Sometime back Neill Currie was enquiring about the Armstrong lightweight range. These are the models listed in the spring of 1950. Continental Super No.21: Moth Magnificent No.30 : Super Moth No.35: Moth Cyclo No.41: Moth Glider No.42: Moth Superb (6-speed) No.43: Moth Ladies No.44: Continental Land's end No.27: Continental North road (6-speed) No.33. Specification for Continental Super No.21. frame sizes 22", 22.5" and 23". Built with Reynolds ' 531' double butted Tubing. Special cut-away Continental lugs, 73 Head, 71 Seat. Wheelbase 41.5". Forks Reynolds Butted ' 531' Blades, two and five eights inch fork rake. Continental fork crown especially cut-away. Wheels: 26" or 27" Dunlop stainless steel rims 15x17 gauge spokes on Bayliss Wiley rear freewheel hub and BW large flange front to match. Tyres: Dunlop HP. Handlebars: Pelliissier alloy on Reynolds or Strata alloy extension. Brakes GB or Srata alloy. Chain one eight Coventry Elite or Reynold. Pedals racing quill. Chainset; Specially lightened steel 3-claw or Allez, 46T with 6.5" cranks. Gear: Cyclo super Olympic or Benelux. Saddle: Brooks B17. Champion or to order. Dural Seat Pillar. Mudguards: White Celluloid or Alloy. Equipment: Teclemit Oil Gun Inflator. Finish: Chromium Plated front Fork and Rear Ends, Enamelled colour scheme, with contrasting lines or panels. specification can be altered to suit individual requirements. Ref. Cycling May 25th. 1950. I owned a Armstrong Moth in the early 60's and toured and raced on this as a schoolboy. Did some really fast times on this machine in evening 10's. One of my older club mates Gordon Cakebread use to lend me his old training sprints to race on. These were cane rims (Maple) on Gnutti SF. QR. hubs. Gordon had a annoying habit of urinating on the bike when out on club runs, and as you can imagine this caused chaos in the bunch when on a club or training run. Due to this custom his cane rims always had this rather strange iridescent green patina which nicely matched the flamboyant green of my Moth. Who said you should always keep wooden rims dry! Recently visited a old clubman in St.Albans who had a garage load of stuff to sell. Lots of Hetchins, Allin's, Claud's and lots of other famous sort after frames. Borrowed his 1960 Armstrong to pop down to the local cash machine to get some money for my purchases, upon my return he enquired was I interested in any of the frames and when I said I take the Armstrong he said thats the only one not for sale after riding it I wasn't surprised it was real class. Hope the spec is useful to all those who have enquired for a typical British 1950's set up.
Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK
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