Re: [CR]Crump's challenge: '52 New Allrounder

I have to agree with Peter. I had a '53 New Allrounder and it was the next one up from the bottom of the line Jubilee. You could find Jubilees in many local bike shops. Their distinctive smooth fillet brazed joints and translucent over silver paint was striking and they were great entry level clubman bikes with straight 531 frame tubes. I bought my New Allrounder off the showroom floor at Claud's and it had a 2-tone paint job, black with a light blue head tube and gold lined lugs. Not the base model as far as paint. Maybe it had been made for a bike show or maybe they built some fancier ones on spec. As I recall, it was about the same price as shown in the catalogue here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nkilgariff/ . The '52 on eBay has probably been chromed later in life. As for the components, they're mostly not period correct if not off-topic except for maybe the stem, but I'm no expert on that. Not that there's anything wrong with decking out one of these with more modern parts if one cannot locate or afford the correct ones. We were always upgrading every chance we got. In the first year I replaced the Williams chainring on mine with a Chater Lea and the alloy Pivo stem with a GB lugged steel one because they looked cooler. I also upgraded the Simplex RD to 5 speeds. If I'd kept that bike, it's quite possible that today it might have looked like that on on eBay. Nobody buys a bike and puts it in a time capsule to be preserved for 50 years.

John Betmanis Woodstock, ON Canada

At 07:48 AM 18/12/2007 -0800, Peter Brueggeman wrote:
>Regarding Crump's challenge: '52 New Allrounder at Ebay #230202634594
>
>In Claud Butler's 1952 catalogue, the New Allrounder model was second from
>the bottom of the price range, with the Super Velo model being the bottom.
>As such, the New Allrounder was an economy or starter model and unlikely to
>have been ordered at extra expense with chroming. The New Allrounder cost
>10.17.6 pounds in the 1952 catalogue. A catalogue "alternative" to chrome
>the frame and fork cost 4.10.3 pounds in the 1951 catalogue (not listed as
>available in the 1952 catalogue). That level of combined price for a chromed
>New Allrounder put one near the top of the Claud Butler models. At that
>price, one could purchase the Avant Coureur Special, which has butted tubing
>throughout the frame, whereas the New Allrounder had straight gauge Reynolds
>or A&P tubing in its frame tubes only.
>
>Weinmann brakes were available at that time, and listed in the 1952
>Holdsworth Aids to Cycling catalogue. However the Weinmann levers on this
>bike have a quick release style which wasn't available at the time on
>Weinmann levers.
>
>Peter
>......................................
>Peter Brueggeman
>La Jolla California USA
>pbrueggeman(AT)ucsd.edu