Thanks, Hilary. Indeed, the next VBQ will feature a 1936 cyclotouring bike (with fenders and lights) that weighed 17.51 lbs., using 3/10 mm Reynolds HM tubing.
Issue 4 will have a comprehensive look at the technical trials. Some day (but maybe not in issue 4), I should be able to present either a complete trials bike or at least some parts in a photo story...
It's a fun topic, but in the end, the "customer" bikes from the likes of Singer and Herse weighed between 22 and 25 lbs. Still light for a bike with fenders, lights, rack, wide clincher tires, etc. But much more useful and durable than a stripped-out bike with superlight tubing. (Cheaper, too, than having to rework every component to save the odd gram here or there.)
Jan Heine, Seattle
>In a message dated 12/31/2002 2:30:18 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk writes:
>
><< It was available in both butted and plain gauge but its attraction to the
>French frame builders was for the ultra light Touring Trials frames because
>it was available in an ultra light version with 22/24g walls on the main
>tubes together with a 24g head tube Not to be recommended for a long life
>frame as its strength was not as good... >>
>
>That came to mind when reading in the Vintage Bike Quarterly, Jan Heine's
>interview with Ernest Czuka at Singer.
>Jan asks him:
> " ...on the bikes for technical trials. Were they used for several events?"
>
>Mr. Czuka replies:
>" No, perhaps twice, then they'd break. the tubing was 4/10 mm, because back
>then, 3/10 wasn't available yet. Before the war we had Reynolds 3/10 mm,
>after the war it was not available. After the war, the first Reynolds tubing
>got to France in 47 or 48. Before that, we used Vitus. These bikes were quite
>special.... They shimmied, they moved. You could not descend fast. You had to
>squeeze the top tubes between your legs. They weren't stiff."
>
>That comment by Czuka also casts some light on these amazingly light
>Technical Trails bikes we read about being built by Singer, Herse and
>Routens, among others... Yes, they were indeed light and no, they didn't last
>very long!
>
>I thoroughly recommend the Vintage Bike Quarterly for many such insights...
>We stock the newsletter here at CDO if you are on the road and pop in for a
>visit...
>or subscribe ($27 /yr) with Jan Heine c/o Il Vecchio, 140 Lakeside Ave,
>Seattle WA 98122
>
>Dale Brown
>Greensboro, NC