1950’s Bike Restoration

Join Paul in discussing our latest bike restoration including what the customer requested and all the small details.

We are Velo Works and we undertake vintage bike restorations and hand built wheels, in addition to our online store and local servicing and repair. Find out more here:

Vintage Bike Restorations: https://www.veloworkshop.co.uk/vintage-bikes-for-sale
Online Store: https://www.veloworkshop.co.uk/onlinestore
Hand Built Wheels: https://www.veloworkshop.co.uk/handbuilt-wheels-uk
IG : https://www.instagram.com/velo_works/

Thanks to Argos Racing Cycles for the work on the frame and respray. Find out more about them here: https://argoscycles.com/

We are Paul and Sarah of Velo Works and we love all things cycling including Bromptons and Folding Bikes, Bike Touring, Mountain Biking and more.

hi I’m Paul from Valex come and join me as I show you our latest restoration that’s going out the workshop let’s go been working on this restoration for quite a while it’s a 1950s rad trxs bike it came to us as a frame only may have had some brakes on it but it came to us as a frame and it’s a track frame and we have sent it to Argos racing Cycles they’ve done their magic and we’ve got it so it has a deria system and lots of lovely components that I’m going to talk you through so here’s the bike as mentioned a 1950s road tracks it’s in Merks blue which is sweet if you’ve seen our video about the molten Sarah’s molten it’s the same color so it really pings in the light and really Sparkles so yeah fortunate that we’ve had some experience with that color so we knew uh the outcome of what it would look like it’s had gold lug lining so lug lining is where the paint around the lugs and look just makes them pop a little bit and looks really nice we had gold we’ve had the gentleman’s name and his dad’s name put on the frame so one either side as a tribute we’ve had a nice new headset original type decals they’re not original decals but they’re original to the frame including the 531 sticker which is always a period sticker so these were made in Southampton and this is 1950s the dropouts were chromed already uh the frame actually wasn’t in that bad condition it had had a respray by Argos before but it had just lived in an attic and the guy wanted a different aim for the project so dropouts were in good condition they didn’t need anything but a clean it’s nice having Chrome dropouts because the wheels go in nicely and yeah it’s just they look quite nice a little bit to maintain you have to kind of keep on top of them spray them make sure water doesn’t and get on them but yeah they look really nice so track dropouts these aren’t horizontal but they’re almost horizontal um so what we have to do is fit an aftermarket deria hanger you can’t really weld onto steel it doesn’t really work because of the pressure that especially modern deras do it can kind of snap so the rear end’s been made for 130 mil uh so 130 mil spacing which is a modern spacing and then the frame tra to use with a deria system the customer wanted some campanola components so we’ve gone for campanola old school campanola deras we’ve gone for campolo hubs the wheels I’ve built um by hand using nice new Spokes and Halo retro rims really like them they built really nicely and we’re going to use them on a couple of our bikes the mercian and Sarah’s Aros as well because they’re a really good option and I think they look lovely so as mentioned the gearing systems campanola around about 7 80s the re Alia you can see us polish in another video and bring back to life for this project I always use a newer Freewheel and chain on these projects obviously a newer chain is really important but a newer Freewheel you can get New Old Stock free Wheels but I prefer the customer to go away with something that’s nice and new so we put that on the only challenge with the gearing system and the challenge with the bike the rest of it has come together really well is just the rear der the rear dropouts were just a little bit too high so I’ve had to do some ration of the rear deria hanger just to enable there to be clearance of the Jockey wheels and the Freewheel so that’s the only hurdle took a little while to overcome and think about what was the best solution but I got it nicely nailed but a bit of learning for me in the future yeah sometimes the track dropouts can just be a little bit high or a little bit on an angle so when you’re putting a deria system on it’s not just an easy transfer as it were so when you’re using newer parts that look old on a vintage bike it’s called neor retro so what I’ve done here is the it’s difficult with braking systems with vintage bikes because they’re usually knackered like not knackered it but tarnished they’ve been hit you know they stick out from the bike they’re the first thing to get impact so I do like to go for a newer braking system also it’s safer just because you know all the products are new so what we’ve done is diac compi which I believe that’s how you say it do some lovely components they do these long drop 730 brakes because this bike would have been for a 27 uh one and one quarter wheel which is slightly higher so you have to have these kind of longer brakes it’s really nice the brake pads on these match everything that I’ve done that was luck actually but we got nice new levers they’re really adjustable and they just feel really solid no kind of sponginess to them we’ve gone for new stem and handlebars which I do like because I don’t want that to be a problem with someone’s handle bars that you can see so all of this the braking system saddle seat post is an Ode To The Past we’ve got some lovely exaggerated cables so another standout Neo retro piece uh that I’m really happy with is this chain set it was a I was going to go for a vintage chain set but again I just couldn’t find one that really popped and this was a really nice option also the gears are a bit more forgiving if you go for like a vintage chain set they can be like 52 39 teeth so they’re really hard to ride so we don’t want to be giving a bike back to someone and then then not be usable so this has been a really nice option so yeah what do you think let us know it’s been a really nice project a lot of thoughts gone into it um we hope he’s happy with it we’ got to give it back to him it’s just yeah lovely it rides really nice it’s super light as well um I would put it on the scales but I don’t want to jinx anything by damaging it or anything but I think it’s definitely under 10 kgrs the color lovely and working with the owner and obviously Argos were able to create this wonderful time piece and it’s so nice this Frame now has been properly treated that it’s ready for another 40 or 50 years of service you know proper maintenance and being looked after and then at some point in the future someone can then just spray it again if there’s a problem because it’s still it can be welded and fixed so it’s just a really good way to reuse a product and look after something that’s really important so because I believe this did belong to his dad so yeah let us know what you think in the comments let us know if you have any projects that you do or any bikes vintage bikes that you love and we love to try and get back to every comment that we have so yeah thanks for watching and please subscribe e for