rideandgoseek 

Just recently acquired a 1978 Tourist Jack Taylor. 23 inch frame made of Reynolds 531. One owner, original paint bike. Gonna do a bit of reconfiguring and get a more touring friendly set up but in the meantime I'll just be over here staring at this box-lining. Proud to be in the JT club

rideandgoseek 

Last pic is after a bit of tinkering. Brooks Cambium saddle, Arundle bottle cage, removed light, installed Campy pedals

bikemig 

This was posted earlier on the valuation forum, right? Very cool bike. That TA crank looks pretty tourist friendly but yeah maybe the RD needs to go (or just add a long cage?). Also are those Maillard 700 hi flange hubs?

KonAaron Snake 

What color are you painting it?

WOW...that bike does not suck. Love the build...I doubt I'd change a thing.

EDIT - a bike this British, and this...just THIS...needs a Brooks. Chrome pump will kill.

noobinsf 

Wowza!

jeirvine 

Congrats. I've been following this on the CR. Really glad you got it. That's a grail bike for me.
-j

scarlson 

Welcome to the Taylor owners club. They really are special, aren't they?

If you find the serial (on one of the dropouts of the older bikes, often also on the rear rack tab that bolts to the eyelet, not sure about yours), you can get the original build sheet with size and date from Mike Thompson (meauxtown at yahoo dot com). He's a very friendly guy.

Regarding making it a bit more touring-friendly. On my Taylor tandem, I wasn't satisfied with the racks being supported by the fenders alone as their top mounting point. I fabricated some aluminum strips that run inside the fenders to keep the racks from enlarging their holes in the fenders and stiffen them up a bit under lateral and longitudinal loading. You should be able to do this without modifying the Taylors' original work, provided the studs on the racks that go through the fenders are long enough. I also replaced the cracked and degraded original rubber washers mounting the racks to the fenders with leather washers. VO ones will work, but I made my own because I wanted something sturdier/thicker.

Be careful with bolts and screw threads. There are three possible threadings for the 5mm-looking bolts on these bikes. If it's related to the fenders, it's probably actually M5x0.8 as you'd expect. If it's a bottle boss or rack bolt, it's anybody's guess. It could be Imperial #10-32 (readily available in USA), or it could be an obscure British thread called 2BA. Some say the brass screws are more likely to be 2BA. Your bike looks a little younger than mine, so probably less likely to have such weird stuff, but I figured I'd warn you before you strip anything!

Also I would encourage you to get the generator lights going! That little bottle dynamo will power a Busch&Muller with standlight just fine, regardless of what anybody says. Some Taylors have an internal conduit through the downtube for the light wire. Yours doesn't look like it does, but it merits investigation. Fishing a wire through there is bloody hard without the conduit so it's nice the wire is in there! Redoing the wire in the fender lip is surprisingly easy, they aren't usually crimped that hard in there.

Are those fenders old Lefol?

TenGrainBread 

Wow, a stunner for sure. If I were to ever own a high-end British bike, a JT would be #1 on the list. Unfortunately they are not very common and expensive when available.

Reynolds didn't introduce the 531ST ("Super Tourist") tubeset until around 1980, but I'm sure the JT brothers specced slightly thicker gage 531 for the Tourist model in order to accommodate baggage. Looks like the previous owner used it to go fast as well, going by the Super Record derailleur, tall gearing on the TA crank, Turbo saddle, and Cinelli cockpit. If it were my bike, I would switch out the stem and bars to something more in the randonneur bend genre, and use the opportunity to replace the cracked brake hoods.

Another interesting thing about the bike is the Shimano 600 cantilever brakes. Not very common at all. I like the allen bolt interface for the brake pad adjustment. Shimano had a full 600 touring groupset from the 70s from which these brakes came, including a really cool and well-finished 3-arm crankset akin to the TA Professional or Stronglight Touring Sport cranks. Cranks were only made for a couple years before being replaced by the more common 5-arm variety. Too bad - they are much more useful and nicer looking to my eye than the 5 arm. Very difficult to find these parts, though.

crank_addict

That is one handsome machine. Love the concave rims for this build, regardless their reputation.

rideandgoseek 

Yup, I posted it on the valuation forum early this month and then finally pulled the trigger. TA crank definitely fits the bill of a tourist but it's what the seller called a 1/2 step and he said it was popular among the touring crowd of the late 70s. I think it's like 53-44t (will have to count tonight) but seems like it would hinder my climbing more than anything. If I do replace it I'll look for a TA with a much lower inner chainring.

And yup, they're Maillard 700 'team issue' hubs. Thoughts on them? I have a spare weinmann concave/Campagnolo Record high flange hub wheelset that I was thinking about going with but would love to hear thoughts on the Maillards

Thanks!

xiaoman1 

I really love the detailing on these bikes paint jobs...nice to see pinstriping as well as the decal graphics.
Gret purchase in my opinion.
Enjoy!
Ben

Salamandrine 

What a fantastic bike. Bike of the week for me, at least. Congratulations.

Fortunately TA still makes tourist chainrings. You'll need a new outer as well, with the smaller bolt pattern on the spider, so to speak. It would be very easy to convert that to a triple, if you want. I would.

BFisher

Gorgeous!

Congrats on the score.

bikemig 

The maillard 700s hubs are very good but I'd overhaul it and stay on top of them; I think the Campy cones are a bit harder and tougher to mess up. Still those hubs and the weinman rims are a fine combo for a tourist build.

1/2 step gearing is a good way to eke out more gear combos when running 5 or 6 on the back but the flip side is that you need to do double shifting to make that work (at least some of the time). By the time 7 gears hit, I think pretty much everyone used cross over gearing which is easier to keep in your head. If running 1/2 step, you may want to print out the gear ratios and tape them to your stem (Sheldon's gear calc lets you do that), until you've got it figured out. TA rings are available on eBay. You can go as low as 26 on the inside and this is easy to turn into a triple. I really like TA cranks but the spacing is very narrow on the chainrings which means you'll end up doing a lot of trimming on the rear.

I'd seriously consider swapping out the super record on the rear for a decent touring derailleur like a suntour long cage.

If you want to keep the super record RD, you could run a 46/32 upfront and a 14-28 (that super record can handle this) in the rear. That's how I have my early 70s Motobecane Grand Record set up. It came stock with a TA double 52/40 rings and campy NR derailleurs. I swapped the rings out for 46/32 rings and managed to get the NR RD handle 28 teeth by shoving it all the way back in the drop outs. The Super Record, though, unlike the NR, is rated at 28 teeth. That will give you a nice simple cross gearing and decent hill climbing gears but you'll lose out on the top end.

davester

To my mind, that crank is the ideal touring crank. Why not just buy different chainrings. Hilary Stone has a bunch, many of them NOS. If you don't want to lose the high gears, I'm also pretty sure that you could convert that crankset to a triple fairly easily using a longer crank spindle, spacers, and longer bolts. I had such a TA Cyclotouriste triple on my long since departed Motobecane Grand Record.

Kilroy1988 

Just incredible! That's very a nearly grail bike for me as well, though personally I'd love to have a Jack Taylor with nervex lugs. This one is just so darn jolly clean and well-equipped... Enjoy!

-Gregory

Salamandrine 

Yeah, the TA 'cyclotourist' was the go-to touring crank BITD. Easily configured to whatever you want. My first LBS had a whole case for building them up custom. I even remember the first year Stumpjumper when it came with a TA crank.

NOS is around, yes, but TA still makes the Vis/tourist chainrings and they can be bought brand new from numerous sources, such as:

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ta-chainrings.php#pro5
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b34s14...s-Cyclotourist

FYI, that current outer chainring is for doubles only and won't work to make a triple or compact double. Solution would be to put it in the stash, and build up the old arms with new rings.

rideandgoseek 

Would people object to me putting a 2nd gen Campagnolo Derailleur on it with a 32 rear big cog? I think I could manage most rides around here with a 44-32 combo

TenGrainBread 

Do you mean a 2nd generation Campag Rally derailleur?

I think that would be fine, but 44-32 is still really tall if you ever plan to use the bike as intended (with those custom racks and bags). Like others have said, the easiest way to get appropriate gearing on this is buying some new TA chainrings for your current cranks. 48-32 and 46-30 are very popular combinations for the front chainrings on these cranks for a double, or you can make it a triple like 52-42-32 to retain your highest gear. If making it a triple you will just need a slightly longer bottom bracket spindle, I believe.

non-fixie 

Very nice! Love the box lining.


+1. I am like your LBS. I buy those TA and Stronglight cinq vis cranks and chainrings whenever I come across for a reasonable price at jumbles and such. Have a similar box, and use the contents to build up any combo I need.

The Golden Boy 

Wow! That bike is AMAZEBALLS!

I'm the guy that likes to change everything out for everything Suntour- but... man... that bike... in that condition...

Yeah, bikes are for riding- but that's something special right there...

Congratulations!

specialmonkey

I agree, I would keep that baby just like it is (just add pedals and find some hoods), hope the bit about painting it was in jest.

Is it fillet-brazed? What does the Reynolds sticker say?

horatio 

Beauty!

Wileyone 

Love your fillets. Always something special about fillet brzed bicycle. Especially when it' s English.

cb400bill

Great looking bike! Would make a great fixie!