Continuing our conversation about Woodrup frames, a few in the States might not realize that bicycle shops in England would sell frames under their own name even if they didn't make the frames themselves. R.E.W. Reynolds was such a store. I remember buying a pair of cycling shoes from them in 1974. His frames - well at least some of his frames - were made by Woodrup. When I was at Ellis Briggs a Reynolds frame came through for painting (enameling). It had a very distinctive combination of colors, primarily with dark burgundy including yellow among other colors on the seat tube. For some reason it really appealed to me because of it's unusualness and I watched it with interest go through each stage of adding more color. In the it's-a-small-world department and to my surprise a month after I got back to the Dayton, Ohio area where I was living at the time, this same frame showed up at the Kettering Bike Shop where Pete DiSalvo was manager of the pro shop (he later branched out on his own and established the International Pro Bike Shop - which had a mail order catalog that some might still remember). I wonder if that frame is still in that area.
What I remember was that Briggs painted some but not all of Woodrup frames. They did the complicated ones like that Reynolds but I think even the bulk of them went somewhere else.
Another Woodrup that I bought for my brother-in-law in 1973 was a Geoff Clark. He ran a respray (and perhaps retail) business for a bit in Bradford. This business was gone I believe when I was there in 1975. What I remember - which can be suspect so many years later - was that Geoff was a famous bike racer in the 50's - perhaps even won the Milk Race? This bike my brother-in-law still has. I made him a true custom frame (which naturally he tells me he likes much better which helps make Thanksgiving meals more pleasant) but uses the Clark/Woodrup as his winter bike. Does anyone have more information about Geoff Clark as a racer or in the bicycle business? At one point in time I sold the Clark frame for him but eventually it came back on the market and he liked the ride and also the memories so I again repainted it for him.
Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan