This was formalised in the 60s and Reg Collard built for some time all the Specials which took on a distinctive character of their own. This one is rather unusual in being fillet brazed and obviously built for time trialling with just a braze-on for a rear gear. It became mine.
From the pictures the paint work look the worse for wear and I was looking forward to stripping it, leaving it in a brushed finish to show off the fillet brazing, then a coat of lacquer to protect it. On arrival, the paint was not that bad and a clean and polish with Halfords rubbing compound, the paint had survived and I felt it would be a crime to strip it of the original paint.
The worst area that needed attention was around the bottom of the headstock and with a little effort and crossed fingers, an acceptable repair was achieved. A set of decals obtained, a little more paint in the scratches, job done. A Tange Levin alloy head set takes care of the steering.
S/n 69677
Frame 1838g
Forks 737g
Tange Levin headset 110g
I had always loved the look of the bike inside the front cover of the 1981 Bike riders aids, this was a shop special, also know as the Cronometro Ultralite and I had nearly all the parts to make a good copy.
Then the weightweeny in me took over, a never ending spiral ending in utter madness to save the odd gram or two. But I had to rein myself in, with no milling machine in the shed and a limited budget I looked at changing parts to make it reasonable light, the target sub 18Lbs.
To be continued.........
My era too 
