D. W. Lindsay

And now for something completely different - meet D. W. Lindsay. You might think from reading this blog that all I do is take photographs in my spare time. Not quite right. For many years I was completely engrossed in collecting vintage racing bicycles - vintage being anywhere between 1930 and 1970. About eight years ago, though, my interest waned but it's lately been rekindled and I've decided to actually restore a few of the bikes I have and, as I'm doing with my surplus camera equipment, sell off the rest.

What's let of the head tube transfer...

I've got around 20 frames, loads of wheels and parts and other essentials such as saddles and handlebars some of which I bought from old guys who were ex-racers and some I picked up through a couple of contacts at local municipal dumps. It's a dump find I'm working on at the moment. A worker there used to fish out likely candidates from the rubbish and put them aside for me. I remember popping in to see him one lunchtime and being told that he had "an old bike" in a shed. A tenner changed hands and I left with what is a very rare - if not particularly valuable - machine indeed. Dundee is my home city and this bike was built there by Dave Lindsay whose bike shop, D.W. Lindsay, was, I believe, the biggest in town. The bike is definitely pre-WWII and is probably from 1937 going by the date code on the Williams chain ring. There's every chance it's the oldest Lindsay around having come into existence a year before the Anschluss. I love the history associated with old bikes and the fact they were handmade by guys in workshops and not the product of an Asian sweat shop surrounded by suicide nets to catch those poor workers who are sometimes pushed to the brink by the awful conditions they have to face day after day.

...and what it was once like.

Although I've always concentrated on lightweight racing bikes, the type that were state of the art at the time, the Lindsay is more of a "light tourer", a bike that wasn't heavy like the roadsters that people used as daily transport but wasn't designed for racing either. It's a little sturdier and would have been ideal for cycle-touring around Youth Hostels or camping. The bike was completely original when I picked it up with nothing at all replaced over its 70 year history apart from a rear tyre. That's quite rare as often something would wear out and be swapped for a new part possibly decades later. This isn't limited to parts such as tyres and brake blocks which are bound to wear out after years of use. Sometimes a new set of alloy cranks, for example, would come out that the bike owner fancied instead of the heavier chromed steel ones on his bike.

From a collectors point of view, this isn't good as the goal is to get the bike back to the way it would have been when it was new ("period correct") - not necessarily in terms of everything being pristine but more from an originality point of view. With the Lindsay, it's quite possible to get it running smoothly again exactly as it would have been when it left Dave Lindsay's shop in the mid-to-late 1930s - apart, that is, from the Brooks B32 "racing model" saddle that had rotted away. That will be replaced with a 1950s B17 Champion Narrow, a successor to the B32.

A "clip" style headset that will clean up nicely.

I've actually ridden this bike a fair bit and it's wonderful. It worked more or less straight from the dump and I used to use it for cycling around the neighbourhood with my daughter when she was about five. The B32 saddle was in one piece at that time but after just a few rides it started to split until one day the front parted company with the steel frame and it was toast. With the replacement B17 the Lindsay will look almost exactly the same.

So, embarking on the long process of bringing this bike back to full utility is how I spent part of my weekend. I tackled the "L" shaped seat pin first of all, using the trick of crumpled aluminium cooking foil and water for getting rid of rust from chrome (there's a chemical explanation for the way this works but I won't bore you with it beyond saying that it's very effective).

Other components were tackled much the same way although a close inspection of the wheel rims revealed that they're too corroded to be of much use. They are round and functional but the chrome is so badly rusted that there's barely any left. If I kept these rims they would require regular attention and the bike would always look pretty scruffy. One of the good things about having lots of bike parts, however, is that I have a pair of period correct alloy rims. I'll salvage the hubs from the original wheels and have a replacement set of wheels built up.

Cyclo gear changer

Cyclo Standard rear derailleur - state-of-the-art in the 1930s

There's chrome in varying amounts missing from many of the components and it's tempting to have them replated. However, I believe the best practice is to restore everything as far as possible short of such pretty drastic action otherwise you end up with a bike that looks brand new rather than 70 years old. It's only original once!

Paint flaking from the seat lug

I have to admit, though, that the paintwork on the frame is ropey in places and it might yet be necessary to have it repainted just to preserve the steel and stop rust getting a stronger hold. The aim may be to keep everything the way it was when it left Dave's shop but there's little point in slavishly following that approach if the frame, for example, is left vulnerable and at risk of serious corrosion. You have to be on guard against possible "over refurbishment", though, particularly when it comes to components.

The hubs, for instance, are Radnall Sportex models, a reasonable but lowish-end choice. I have lovely, top-end alloy hubs - Duralite - that would be a much better match for the alloy rims. They were made by the Birmingham firm of T.F. Blumfield, a name possibly familiar to some photographers for the enlargers they also manufactured and which I used for quite a few years. The enlargers were beautifully made with a stainless steel column and a fine alloy lamp housing and, like the hubs, were the equal of anything else on the market.

So there you have it. A great way to waste spend some time on dark winter nights!