Wendy Houvenaghel with the Silver medal which she won in the track cycling pursuit in Bejiing 2008. Also in the photo the Lion tricycle she rode as a child
Isabel Woods 1950's multiple Irish place to place record holder on a Mercian bicycle with the late Morris Foster MBE , place to place record holder and champion cyclist . Also in the photo my 40's Mercian at
the Recycled memories book lunch in Belfast.a few years ago
Touring on a Three-Speed
Roadster
It has often been said that you can tour on any
bicycle. I guess that when most people think of a touring bike today they
possibly imagine something along the lines of a Dawes Super Galaxy or similar
with a quality steel frame, triple chainset and wide-range gearing, drop
handlebars and mountings for front and rear racks/panniers. Many of the modern
hybrid type bikes and older, rigid mountain bikes also lend themselves well to
touring. Traditional steel road frames work well enough too with suitable lower
gearing fitted. There are very valid arguments for going touring on a Brompton
or other folding bicycles as they are very convenient if there is a need for
public transport.
There is an other and less obvious way though,
for anyone who wants to experience touring as it was in the golden age of cycle
touring, a time when life was less hurried and cycling was mostly a mode of
transport for many rather than a sporting activity. Look at many old
photographs and you will see many people touring on roadster-type bicycles with
Carradice saddlebags stuffed and possibly tent, sleeping bag, pots, pans and
Primus stove attached to the outside. Look at old Raleigh catalogues and they
will describe their roadsters as traditional touring cycles. It might be an
unusual choice nowadays but a roadster is a perfectly valid touring bike -
strong and sturdy for carrying luggage, laid back geometry and upright riding
position make them comfortable and make it easy to see the countryside. Sixty
leisurely miles or more is perfectly achievable. Reducing the gearing from
standard is worthwhile. Even so, even with a hub gear, the gear range will be
limited but you can always walk. The majority of 26 inch wheeled gents
roadsters seem to have been fitted with 46 tooth chainsets. Combine this with a
22 tooth sprocket on a Sturmey AW and you will have a bottom gear of 41 inches
which is low enough for most purposes. If you are using a single speed
roadster, then a 20 tooth sprocket will give a 60 inch gear which is good
general use gear for single speed.
On a number of occasions I have taken one of my
roadsters touring. I do have a 28“ wheeled Rudge and also 26“ wheeled
Elswick-Hopper and Humber roadsters but for touring I have always taken an
early ‘80s Record which despite the badging is not a British-built frame
(Czechoslovakian possibly). I choose it not because it is superior to the older
British bikes but partly out of respect for their age, partly because I have
fitted alloy rims to it and it stops better. It’s pretty decent to ride anyway,
possibly a bit harsher that a vintage Raleigh but otherwise fine. I have
covered thousands of miles on this bike on and off over the years and view it
as an old friend despite it’s humble origins. Taking it on a few short tours
over the years seemed a good idea.
Two of the tours were touring with a static base and going on long day rides without carrying any real luggage apart from maybe food and a spare jacket. One was to the town of Westport in Co. Mayo. I had driven there with the bike in the back of my van. I spent a few days meanandering around the Westport area including the trip to Murrisk with the stop in the middle to climb Croagh Patrick and the leisurely but picturesque return trip around the many acres of gardens at Westport House. The house and Westport town itself have a lot of history attached and a lot of time could be spent just examinining the beautiful architecture of this well preserved Georgian town centre which was modeled on the Seine area of Paris
When you get to Achill you are faced with the
option of turning or going across the bridge to the island. I elected to visit
the island whilst I was there and rode to the west side of it. Achill is
spectacular in it’s beauty and compacts everything that Ireland has to offer
(mountains, bogs, lakes, beaches and sea) into a very small area. It is very
hilly in places. I stayed away from the worst climbs, still had to walk a few
but it was all very leisurely and didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the ride.
I had covered a very respectable eighty-five miles when I had made it back to
Westport that evening. It really was an all day ride but had lots of stops. I
would more than likely have completed it in less time on a lightweight but that
is too miss the point. The enjoyment came from doing the journey in such an
unhurried fashion - this is what touring on a bike like gives you like no other
bike can.
Another tour with a single base was in the
Sligo area - based in the seaside town of Strandhill. I have been to most Irish
seaside towns on my tours by now but Strandhill remains amongst my favourites.
The town of strandhill is built in the shadows of the huge sand dunes and the
beautiful mountain of Knocknarea (which is almost as beautiful and iconic as
Sligo’s other famous peak of Ben Bulbin) and is a famous destination for
windsurfers but it has a lot of offer cyclists too. I only really had two full
days of cycling on this occasion - two days of about sixty miles each - heading
out the coast to Ballysadare and back via a more inland route and exploring the
Carrowmore monuments and on the following day towards Ross’s Point and
Druncliffe via Coney Island (which is accessed only at low tide) along the
coast and a visit to the grave of former Poet Laureate and Nobel Prize winner
W.B. Yeats in the shadow of beautiful Ben Bulbin and to Glencar and back to Strandhill
via an inland route. This does involve quite a bit of climbing in places
although I can’t recall having to walk any hills but some were definitely tough
- but long drags where you can get yourself into a low-cadence rhythm on a bike
like this rather than the sort of really short, sharp climbs that mean you
grind to halt. Again, these rides were characterised by the relaxed sensation
and feeling of having left the modern world of constant rushing behind. On
reflection, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that W.B. Yeats probably spent a
lot of time cycling aorund his beloved north-county Sligo on bikes which wouldn’t
have been hugely different to one I was riding.
On another occasion I rode my Record from home
to the Giant’s Causeway while carrying two panniers of luggage for a few days
stay in the area. With taking the train for part of the journey it is about
sixty-four miles. I wasn’t hugely heavily loaded but still found my gearing
adequate for the most part. I had only to walk one small hill outside
Carrigans. I managed everything else without any real difficulty. This bike
copes easily with luggage and once rolling you don’t even realise it’s there.
This is a journey I have made on a number of bikes and I can’t really say I was
more tired using the roadster than I was when doing it on my Viscount Aerospace
for example. On the occasions I have done long rides on this bike I am
convinced that the sprung saddle reduces fatigue and improves comfort (they are
of course very heavy).
A few days were spent with leisurely
perambulations around the Bushmills area before making the return journey. The
bike coped very well with touring with a heavier load.
On another occasion I made an overnight trip to
meet with some friends in Belfast for a VCC ride on this bike, stopping
overnight in Portrush. Much use was made of trains in this but I still clocked
up 158 miles over the two days, not a bad weekend mileage really. I had my
luggage in a Carradice saddle bag on that occasion.
I
would say that touring on a vintage roadster is a perfectly valid thing to do.
I probably would not choose one to go to seriously mountainous terrain and I
probably wouldn’t go touring on a single-speed roadster unless I knew my area
was pretty flat but for anything else, a three speed roadster is an option
which works very well. It’s not the fastest bike in the world, or the most
responsive but that is largely irrelevant when you hang a load of luggage on
it. The enjoyment comes from slowing things down and taking time to see and to
explore your surroundings, from riding a bike that was designed to last for
decades and not be disposable when the manufacturer changed the colour scheme.
In the modern era, people think a heavy bike is a cheap bike but a vintage
roadster is not heavy because it was a cheap
bike, it is heavy because it was a quality
machine capable of hard use for decades with minimal maintenance.
If you can appreciate the quality of a vintage
roadster and can enjoy and appreciate a more relaxing way to cycle without any
gadgets, expense and complexity which many deem necessary nowadays, then
perhaps touring on a roadster may be for you. The only way to find out is to
give it a go!
Bryan W
FRAME BUILDERS & CYCLING CLUBS
The lightweight steel bicycle is synonymous with cycle racing and cyclo-touring. These lightweight frames built from specialist steel tubing such as Reynolds HM, Reynolds 531(from 1935), Accles & Pollock SQA and Kromo tubing were largely built and supplied by artisan frame builders, whose brand lived on after they sold the original business. In many cases, these artisans were former racing men who turned their hand to framebuilding based on their own racing experience. Some of these framebuilders had been or continued to be members of cycling clubs.
Granby - Percy Dean and Bill Ewing were both members of the famous London cycling club Catford CC.
So F H Grubb, known as Fred during his lifetime (NEVER Freddie) was a successful racing cyclist with the Vegetarian Cycle and Athletic Club in West London at the turn of the 20th century. He competed in the 1912 Olympics at Stockholm winning medals in two disciplines. He started framebuilding after he retired from cycling but business was interrupted by the Great War. Framebuilding was a precarious means of earning a living and despite being an Olympic champion he got into some financial difficulty in the 1930s. Whether this was due to the great depression caused by the 1929 stock market collapse, whose affect was still being felt in many quarters 10 years later. Fred continued in business until his death in 1949 and his family sold the business to W F Holdsworth two years later.
Maurice Selbach raced with the North London, Unity CC. He did the best ride by a Unity CC rider in 1919 in the 24 hour event covering 405 miles in the North Road open event, and again in 1924 in the 12 hour event, covering a distance of 217.5 miles in the Anerley B C event. Maurice was also a RRA record holder, taking the 100 mile tandem record in September 1920, the individual London to Bath and back place to place record in August 1921, the individual 24 hour record in August 1922 and the individual End to End in August 1923.
W F 'Sandy' Holdsworthy known as Sandy was a member of Kentish Wheelers a South London club.
F A 'Frank' Lispscombe was a very successful time triallist in the 1930s riding initially for Ingleside and then for the North London Century Road Club being a member of the winning Century RC B.A.R. team.
H.E.G Ferris was a member of the South Western Road Club in 1933 before joining the Calleva Road Club in 1934. He was the first man off in the Calleva RC open 72" medium gear 25 mile time trial in both 1934 and 1935.
Bill Hurlow who built the best Condor frames amongst working for many other framebuilders was a member of the Galena CC before the Second World War. It never survived the war as many of it's leading clubmen were killed in action during the war.
Cyril Wren raced with Kingston Wheelers competing in Galena CC open events in 1936 and 1937. He must have been good to get an entry as you had to have a 'time' to get onto the start sheet. These 1930s time trials had fields of 100 riders. Cyril opened a cycle shop in Kingston in the 1930s and sold frames with his name on them. The frames were finished in house then enamelled.
John Ephraim Sibbet was a Manchester rider who started racing in 1914. He raced with Manchester Wheelers and rode tandem in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam winning a silver medal and in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He held a number of national records on the track and in tandem events.
Leader Cycles, Croydon. Ted Woodall was the framebuilder and owner. He was a member of the Redmon CC after cycling restarted at the end of the Second World War. He was also the framebuilder of the Hercules independent team bikes. Ted built frames for others in the cycle trade, many of which were sold under the shop name like Cyril Wren above.
Tommy Donaldson, Lurgan, Co. Armagh.
Tommy was associated with the Lurgan Road Club and many racing men rode Tommy's frames. He was reported to have built a frame for the first Irish continental pro rider Shay Elliott.
Dave Kane Cycles, Belfast. Dave raced with the Northern CC and represented Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games. He opened his cycle shop at Ballyhackamore in the late 1970s and sold his own branded frames in the 1980s/1990s.
Madigan Cycles, Carrickfergus. Ronnie McKeegan was a long time member of Kings Moss CC and opened his first shop in Eden, Carrickfergus in the 1970s. Ronnie sold Madigan Cycles frames, some with 'Orbit' engraved seat stay caps showing their origin.
Downey frames were sold by Seamus Downey from his shop near Banbridge in County Down. Seamus and his brother Dominic were successful racing men with Banbridge CC. Their frames were again sourced through the trade, being built by either Tom Bromwich or later Lee Cooper.
The list is not prescriptive, but a little background on some of the craftsmen, resellers and clubmen who left their mark on the cycling results sheet.
Chris A
A few photos of the railway quadricycle in Headhunters Railway Museum, Enniskillen.
Irish Cyclist Companies WW1
Ireland
was in the grip of the home rule crisis and on the verge of civil war in 1914.
There were two private armies in existence, the smaller but better armed
'Ulster Volunteer Force' who were against home rule for Ireland and the larger
but less well equipped 'Irish National Volunteers' who wanted home rule. The
declaration of war in August 1914 averted Irish civil war but the bloodshed
would move from 'the old sod' to Gallipoli and the fields of Flanders and the
Somme. Both Sir Edward Carson, leader of the U.V.F and John Redmond, leader of
the 'Irish National Volunteers', offered the service of their respective
private armies for home defence in Ireland to the Secretary of State for War,
Lord Kitchener, to free up regular army units for service overseas. Lord
Kitchener turned the offers down flat as he did not want two army units with
political overtones and although born in Ireland, was not well disposed to his
fellow countrymen. Kitchener did shift
his position by agreeing to raise and recruit the 10th (Irish)
Division as part of his first army, known as K1. The order was given on 21st
August 1914 to raise the 10th (Irish) Division. The Division
was organized into of 3 infantry brigades, with supporting artillery,
supporting Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps companies, Divisional
Pioneer and Trench Mortar companies and a Divisional Cyclist Company. As the
realization dawned that the British Army was far too small to wage war on the
European continent, more troops would be required. John Redmond was prevailed
upon to urge the Irish National Volunteers to enlist in the 16th
(Irish) Division for service abroad, as home rule had received Royal assent in
July 1914 but the implementation was to be held back for 12 months or until the
end of the war, whichever was the shorter.
Sir Edward Carson succeeded in getting Lord Kitchener to agree to
another Irish Division formed mainly of elements of his U.V.F. This became the 36th (Ulster)
Division. Both the 16th (Irish) Division and the 36th
(Ulster) Division formed a Divisional Cyclist Company. The 10th (Irish) Division was the
first formed and following initial training, moved to England in 1915 before being embarked for
Gallipoli. The 10th (Irish)
Division was split up, with some units fighting at Anzac Cove whilst the rest
of the division fought at Sulva Bay. The
10th Divisional Cyclist Company saw action at Sulva Bay.
A few photos of the railway quadricycle in Headhunters Railway Museum, Enniskillen.
Irish Cyclist Companies WW1
Army Cyclist units had been established as
part of some British Army Territorial units around the turn of the 20th Century.
Bicycle troops were envisaged to be used in a cavalry role as the bicycle was
relatively cheap and did not require the same manpower, care and feeding as a
horse but could deploy the same number of rifles. In 1908 legislation was
passed in London which created the British Army Territorial Force, however
Ireland was excluded from the legislation and treated the same as other
colonies and dominions. Territorial Army
units in Ireland were considered Special Reserve. The Army Cyclist Corps was
set up in November 1914 to regularize the various 'new army' Divisional Cyclist
Companies which were foremed. The
Territorial Force Cyclist Battalions were excluded and did not come under the
Army Cyclist Corps as they were home service battalions.
With the opening of the German offensive at
Verdun in 1916 and the quickly mounting casualty figure for the defending
British and French armies, it became apparent that some reorganisation of units
would be required to provide enough infantry for the planned Somme offensive.
Both the cavalry and Army Cyclist Corps carried out a reorganisation reducing
the number of units and releasing men for service in the infantry. Most Divisional Cyclist Companies were
disbanded during April/May/June 1916, usually half the unit being released for service
in the infantry and the remainder transferred to a Cyclist Battalion attached
to an Army Corps. The battalions were made up of three companies, each company
formed from troops from a Divisional Cyclist Company. The 10th Divisional Cyclist
Company was not disbanded until 7th December 1916. The slaughter of the Battle of the Somme and
the unchanged policy of slaughter pursued by Haig in the battles of 1917 left
the British Army short of manpower in the spring on 1918. This necessitated further reorganisation of
units and the 1st Battalion of the North Irish Horse a Special
Reserve cavalry unit was dismounted, and around half the troops forming the 5th
Cyclist Battalion (North Irish Horse) in February 1918. They replaced the V Corps Cyclist Battalion
which was disbanded, only one officer and 24 men being transferred into the 5th
Cyclist Battalion which remained in existence to the end of the conflict in
November 1918.
The Army Cyclist Corps deliberately
targeted cyclists in it's advertising:- “ A trip for cyclists is
being organised on an extensive scale.
Most cyclists at one time or another have had a longing to tour on the
Continent; their wish may now be fulfilled.
There is no need for anyone to say that his income will not permit of
his joining this tour, as, owing to the generosity of the Government, the
N.C.U. can arrange for it to be taken absolutely free of charge, the Government
even supplying cycles and clothing of a suitable character, and paying all the
expenses of the trip. For the souvenir
hunter the excursion will be unrivalled, as mementoes in the shape of shells,
German lead, etc., may be obtained without any effort. This offer only applies, for the present, to cyclists between the ages
of 19 and 40. Ladies need not apply.”
Many Irish cycling clubs disappeared for
ever in the summer of 1914, Old Mossley in County Antrim being an example. It would be the early 1920s in some areas
before organized cycling would take place again.
Chris A
A few photos of the Michaux Boneshaker owned by a doctor from Lisnaskea from new, now in the Castle Museum, Enniskillen.
BICYCLE LIGHTS
Reynolds tubing
1st grass 2 mile All Ireland championship
1963 1st grass 1mile Northern Ireland championship
2nd 4000 meters pursuit Northern Ireland championship
1964 1st 4000 meters pursuit Northern Ireland championship
3rd 25 mile Time Trial Northern Ireland championship
plus club time trial records