Let me say at the outset that I consider America to be the second greatest country in the world and I would like to help maintain our special relationship so I will refrain from commenting on California, despite several invitations to spill the beans.
I would also like to say that, having read most of the posts about art and engineering, I have completely changed my mind and now accept entirely and unconditionally that framebuilding is an artform. How could I ever have thought otherwise?
Getting back to Charlie Gibb, though, I've just realised that my bike has a cottered Williams chainset which should have a date stamp on it.
It's encrusted with seventy years of crud, however, and is proving a devil to remove. Once I eventually manage to get the chain ring off and blast it with depleted uranium bullets for several days, it might reveal its date of manufacture.
That would at least give me the bicycle's age-whether or not it was made by Mr Gibb will probably remain a mystery for a while yet. The strange thing is that the frame could be early to mid 1930s but the Pelissier front brake, if I remember rightly, is more likely to be of late 1920s origin. Anyone know any different?
Bob Reid made several interesting points in his reply to my initial post re Charlie Gibb.
Bob wrote:
> Though I have not seen the frame, I would suspect he used Reynolds High
> Manganese special lightweight tubing as opposed to the lesser 'A' grade
> tube. A typical 'A' weight single speed fixed "lightweight" in 28' was
> weighing in at 17.3/4 lbs ! and not a sniff of carbont, Titanium and that
> was with lugs that had more in common with Kaverner than Confente.
The "Gibb" I have might not be of utilitarian make-up but I don't think its anywhere near 17.3/4 lbs. 34.1/7 lbs maybe! The lugs, by the way, aren't fancy but there's obviously been some care taken in filing them so that they blend into the frame tubes quite smoothly.
>
> If it was the 20's you'll be certain to find more info in the Scottish
> R.R.A. records - this was virtually the only organised road racing going on
> at the time. Does Vic have any ex-Wheelers mates who might know ?
Vic doesn't but I might check the RRA records in case there is any mention of the chap, McClelland, who originally owned the bike.
Re ID-ing the bike, Bob suggested:
> A very difficult one. I'd suggest if it is quite deteriorated that you stri=
> p
> it back and look for the builders "signature" touches in comparison with a
> known "Gibb" - they all did it somewhere.
This is a good idea but only if someone can tell me what Charlie's signature touches were! No one I've spoken to can shed any light on this matter. Any list members help?
>
Next time we vintage bikers are in the Stonehaven area, Bob, we'll definitely take you up on your offer of a drum up. The last time I was in Stonehaven was on January 1, 2000 for the the Fireball Procession. Hope it's warmer next time!
Bruce "I haven't got a nasty bone in my body (honestly)" Robbins
Get your free email with GroupWeb Worldmailer at http://www.worldmailer.com. Send and receive e-mail from any computer with a web browser.