Jack Taylor 'Rough Stuff' 1979 (1953-1974)

[Meauxtown]

I'm now the owner of the Jack Taylor Ruff Stuff. Met the Taylors in 1983 and have kept in contact with them all this time. Not sure how many Taylor made bikes I have or have had, but the Ruff Stuff is close to the coolest I've got. The photo of Jack Dave and Norman in an above post, I took in 2004. Anyway, more at Meauxtown on Flickr if you would like to take a look. Would love to see photos of the Ruff Stuff back in 1979 if anyone has these. Cheers,
mike thompson

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Hi Mike,
Congratulation on being the new custodian of this fine example of an English rough-stuff bike.

I have never come across any surviving examples of custom built rough-stuff bikes in the UK and I am not at all sure why. Whilst most UK rough-stuff bikes were standard road bikes there must be some examples of bikes like yours somewhere. As you can see by the photo below, the Taylors were not the only makers of these bikes. But its also likely that the arrival of the good value mountain bikes in the 1980's would have killed off the production of such bikes.

There is however there is a historic link between rough-stuff bikes and the US mountain bike. This is because the first ever off-road bike made by Tom Ritchey was a copy of the bike shown below that he built for John Finlay-Scott in 1977. Finlay-Scott called these bikes "Woodsies". A generic term he used for all English rough-stuff bikes and so what he called his US built bikes built from the mid fifties onwards as they were inspired by the English rough-stuff machines.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Thanks to Guinessisgoodforyou for finding these drawings for a 1971 Jack Taylor Roughstuff bike and photos of a finished 1972 frame on the internet. Jack Taylor allegedly made the Roughstuff model from 1953 to 1979.



This thread opens with a writeup of an early Marin, California 'Klunker' thanksgiving day ride in November 1979 where one of these bikes took part:

Working Up an Appetite

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Be great to see more of these built up.

 

[JCS]

Just found and read this whole thread. Fascinating insight into off road riding history and bike design principles.

 

[Caj Remtiw]

The first Jack Taylor "Rough Country" I saw was at the 1974 York Rally. I spent that summer serving apprenticeship under the Taylor Brothers took a 3 day weekend to go down to the rally with them. The bike really got me turned on' because while there there was no road races or crits to compete in fall and winter in Southern California... My training buddies stripped the fenders off of J.C. Higgens 3-speeds ( usually stolen from our girlfriend's mothers garage), "mod'd" them a bit, and hit the horse & cow trails between Corona Del Mar and the now famous Laguna Canyon.

I then took a 6.5 year break from cycling (exploring Mexico & Central America for the best surf spots). Then when I go home started building my own MT. Bikes like my frame builder buddies up in Marin.

 

[Rikoned]

Great picture. It would be brilliant to see any others. Who is that pictured with their heads cut off? Good to see the photographer focusing on the bike!