Roberts #120 Cyclocross - Restoration

[PhillB]

Hi,

I'm more often found in the pre-97 Mountain Bike section, but do stray onto the tarmac from time-to-time. I've wanted to get an old Roberts Touring bike to restore for a little while and recently got hold of this one.



It's in pretty poor condition, but very salvageable and it's arguable whether I enjoy restoring them more than riding them .

When I bought it, it had a few late 80's components on it, although these were a mix of XT, Middleburn and Shimano 600...

I've read a bit a bit about dating Roberts frames and was expecting a 6 number serial 891011 or something like that... but actually the serial number on the bottom bracket is 120.



The same number is on the steerer



I know from reading other posts on here that the early Roberts were numbered from 100 to 2100 (approx) - so does this mean that this is an earlier bike than I had thought???

I know that there are number of you on here that know quite a bit about Roberts Cycles, so wonder what your thoughts are.


Another interesting thing is that it has no braze-ons or cable runs for a front derailleur... was it an early 1x ???



I'd love to know more about it if anyone has any info or insights.

Ultimately, I am going to give it a full restoration irrespective of it's age. but if it is a really old one, I might take a more traditional resto approach.

Thanks for any info you can give

Phill

 

[27motorhead]

Phill, as you know, I'm not normally on the skinny tyred side of the forum as much as the MTB side, but bikes are bikes and I love them all!

Chas I don't think is easily contactable, but pretty sure his brother Geoff could help, or Winston who owns Varonha Cycles. You could cycle across London to Winston's gaff, something I wish I did when I was up in the smoke to find out more about the Peugeot/Roberts I own.

https://www.facebook.com/geoffrobertsframes/?locale=en_GBor
https://www.varonha.co.uk/
Nice find bike the way, I'll be keeping tabs on progress...

Ta!

 

[PhillB]

Cheers Tim!, Funnily enough I 'discovered' Winston Vaz last night as I was doing some internet sleuthing...I seem to recall he did a great job on Mark Johnson's Roberts... He's not too far away, as the crow flies. If it is a proper old one - I was thinking I might get him to fix a couple of things, re align the frame properly and give a proper respray, (rather than one of my back-garden jobs )

 

[27motorhead]

I so regret not going to see Winston, but it's classic London, so close, yet so far!

Winston is the frame builder and his brother Mario is the painter/sprayer. I've heard mixed reviews about Mario's finishing, but for the best part he's pretty good and pretty cool to keep it within the Roberts family.

Some comments on LFGSS forum about him:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/128085/?offset=650#comment16377069 (last post was over 3 years ago!)
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/135850/?offset=2000#comment17141199
I have to say, you're back garden spray jobs are mighty impressive. Well they are over the internet anyway. Hopefully one day I'll get to see one in the flesh so to speak.

If it is crazy old (I'm no Roberts aficionado) then it could be a Charlie Roberts frame...

 

[27motorhead]

Also this might have some info hidden away in it:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/206627/

 

[PhillB]

I so regret not going to see Winston, but it's classic London, so close, yet so far!

Winston is the frame builder and his brother Mario is the painter/sprayer. I've heard mixed reviews about Mario's finishing, but for the best part he's pretty good and pretty cool to keep it within the Roberts family.

Some comments on LFGSS forum about him:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/128085/?offset=650#comment16377069 (last post was over 3 years ago!)
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/135850/?offset=2000#comment17141199
I have to say, you're back garden spray jobs are mighty impressive. Well they are over the internet anyway. Hopefully one day I'll get to see one in the flesh so to speak.

If it is crazy old (I'm no Roberts aficionado) then it could be a Charlie Roberts frame...

Yes, keeping it in the Roberts family is a nice idea, I agree.

It's interesting. I would say that a good home paint job is far better than a poor 'professional' job. But that you can't beat a great paint job from a pro, which I am certainly not . I'm quite pleased with mine, I've enjoyed the process of learning new techniques and skills, and I can always redo them, either myself or professionally in the future.

That's what I am wondering whether it is a Charlie Roberts senior frame. The paint on it is 'old' enamel, looking at how it has oxidised it has the look and feel of a seventies paint job, but the frame is in poor condition with a lot of rust, so that could just be advanced on a later frame that has had extra exposure to UV and moisture.

It 'feels' like Reynolds 531 tubing and the braze-on cable guides are older in style like you find on 70's bikes.

Either way, it is my size, and I love it already

 

[27motorhead]

To me it does look like a 70s frame which would make it a Charlie Roberts and the low frame number could help unlock that. You could also some nice lug lining done on that frame unless you wanted to keep it stripped back.

Always good to find a nice bike like this in the right size. Good luck on the information hunt and also the component hunt too!

 

[Frankenorange]

Cantis, no guard eyes and cable stops/ guides at the headtube make me think this is a single chainring cyclocross frame. Bottle bosses maybe for training , or for longer events like the 3 Peaks.

 

[PhillB]

Cantis, no guard eyes and cable stops/ guides at the headtube make me think this is a single chainring cyclocross frame. Bottle bosses maybe for training , or for longer events like the 3 Peaks.

Do you know, I never thought about Cyclocross, but you could well be right! That would make sense, as whilst the frame is light it is certainly strong in design. Most of my riding is off road so that works, plus my Dad used to race Cyclocross (or what ever it was called then) in the mid 1950's. On his own contraptions though, he would have loved this!!

 

[PhillB]

So, after some deliberation, I took the decision to repaint this one.... I know some would enjoy the patina on the old frame, but this one really did have more patina than paint... plus a lot of rust under the paint too. So I took the decision to sand it down, treat the rust and repaint. As usual, I completely forgot to take any photos of these stages (sorry!) but I did snap this shortly after I clear coated it.

The colour in this photo looks quite a different shade than in the original, but it is actually quite close. It's a green/blue called Peacock and depending upon the lighting it either looks quite blue or quite green... I didn't like the original colour, but it has grown on me. I thought that it would go well with the Red-edged gold Roberts decals and I am quite please how it turned out. I also painted the little pantographs 'R's' in gold too.

The only downside is that the couple of dents in the frame standout more now, but then it is almost 60 years old

Next steps are to build it up.... I have no idea what components were on it originally, so it will probably be a range of Campy bits I have...