More progress on the 1963 Witcomb

 It's taken a while, but I've finally made some more progress on my 1963 Witcomb fixed gear bike.  After giving the frame and all the parts a really good cleaning, I started putting it back together.  I've kept most of the original parts, with a few significant changes for practical reasons.

Original tire and bent rim

First and probably biggest change, I rebuilt the wheels, using new stainless steel DT spokes, DT brass nipples, and some nice old MAVIC MA2 clincher style rims, laced to the original Campagnolo hubs.  The original rims were MAVIC Championnat du Monde, with some very old tubular (aka sewup) tires.  One of the two rims, I think the front, had a very serious dent in it, which rendered it useless.  I thought seriously about re-building with sewups, but the more I thought about it, the less appealing that was.  Sure, that would be the "correct" choice, but I really want this bike to be something I can ride regularly without a lot of worry.  As nice as sewups ride, the care and feeding is frankly more trouble than I want for this bike.

Rebuilt wheels and new tires

When building the wheels, I decided I would mimic the original spoke lacing patterns for the front and rear wheels.  The front wheel has 32 spokes, and were laced in a "cross three" pattern, while the rear has 36 spokes, laced "cross four."  While most production bikes would have had 36 spokes in both wheels, laced identically, a small, custom builder like Witcomb might do something different.  The rear wheel seems more weight and stress, so a "beefier" build makes a lot of sense.  Thus more spokes, with more crossings of each spoke. 

I do love the classic look of tan sidewalls, and a nice round cross-section and smooth tread, so I opted for a set of Rene Herse 700x32c Stampede Pass tires.  A bit fatter than what would have been on the bike originally, but I like some cush to my ride these days.  The Rene Herse tires are light and fast and supple, so these should make for a lovely ride.

Original headset

Another change I made was to swap out the headset.  The original was a Campagnolo Record, but someone somewhere along the line had painted the upper cup yellow, to match the frame.  I tried my best to clean the paint off, but the end result didn't look good at all, so instead I installed new loose bearing headset, the Tange Levin, a classic that looks a lot like the original Campy, works just as well, and doesn't cost a king's ransom, like a period correct Campy one would.  I figured from 5 feet away, nobody will know.

Finally, a new rear sprocket was installed, as well as a new chain.  The reason for this is because the original gearing was a bit high for the kind of riding I'm likely to do on this bike.  First, I'll be dealing with hills, and I'm also not as young as I once was.  So, instead of the 16 tooth sprocket originally installed, which gave a gear of 79 gear inches, I installed an 18 tooth, for 70 gear inches. 

Original brake levers

So, what's left?  Well, obviously, I need to wrap the handlebars, and since this is a classic from the 60s, I'll be using cotton tape for that.  Black would probably be the most straightforward choice, but I'm toying with other options.  You can't really tell from the photo, but the bike had blue cotton tape when I got it.  More important than tape, I need to install a front brake.  Some people ride "brakeless fixies" but not me, thanks.  I want a front brake on there just in case the chain breaks or comes off, and I also find it handy sometimes while riding.  The bike appears to have been built to have a front brake, and it had an old Weinmann when I got it, but it was not in good shape, so I will be installing something else.  I have a Universal Mod. 68 (introduced five years after the bike was built, but close enough for me) that I'm planning to install, with a matching lever.  The previous owner had a "dummy" lever on the right hand side, basically just the body without the lever, and I might do the same, as it makes a convenient hand grip when riding.

Oh, one final thing, pedals!  I'm going to put some modern, "clipless" SPD-compatible pedals on the bike to start with.  Yeah, they'll look a little weird, but I'm out of practice at flipping over and inserting my foot in toe clips on a fixed gear bike, so the SPDs will be easier to start with.  Eventually, I plan to put a more traditional "track" pedal with toe clips on there.  I actually like riding in toe clips sometimes, and they just seem right for this old bike.

For more on this bike:

Sometimes Bikes Find Me! 

1963 Witcomb Update

For an album of photos:

1963 Witcomb Fixed Gear Bike

What it looked like when I first got it.

What it looks like today!

 

1963 Witcomb update

 Well, it's slow going, as I don't have a huge amount of spare time, but I'm chipping away at cleaning up and overhauling that Witcomb track bike I shared a few weeks ago.  It's pretty remarkable how well it's cleaning up.  It seems there was just a fine layer of filth over a bike in otherwise great shape.

I stripped all the parts off the frame, and gave it a good washing, first with diluted Dawn dish soap.  For the more stubborn bits of grunge, I used Simple Green, and in a few spots, a bit of denatured alcohol.  I had to be very sparing with the latter, or it would take up paint.  For the chromed parts of the rear triangle and front fork, I used Quick Glo, which works really well for cleaning up chrome and making it shine.  You can see the results below.

Before:

After:

I've also cleaned up most of the components, and have unlaced the wheels, since I won't be using the original sewup rims.  The front rim had a nasty dent in it, so it had to be replaced for sure, and since I was going to have to re-lace at least once wheel, I figured I'd swap out to clincher rims.  Clincher tires are just easier to deal with, and less expensive too.

Before:

 

 

After:

One odd thing I discovered is the bar tape was originally blue, and appears to have been two different shades of blue.  I never would have guessed this from what it looked like on the bike, but as I stripped it off the original colors were revealed.

There were a few paint chips, and rather than try to find a good match, I decided to just cover the bare steel with clear nail polish.  I'll be waxing the frame with Meguiar's carnauba wax, and then the next step is to start putting it all back together again.  I need to lace up the wheels of course, using the original hubs, new spokes, and a set of Mavic MA-2 rims a friend is sending me.  One oddity is that the bike has 32 spokes in the front, 36 in the rear.  Most bikes of this era had the same number of spokes in both wheels, but the British did things a bit differently sometimes.  It does make sense, as the rear wheel sees more stress than the front.

Stay tuned for more updates as things progress.

Photo album, with new additions:

1963 Witcomb Track Bike

Sometimes, bikes find me!

 Honestly, I haven't been seeking out bikes to acquire for some time now.  But in the last two months, I've had two bikes turn up, and both of them too good a deal to pass up!

First was a bike that I found out about through the IBOB (Internet Bridgestone Owners Bunch) mailing list.  A member of the list posted "Motobecane Grand Record looking for a new home (Free)."  It caught my eye because I've always been interested in the Grand Record and Grand Jubile models from Motobecane, so I read the listing.  The next thing that caught  my eye was that the poster said the owner of the bike (not them) really wanted to do things locally, but might be willing to ship if need be, and that they were close to MY shop, so I could probably help with packing it up.  The final piece of the puzzle was seeing the photos and description, indicating the bike was my size!  A few emails back and forth, and a trip in my car, and the bike was mine.

Waiting for rebuild.

It's pretty filthy and in need of a lot of tlc, for sure, but I can handle all of that.  When I got it home, I was trying to figure out why the front wheel was cockeyed, and discovered that the front fork had a pretty serious bend to the left.  But I have the tools and know-how to fix that, and took the opportunity to make it a teaching moment with one of my staff.  Win-win!

Now, given the amount of work it's going to need, plus having to give some thought to just how I want to use it and thus how I want to build it up, I've put that bike on the back burner for a bit.  That decision was finalized when the second bike showed up, as it is going to be easier and faster to figure out and get rolling.

 My shop works with an organization called Bikes for the World, that collects donated bikes and ships them overseas to be used for transportation, mostly in Africa and Central America.  People that want to donate bikes can drop them off with us, and once a week or so, BFTW comes by with a truck and trailer to pick up anything we've taken in.  Typically, my staff and I will cast an eye over the giant pile of bikes on the truck/trailer rig, and now and then something interesting will be there.  Last week, as I was walking toward him, the driver said "there's one here you should take a look at!"

Well, I went over and looked, and it was quite a surprise.  There in the truck was a tall, yellow bike with drop handlebars like a road bike, but it wasn't a road bike.  No, it was a track bike, a "fixed gear" or "fixed wheel" as the Brits sometimes call it.  Which is probably the appropriate term, since it was built by Witcomb Lightweight Cycles of London.  Witcomb never really had a huge presence in the US market, but US frame builders Richard Sachs, Peter Weigle, Ben Serrota, and Chris Chance trained there in the early 70s, later going on to be major figures in the US bicycle industry.  There was also a Witcomb USA for a few years, which included Sachs, Weigle, and Chance as builders, but that's a different story.

After a short discussion, in which we agreed the bike made no sense for any of the partners in Africa or Central America, and the fact that BFTW had just held their annual sale of bikes that didn't suit the overseas partners, I was offered the bike for a good deal.  Anyone who knows me would not be surprised that I accepted it!  I honestly couldn't resist, as it's a pretty uncommon brand AND uncommon style of bike, plus, I was pretty sure it was pretty old, 70s or older.  It was covered in a pretty good layer of dust and other filth, but it didn't seem to have any serious rust or issues, so I was really looking forward to tear into it and get it rolling again.  Apparently, it had been left at the local transfer station (aka, the dump), which seems a sad end for such a fine bike.  My best guess is the original owner passed away, and whomever ended up dealing with their stuff had no idea it was worth saving.  I'm sure glad it came my way!

Right off the truck, sitting in front of the shop.

Over the last few days, I've had some time to get started, and learned a few things along the way.  First, based on the serial number, it was built sometime in 1963, which makes it one of the older bikes I own.  The seat tube measures 24", which is pretty much about as short as I'm comfortable riding in general, and the frame was built with Reynolds 531 butted main tubes.  The seat stay cluster is kind of cool, using a "full wrap" design.  I think most of the parts are original, aside from the Phil Wood sealed bearing bottom bracket and the Weinmann brake and levers.  In fact, being a fixed wheel, it might have had no brake at all originally, since traditionally they don't come with brakes, and brakes are not allowed in a velodrome.  The wheels have Campagnolo Pista (track) hubs, which have date codes indicating they were also made in 1963.  The rims are MAVIC Championat Du Monde, and the tires are Clement tubulars (aka sewups).  The crank is a Campy Pista with 165mm arms and 47 tooth chainring, for 1/8" chains, connected to a Campy track cog in back.  The handlebars and stem are from Cinelli, though I'm not sure which model at this point.

Full wrap seatstays

Campy Pista 165mm cranks

Campy Pista hub and cog, frame track ends with adjusters.

Cinelli bars and stem, Weinmann levers

I breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered the seat post and stem both moved easily once the bolts were loosened.  Sometimes you don't get that lucky, and it can be a huge challenge, and sometimes even completely impossible to budge those, rendering the frame pretty much useless.  On the other hand, the tires were shot (not a big surprise), and the front rim has a huge dent in it.  The rear rim MIGHT be ok, but honestly, I'm not that interested in using tubular tires on this bike, as the gluing and mounting process is kind of a pain, and not something I really love doing.  A few of my other bikes do have sewups, but I try to keep it to a small number.  So now I am working with a friend of mine who has a truly astonishing stash of bike parts, to see if he can come up with some good clincher rims that will look right on this bike.  One oddity is that the front wheel has 32 spokes while the rear has 36.  That actually makes a lot of sense, since the rear wheel sees more stress than the front, but you don't often see bikes that take that into account.  Based on my experience, back in the day, it was mostly the English who thought of such things, as the classic 3-speed "light roadsters" often had 32 in the front and 40 in the rear.

I've taken all of the parts off the frame at this point, and started cleaning it up, including polishing the chrome "socks" on the fork and rear triangle.  The chrome really cleaned up well, and the paint is looking pretty good too.  I need to be careful not to damage the decals any more than they already are, and not harm the paint either.  There's a little bit of rust on the bottom bracket shell where the paint got chipped, but nothing major.  I need to take a closer look inside the tubes, but I think at worst there's a little light surface rust, which is not uncommon at all with older bikes, and isn't a real concern.  Hopefully, over the next few weeks I will be able to rebuild the wheels with new rims and reassemble the bike and start riding it.  I'm pretty sure I'll have the only Witcomb track bike on my local multi-use path!

Painted parts of the frame are cleaning up pretty well.

Rear chrome "socks" looking good.

Left (in photo) fork leg has been polished, right has not.

I'll be posting updates as I move ahead with the work, along with photos, which you'll see here:

1963 Witcomb Track Bike