This frame I picked up before Christmas last for my son Caleb who was 13 at the time.
He has really shot up as well as grown up the last couple of years to the point he is as tall as myself and had a few rides on my various retro rides and so I thought this would be a good thing for us to build together with him learning to do each bit of the build as we go. He already knows his way around the older steel bikes but this would be his, not one of mine, for him.
I also gave him a full Arabesque groupset, set of Mavic wheels, bars etc. Everything he should need and what we didn't have, or I didn't have we would source no problem.
So it sat waiting for him from Christmas through to the summer when it was toyed with a few times and due to being busy and Caleb riding my Jack Taylor as well as my Surly Pugsley over the spring/summer, he was in no great rush to build. He said he wanted to wait until he wasn't going to be rushed as it wasn't going anywhere so no rush.
Now, to the frame. It is # 192 built early in 1981 in Altbea just south of us here in Scotland. It is 49.5cm touring geometry.
I purchased the frame just before last Christmas for a very low price, and while it is solid and looks good, it does unfortunately have a very thick powder coat hiding a lot of that Wester Ross fine detail that we know is below.
We have sorted the wheels, seatpost, changed chainset, shifters, brakes a couple of times due to various little issues but are close to getting it ready to cable it up and test ride it.
So the basic plan is to get it riding and rolling nicely before the winter, give it a nice shakedown ride on the west coast from Ullapool or Gairloch to ride to it's birthplace at Altbea. The building where it was built is now the Arctic Convoy museum which is also special to Caleb as his great grandfather was a big part of the convoys.
Hopefully this will happen quite soon with school holidays starting next week.
Once everything rides and runs right Calebs plan is to then get it stripped and then nicely painted in the winter.
Information on these Wester Ross builds are hard to come by and with me buying it from a shop, Isambards, who didn't have any history for it, it wasn't looking too good for getting much.
Then, slowly, over time, through a few sources but mainly through the Wester Ross Cycles facebook group we have gathered far more than we could have hoped for a few months back, where at the time, a post I made asking if anyone had any information, was ominously quiet.
Slowly details started to immerge, first from John Connell's daughter Louise, confirming our thoughts of the frame number showing it to be a Altbea built Wester Ross rather than a Yorkshire one and advising that Fergus Forsythe has been a clockmaker since and is now living in Australia, as does Louise. Ironic really with me being an Aussie living in Caithness not far from Altbea.
Then only on the weekend I got a message from Nic from the group, who is also in various other groups I am in and may well be in here in Retrobike, contacted me with the build sheets. He messaged them through, I will include here, along with the notes from the back. The date sheets had no date which was normal according to Nic, who said they were only occasionally marked with a date, either from a payment or where the person ordering the frame had received the form, usually in the post, noted any changes needed and then sent it back, would occasionally have the person ordering dating when they signed it. Though mine we can say early 1981, maybe earlier? as one that is 16 numbers after mine, #208 was confirmed built in Altbea and invoice in April 1981.
While the build page shows it was built for Jayne Tyrer, with discussion on the back of the form. I also found that it was originally black with red lining and decals would have been white, as they only offered black or white decals. Not the gold that we currently have on ours. Another interesting detail to come of this investigating is that the next frame #193 was built for Bernadette Tyrer with #129 long before being built for a Geoffrey Tyrer. Looks like this family really liked their Wester Ross's.
I will update this as we go along but after a slow start we seem to picking up steam.
Jamie
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Thick powder on this
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Hints of the nice lines beneath
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
He has really shot up as well as grown up the last couple of years to the point he is as tall as myself and had a few rides on my various retro rides and so I thought this would be a good thing for us to build together with him learning to do each bit of the build as we go. He already knows his way around the older steel bikes but this would be his, not one of mine, for him.
I also gave him a full Arabesque groupset, set of Mavic wheels, bars etc. Everything he should need and what we didn't have, or I didn't have we would source no problem.
So it sat waiting for him from Christmas through to the summer when it was toyed with a few times and due to being busy and Caleb riding my Jack Taylor as well as my Surly Pugsley over the spring/summer, he was in no great rush to build. He said he wanted to wait until he wasn't going to be rushed as it wasn't going anywhere so no rush.
Now, to the frame. It is # 192 built early in 1981 in Altbea just south of us here in Scotland. It is 49.5cm touring geometry.
I purchased the frame just before last Christmas for a very low price, and while it is solid and looks good, it does unfortunately have a very thick powder coat hiding a lot of that Wester Ross fine detail that we know is below.
We have sorted the wheels, seatpost, changed chainset, shifters, brakes a couple of times due to various little issues but are close to getting it ready to cable it up and test ride it.
So the basic plan is to get it riding and rolling nicely before the winter, give it a nice shakedown ride on the west coast from Ullapool or Gairloch to ride to it's birthplace at Altbea. The building where it was built is now the Arctic Convoy museum which is also special to Caleb as his great grandfather was a big part of the convoys.
Hopefully this will happen quite soon with school holidays starting next week.
Once everything rides and runs right Calebs plan is to then get it stripped and then nicely painted in the winter.
Information on these Wester Ross builds are hard to come by and with me buying it from a shop, Isambards, who didn't have any history for it, it wasn't looking too good for getting much.
Then, slowly, over time, through a few sources but mainly through the Wester Ross Cycles facebook group we have gathered far more than we could have hoped for a few months back, where at the time, a post I made asking if anyone had any information, was ominously quiet.
Slowly details started to immerge, first from John Connell's daughter Louise, confirming our thoughts of the frame number showing it to be a Altbea built Wester Ross rather than a Yorkshire one and advising that Fergus Forsythe has been a clockmaker since and is now living in Australia, as does Louise. Ironic really with me being an Aussie living in Caithness not far from Altbea.
Then only on the weekend I got a message from Nic from the group, who is also in various other groups I am in and may well be in here in Retrobike, contacted me with the build sheets. He messaged them through, I will include here, along with the notes from the back. The date sheets had no date which was normal according to Nic, who said they were only occasionally marked with a date, either from a payment or where the person ordering the frame had received the form, usually in the post, noted any changes needed and then sent it back, would occasionally have the person ordering dating when they signed it. Though mine we can say early 1981, maybe earlier? as one that is 16 numbers after mine, #208 was confirmed built in Altbea and invoice in April 1981.
While the build page shows it was built for Jayne Tyrer, with discussion on the back of the form. I also found that it was originally black with red lining and decals would have been white, as they only offered black or white decals. Not the gold that we currently have on ours. Another interesting detail to come of this investigating is that the next frame #193 was built for Bernadette Tyrer with #129 long before being built for a Geoffrey Tyrer. Looks like this family really liked their Wester Ross's.
I will update this as we go along but after a slow start we seem to picking up steam.
Jamie
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrThick powder on this
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrHints of the nice lines beneath
Untitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrUntitled by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
