Rick Olson wrote:
> I recently picked up on #Bay a NOS Hansom Super Prestige
> frame, marked "Hand Brazed Designed and Manufactured by:
> Gotty Hansen". It is built of Reynolds 501 tubing. The
> research I have done indicates it is of South African
> manufacture, and that Gotty Hansen is apparently an
> ex-Peugeot frame-builder. Anyone out there have any first
> hand experience with Hansom frames? Apparently they made
> track frames as well.
Rick,
Hansen has been involved in South African cycling and framebuilding for years and is currently president of the SA Cycling Federation (www.sacf.co.za). According to the website, his e-mail is gottyh@iafrica.com
Hansom was one of the popular locally built brands dating back to the tail-end of the CR era, along with others such as Lejeune, Peugeot, Alpina, and Zini. As an aside, things became blurry during the apartheid/sanctions latter years, and international brands -- I'm talking in general here, not just bikes -- were produced both under licence and in some cases also, um, without the original brand-owner's knowledge thanks to some enterprising applications of trademark/copyright legislation. (Hey, McDonalds sounds like a good name for a fast-food business. And why not use some golden arches at the entrance while we're at it?) According to an acquaintance in the kit-car business he copyrighted the Cobra name and got the courts to order Ford to buy the rights back from him.
Hansom output ranges from the mass-market to out-and-out racers using the likes of Reynolds 653 and 753 although not, as far as I know, aluminium. Gotty Hansen is on record as preferring steel. My own 54 cm c-c Super Prestige (frame tubing not marked, hence probably common or garden hi-ten carbon steel) hangs in semi-retirement after having been ridden for many thousands of kilometres. It's workmanlike in execution and clearly produced to a price point, but with a decent mix of componentry including Shimano Exage drivetrain and Wolber wheels. I dare say there's less painstaking handcrafting, though, than the frame decals suggest.
Since the rise of relatively cheap imports the South African mass-production days are long gone. Still, a couple of years ago when I was shopping around for a new bike I found that Hansom production was continuing on a limited scale. At the time I got a quote from them for a frame in Reynolds 653 with entry-level Shimano components for around R7 500, which is about $1 200 at current rates.
Anthony Doman Associate Editor, POPULAR MECHANICS (South Africa) 3 Howard Drive, Pinelands, Western Cape 7405 South Africa +27 21 530 3100; fax +27 21 531-9495; mobile +27 083-445-3049 http://www.popularmechanics.co.za http://www.magsathome.com http://www.popularmechanics.com