Having just surfaced, or at least partially, from quite a difficult period in my life.I thought I would treat myself to some fun time with my small collection of photos on the Flickr site.
A reasonable criticism of my work as a frame-builder is that I have spent a tremendous amount of time building time-trial bikes. However, framebuilders in the UK , or at least those that I know well, were seldom in the position of being picky and choosy about the types of customers who came through the shop's front door, or of what frames they would require me to build. Most of us were/are jobbing metalwork craftsman, plying our trade.
I have been sorting out a few photos from a particularly busy building period in my life - the early 80s- when I would guess seven out of every ten frames to leave the workshop were atime-trial ones. However, as the photos show, I did find time to build other frames, including some touring and Club machines.
A few of the photos relate to the shots I took, just for the record, of a couple of frames I built for the sweatiest cyclist that I ever came across...and one of my most difficult customers. A couple of other shots are the only ones I have...and they are 35mm slides that I have reworked, of a true Cyclotouriste machine that I built for a TV programme shot by the BBC..the programme being the story of a musician's bike-ride along the Appalachian Chain, seeking out kindred spirits with whom to perform some folk music.... and have a good crack.
The musician, a close friend, is shown in one shot at a place called Annie Miller's Swamp Tours , which Google tells me is the Terrebonne Swamps in Houma, Louisiana. Any of you Listers from that neck of the woods,.. or swamps ?
The 6-week programme was such a success for the BBC that the organisation commisioned the musician to do a similar job following the route of the Tour de France....but he just got homesick too much and turned the offer down.
A couple of other sets of photos show a lugless testing frame that I reckon Bill Hurlow would have approved of..and another that records the passing of the years for an old-timer's testing machine that has just been given the retro treatment.
Some of the sets are used to outline the trials and tribulations that can often beset the true custom frame-builder..
*www.flickr.com/photos.cyclecrank* ** *Go on, treat yourself to a laugh at my expense.* ** Norris Lockley
Settle UK