thedriveside

Hey gang, I've been in a long time lurker in this community and I can honestly say that this place is a huge part of my love of working on bicycles. I've learned a lot here, so thanks to you all.

Here's a post of one of my builds. The rear derailleur was provided by wbg Pictures are from the summer, fender-line is janky and it's not Orange Bike Month -- but hope you'll enjoy in any case.

Here's an old Holdworth Equipe, but for me - the Creamsicle. Kept me busy for many months and makes me smile every time I see and ride it. 27 1/4 to 700c conversion. Lots of old parts - Campy, Suntour, Huret with Velo-Orange goodies sprinkled throughout. More pics and build story here:
https://thedriveside.com/holdsworth/









Build list:

• Campagnolo headset, cranks, hubs
• Huret Jubilee rear derailleur
• Mafac Racers w/ Tektro city levers
• Suntour thumbie retrofitted to downtube
• Velo-Orange Porteur bars, chainguard kit, fender stays
• 3TTT stem
• Straight blade chrome fork
• Bluemel Fenders
• Concor saddle
• MKS city pedals w/Campy straps

dmarkun

Thanks for the very nice photos. Love the hold up stick - nicely done zen Japanese garden vibe.

Kilroy1988 

Looks like great fun to me and a good way to revitalize a classic frame... I particularly like the bold but totally fluid statement made by the straight fork. Thanks for sharing, and keep enjoying it!

-Gregory

rjhammett

Nice looking bike. I own a Holdsworth Professional 'creamsicle'.

juvela

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thanks very much for sharing this project

find it absolutely fascinating that the tree branch was able to grow up through and between the boards forming the walkway to provide a convenient propstand for the photo

normally one would expect some eager gardener to have lopped it off long before it was permitted to reach this stature


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Wildwood 

love the artistic crutch.

bikemig 

Beautiful bike, neat build, and great photos.

SJX426 

Eclectic build! I like it! Most, outside of this forum would not look twice but to those of us who look at the parts of a build, it is very interesting. Congrats!

Enjoy the ride!

robbyville

Love it. Looks like it would be great fun to ride, I’m sure building it up was just as enjoyable!

Thommy

Sweet looking bike. I would totally ride this!

3speedslow

A Suntour shifter called climber? Tell me more!...

Love the orange and build. I did appreciate the hold stick first though! Needs to be your trademark.

sced

Needs new decals. I had a Holdsworth custom made for me in 1973 and while it was a very nice bike, which I still have, the water slide decals were not clear coated and didn't look good for long.

3alarmer 

...I just redid one of these over the past summer, and the Holdsworth Pro decals from H Lloyd are pretty close to the originals in appearance, but come as metallic blue, lettered vinyl panels, rather than individual letters like the older ones. They work pretty well, and if carefully applied, using wet method, look reasonably authentic. Unless you're a stickler for authentic, they're a good deal.

I truly wish that SKS would start making and selling white fenders again. They are cramping my style.

Interesting use for a Jubilee derailleur.

thedriveside

Thank you kindly!

Ohhh, would love to see a picture!

haha, thank you! It was actually a stick that we found in a forest that you don't see on the right. We put it back in it's natural home after

Of course! My favourite part of the build actually - it's a Suntour MTB thumb shifter that I took apart and mounted to a down-tube adapter. Gotta love that ratchet-action.

Meh. Personally, I like the patina, tells a story about the history of this bike Cool to know that the decals of this era weren't the best though!

thedriveside

The stick has been a huge hit! Didn't expect that!

Thank you!

Agreed, I do love the 'ratrod-ness' of the build.

The bike turned out a lot quicker than I was expecting, but it was fun to obsess about the build - and really enjoyable to boot around on!

rjhammett

As requested here is a picture of my Holdsworth Professional.

rhender 

Woah. Please tell me more on how you managed that. I have a pair of the Suntour XC power ratchet thumb shifters and I was just trying to figure out if I could do something like that.

3alarmer 

thedriveside

I carefully took the thumbie apart and lined up the pieces in the right order and pretty much assembled them in the same order on the downtube adapter...if my memory serves me, there's a small snap ring in there somewhere. I think I used all, or maybe had to remove one of the washers to make it fit and voila! Feels WONDERFUL.

Beautiful! Yes, I think I've seen this on FB. Beautiful lug lining and brush work! I'm a big fan of how you've mounted that water bottle! Very creative with the reflector piece. As an aside, I had to scroll back and forth between 3alarmer bike below to make sure they weren't the same! Both beautiful!

sced

unworthy1

sced : is that a Super Mistral (with fastback "Brampton/Victor" seatcluster?), and about what year?
And you may have this answer (I'd check Kilgarrif's site but it's sort of glitchy for me): did anyone determine exactly what tubing the Equipe models were built of?

sced

My Holdsworth is a 1973 which I ordered when I was 16. I was concerned about weight and stiffness, so it has 73 deg angles and seat stays brazed to the seat tube itself, which shortened the rear triangle. It is noticeably stiff for a bike of that period and my pals were impressed with the bike's low weight. It originally had Super Champion Medaille D' Or rims which Velobase clocks at 260g.

unworthy1

that's a real beauty! I didn't see that you had mentioned the year (1973) in an earlier post already, but glad you added that pic!

3speedslow

+1 on the fenders! I have been harassing SKS and Planet Bike about bringing them back. If enough people email them It might happen.

Homebrew01

Isn't that the original intended use ?