This is a beautiful Blue Riband restoration! I can't help but notice that the head tube lug pattern is similar to many Malvern 5 Stars as well as the recently outed Malvern 3-Star on e-bay # 7217953361 fom the 1950's.. Does this imply that many builders dipped into the same "made for the trade" lug box, rather than have their own proprietary hand cut patterns.Or did they just copy each other to produce the lug du jour popular in that era? Art Link,San Antonio,TX
David Ross <dlr94306@yahoo.com> wrote: A baker's dozen of photos of the project to date:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
This project is a little over a year old now so I thought it high time to give a progress report, especially for all those of you who have helped or consulted in some way. I just picked up the frame and fork from Ed Litton's shop, and you'll have to add some imagination to the photos to understand how beautiful it really is. The photos don't do it justice. Luckily, the original paint overspray was still present on the fork steerer tube, even though the frame itself had been re-sprayed at least a couple of times (the most recent time quite badly).
I've put together the parts to do a fairly authentic period re-build which will start as soon as the wax dries. A few probably-not-original-to-the-bike parts will remain, since I believe they were changed out pretty early in the life of the frame and putting it all back to original would have meant replacing the rear dropouts (and a large measure of speculation). I believe that the '50s Campy dropouts on there now were not original, but an "upgrade" done along with cable stop and shifter braze-ons, Gran Sport derailers and a Stronglight 49D crankset. Luckily the original Lytaloy BB cups and lock ring were saved, as well as a GB Hiduminium spearpoint stem. I've scrounged a NOS Lytaloy brakeset, Lytaloy headset, a Chater Lea/Super Champion wheelset, a Reynolds alloy seat pin and a Brooks saddle. The finished bike will get proper mudguards, courtesy of fellow lister Doug Smith.
I will post more photos to the album as progress allows.
Dave Ross
Portola Valley, California