About 55 years ago I remember pressing my nose against the large plate glass window of Butlin Borthers, Cycle Retailers of East Parade, Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in order to get a better view, as if rubbing glass would work the miracle, of a "dream machine" in copper-plate. I have never forgotten that first Viking "Severn Valley", with its Reynolds 531 tubing brazed into Nervex MkI Pro lugs, resplendent in its copper livery highlighted by head-tubes lugs, fork crown and fork ends in bright chrome-plate. It cost an absolute fortune at 21 guineas which was about £22, if I remember my pre-Decimalisation money properly. The most famous English cyclist to ride such a frame in anger was the former miner -turned -racing -cyclist Jimmy Saville, now Sir Jimmy Saville, after spending a lifetime as a radio and TV DJ and celebrity before he became a one-man charity fund raising machine - hence the knighthood.
Thirty years later I tried to recreate that finish on a frame that I had built for one of the British Legion of racing lads, Sean Yates, Graham Jones, Robert Miller, Paul Sherwen, etc who had been recruited by the Peugeot-sponsored ACBB racing team, the "nursery" for the company's Pro team. My former mechanic set off to seek fame and fortune on this frame that would have eventually been sprayed over Peugeot white with the black and white "damier" decals.
The ACBB training camp that year, in February, took the team down the "autoroute du soleil"/the route to the sun...and thence to the French Riviera, but they unfortunately found no sun just rain more rain and hail. Alan was later to tell me that the nearer the team got to Cannes the greener his Bespoke "Peugeot" became as it braved the elements strapped into the bike rack on the boot lid of the Team car.
That frame had been copper-plated and clear lacquered, but nevertheless the brilliant rich lustre had all but turned to verdigris by the time the Team pulled up at training HQ. I understand that it was sprayed virtually then and there, with an obliterating coat of white gloss...from an aerosol can.That was my one and only copper-plated frame.
As I recall Margaret Thatcher, "the Iron Lady" had just become Prime Minister of the UK and was about to set out on her onslaught of the British working class, taking in her stride the rapid destruction of the country's manufacturing base. However a handful of chrome plating companies managed to hang in there long enough for me to experiment with my one and only brass-plated frame.. that ended up in a not much better state than the copper "Peugeot".
Another surviving memory of the early 50s was and still is, the glorious nickel-plate finish on the top-of-the range Frejus Super Corsa..set off by the very dark-blue head panel. I had a lot of success with nickel-plating on frames, restricting it mainly to lugs, rear triangles and front forks as a "foil" and contrast to darker flambouyant finishes. It gave the frames a restrained elegance I thought.
Perhaps my "finest hour" in terms of plated finishes came as a result of importing a handful of CBT-Italia frames, from Bruno Tardivo, in Cuneo. Bruno introduced me to the beauty of black chrome-plate and I successfully produced a limited edition of road frames whose main tubes were plated a dusky black to contrast with the "white" chrome of lugs, fork crown, and fork tips. Sheer indulgence..and expensive elegance! Just before Thatcher's policies had reduced most of the Yorkshire region's plating plants to industrial waste lands I was asked to build a "Silver Dream Machine" for a TV celebrity who was going to carry out a six-week cycling, and guitar-playing trip down the Appalachian Chain. That "dream" was far more difficult to realise as it was difficult to find a plater who would carry out the time-consuming work of producing a frame whose main tubes, stays and fork blades were satin chrome-plated, while the lugs, crown and fork tips were bright chrome contrasts.
After completing that order I stopped dreaming chromium-plated dreams..and managed to convince myself, in the long run, that I could lay the blame on Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative government's policies towards the engineering industry rather than on my own lack of inventiveness.
Oddly enough there has recently been a bit of a renaissance in the plating industry in the UK..so I might just dream up a Herse or Singer-style randonneur, built with bilaminated techniques incorporating Art Nouveau style asymetrically shaped "lugs"..finished in black-chrome and copper plate..or perhaps in two shades of black chrome plate...much more subtle..But as my wife would say "Dream on...!"
Norris Lockley...Settle UK