Roberts White Spider 1993

JCS · Aug 25, 2024

Welcome to the build thread of my recently acquired Roberts White Spider.

Built-to-order in February 1993, the frame includes the original Roberts stem and Bontrager composite fork.

Seat tube c-t-c is 18 inches and 21 inches centre to top of seat tube.

It uses a 1 inch headset and all cables are routed via the top tube.

The build plan

This White Spider gave scope for different build directions, as:

Roberts bikes were built to order and the buyer could specify any colour and components they wanted – as such there is no constraint here of 'catalogue spec’
This frame does not have the original paint. It was originally white but was resprayed blue by a previous owner. It was a nice deep metallic however it was showing signs of wear & tear

With this in mind I decided on a ‘blank canvas’ approach and will build this bike as if I was ordering a White Spider new from Roberts.

JCS · Aug 25, 2024

As Chas Roberts is/was a British company, and I now owned a Roberts bike, I wanted to take the opportunity to meet the guy who built this frame in the first place.

I phoned Winston Vaz. Winston confirmed he originally built the frame and his brother Mario confirmed he could respray it. It was good to speak to the builder of this frame and to have the Vaz brothers involved in this build.

The next decision was colour.

I wanted to keep the stem and forks black. My first choice colour for the frame was white, as Roberts’ look great in white. But the more I thought about it the more I realized I wanted some colour rather than a monochrome theme.

I looked through some Roberts archive brochures for ideas.

I then took the frame to meet it’s maker. Train to London then out to Hither Green, walk round the corner from the station and at the end of the street is the Vaz workshop.

It was great to meet Winston and hear about his career as a frame builder, first with Holdsworth, then Chas Roberts and now with his own company. It sounds like the Roberts workshop was very busy BITD. Although the catalogue listed standard models, these were a guide and the actual frames often had unique touches.

Here is the man himself:

Winston had a custom order frame mid-build on the jig:

I left the frame, forks and stem with the guys for them to work their magic.

Shortly after that I got a message from Mario that made me smile…

JCS · Aug 25, 2024

Heading back to Hither Green to collect the finished frame, fork and stem was very exciting.

I love the colour - it incorporates fades and a burst of colour at the front, and still with a lot of white at the back. The best of both worlds based on my original thinking for colour choice.

And now the really fun part starts with the build! Here is where we are so far:

27motorhead · Aug 25, 2024

What a great project. Lived in London pretty much 30 years in various locations before I escaped late last year. Two regrets… one being never popping into the Roberts showroom despite riding past it numerous times, and the other is never popping down to Hither Green to get more info on the Tim Gould Roberts/Peugeot I owned from Winston…

Looking forward to this taking shape and love the attention to detail you have gone to so far! Keep up the great work!

mior · Aug 25, 2024

What tires are those??

TreaderSteve · Aug 26, 2024

Looking excellent - looking forward to seeing the groupset and finishing choices on this one

JCS · Aug 26, 2024

mior said:
What tires are those??

They are made by Panaracer.

I like them because they look retro and perform really well. I ride in fairly dry conditions so Smoke/Dart are overkill. These are smooth on the top and grippy on the sides. Perfect for the terrain I ride.

JCS · Sep 7, 2024

The 1993 Roberts catalogue lists two models of White Spider.
I don't know which model mine is, but it does have a fat down tube; diameter is 38mm compared with 32mm for the top tube.