DMNHCAGrandPrix

I was intrigued when a Jack Taylor "project bike" popped up on the SF Bay Area Craig's List at the end of January. I emailed the seller as soon as I saw the ad, talked to him by phone, and told him I'd drive up to Marin county that afternoon to see and pick up the bike. A few hours later I was bringing home a large framed, flamboyant gold colored "Tour of Britain" Jack Taylor, with extensive box lining and a great mix of high quality French and Italian components.

The serial number on the frame was 6644, suggesting that it had been built in 1974 based on the serial number registry here: Jack Taylor Cycles - Serial # Registry. Michael Thompson had mentioned on Classic Rendezvous that he had made a copy of Norman Taylor frame building log on a previous visit to England. After some very helpful email correspondence with Mike and Bob Elliot, I was thrilled to receive a copy of the relevant pages in the log, showing that my bike had been exactly 40 years ago today (March 22, 1974).

I was almost 15 years old when the bike was built. Actually, my 15th birthday was coming in just a couple weeks at the time, and all of my junior high school friends and I had spent much of the previous year reading, saving, shopping, scheming for our very first 10 speed bikes. I got a huge 25.5 inch Raleigh Grand Prix in spring of 1974, and rode if everywhere throughout high school. The Jack Taylor is nearly as large a bike, but from a completely different planet in terms of build quality, ride, and components.

I'm still in the process of building-up and dialing-in the bike, and getting it back on the road for regular riding. My operating principle has been to treat the bike like a time capsule, with the time dial on the WayBack Machine set for the mid-1970s ! It's been great fun reminding myself what was current at the time, and re-experiencing components that reflect all the charms and foibles of the era. I've put about 100 miles on the bike so far. Not enough for extensive comments, but already enough to say that I am thrilled with the ride, feel, and sound of the Jack Taylor. Happy birthday to a forty year old bike, and many thanks for the chance to feel as excited as a 15 year old whenever I climb aboard!

Frame: lugged Tour of Britain model 531, 71/73 degree geometry, 62 cm ctc seat tube, 58.5 cm top tube, Serial 6644
Fork: Oval fork blades 28 x 16 mm
French Headset: Stronglight V4 Competition
Italian Stem: 3ttt 120mm
Italian Handlebars: 3ttt Grand Prix with "Cinelli Milano" blue end plugs
French Brakes; Mafac tandem cantilevers (4 dot pads in front, 5 dot pads in rear)
Campagnolo drive train: Nuovo Record crankset with 50 and 42 tooth chainwheels, Nuovo Record front and rear. derailleurs Patent 73
Freewheel: Regina 5 speed G.S. Oro, (14, 18, 22, 26, 31), a useful wide-range freewheel that has already spent a week in the rehab spa with PastorBob!
Campagnolo high flange hubs, 36 spoke, with Fiamme Tubular rims (still cleaning up some decades old glue and getting ready for my first ride in decades on tubulars)
Saddle: Brooks Professional
Seat post: Aluminum seat pin (27.2) with separate Brooks clamp-on
Pump: Silca Imperio, Campagnolo metal head.
Original pedals missing (had been replaced by Look style clip-in pedals)

My additions so far:
Vittoria Evo Corsa SC tubular tires and Velox repair kit for the original tubular wheels
Alternative clincher wheels: Campagnolo high flange hubs (1975), 32 spokes, Mavic M2 rims, Vittoria Evo Corsa SC 700x25mm clincher tires, and Atom 14-30 5-speed freewheel
TA Specialites steel water bottle cage
TA Isol water bottle
Campagnolo Gran Sport pedals
Christophe Toe Clips and straps
1970s Cannondale saddle bag (a great "Pay it Forward" gift from Bike Forums member RoadTire).

Thanks to everyone for your help with research and parts, especially Michael Thompson, Robert Freeman, PastorBob, and RoadTire. Bicycle Quarterly had a great issue back in 2009 that originally helped stimulated my interest in the Taylor Brothers and their 50 year history of building beautiful custom bikes in England. For more information see: The Jack Taylor Story | Off The Beaten Path

big chainring 

Well thats one spectacular bike. And painted in gold. Fantastic. Really like all the period correct components and the MAFAC brakes. Great find, and great bike. Enjoy it.

3speedslow

Wow !

And to think it was one that was in your size range. Nice bike, enjoy the connection to history with it and the miles you put on it.

bibliobob

Absolutely beautiful. Love the color. A Taylor is near the top of my remaining grail list....

Congrats!

KonAaron Snake 

+1 - of all the Brits out there, the three that really move me are Jack Taylor, Ephgrave and Ron Cooper. This example is like most Taylor's I see - elegant, classic and refined. I love it!

gomango

@op. That's a real beauty.

I'm with the rest of you, the Jack Taylors really have a little extra pizzaz.

Maybe I'll try one if the opportunity knocks.

zandoval 

Another example of gold never loosing its value...

southpawboston

Beautiful!!! And with its papers documenting its provenance!

KonAaron Snake 

Between this and the routens catnap just posted for sale, this a banner week for sports tourers here.

dyander

Wow, this is a truly spectacular bike. Gotta love the seat tube decal.

dyander

Are you actually able to shift to your 31 tooth cog (or the 30 on your Atom) with that NR Rear Derailleur?

DMNHCAGrandPrix

Yep, it works, and gives a more useful low gear than I thought would be possible. The key is to set up the chain length very carefully. If you keep it as short as possible, the upper jockey pulley will be rotated far enough back that the derailleur will still clear the teeth of the biggest cogs of the freewheel.

I actually played around with this a bit by testing largest cogs possible on the alternative clincher wheel set. Not so hard to do with a 1972 Suntour freewheel installed. The largest cogs on the Suntour are splined. That made it possible to swap around various sizes without removing the freewheel from the hub, unlike the Regina and Atom freewheels with their left-handed "screwy" large cogs that can only come off if you remove the freewheel from the hub (and sometimes not even then, as PastorBob can attest!).
Clearing 28 tooth big cogs was relatively easy. 30 was close, but still cleared with the wheel hub in middle position of dropout. 32 teeth gave contact between jockey wheel and largest cog, (though I think even that might have been possible if I had been willing to yank wheel all the way back into the dropout).

I suspect the chainwheels on the bike were also chosen to optimize the gear range. 42-50 is only an 8 tooth jump in front, making it possible to use more of the derailleur range for low gears in back (and maybe also using a shorter chain than if going with a more standard 52 tooth chainwheel for the highest gears).

photogravity

She's a real beauty. One day I hope to have a JT single to complement my JT tandem.

bikemig 

Yep, bikes would come with the front closer together to enable a bigger f wheel on the rear running campy derailleurs; I've seen 52-45 before on a few different bikes. Of course, a suntour vgt would be period correct and would shift better than a campy NR RD.

dyander

Did you leave enough chain to wrap the big ring and rear cog? Or have you precluded a cross chain condition?

obrentharris 

Lug lining, box lining, cantilevers: What a glorious bike!
Brent

DMNHCAGrandPrix

There is still just barely enough chain for the big-big combination. That combination stretches the derailleur cage to an almost horizontal position, and I would never ride that way intentionally. On the other hand, it was reassuring to know that big-big was still possible, in case I ever make a tired mistake in shifting.

gomango

Definitely.

Really top rate eye candy.

There are a couple of Jack Taylors in a local shop.

This example will push me to pay a little visit for a closer look.

DMNHCAGrandPrix

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I had previously seen a couple of spectacular "Tour of Britains" here in C&V posts, which helped me decide to take a look if this model ever came up in the area. It was a special bonus that the golden Jack Taylor also really pushed the time and date buttons of my personal WayBack machine.

For true Jack Taylor gateway drugs on BikeForums see:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...in-7338-a.html
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...pic-heavy.html

The Jack Taylor decals on my 1974 bike are in the "Mondrian" style, designed by an American customer and friend of the Taylors who also had an interest in art history. A quick look at the work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) makes the visual connection obvious: Mondrian Paintings, versus:

RoadTire 

Yep, that's a pretty bike. Makes me smile.

Vince Canepa 

Nice! It's in great original condition too. It is nice to see Jack's work well preserved after 40 years.

DMNHCAGrandPrix

I rode the Jack Taylor on the 40th edition of the Sequoia Century in the Bay Area this weekend. The 40 year old bike did great on the 40 year old ride, despite some pretty tough climbing that had to be tackled with the original Campagnolo Nuovo Record chain rings and rear derailleur.

I found on my earlier test rides that the Atom freewheel sounded great, but frequently gave chain skating problems, (probably because of the seemingly worthless grooves carved into the top of Atom/Regina freewheel teeth at the time). Some of the Sequoia Century climbs were going to be up grades of 15 to 20%, so I also wanted the lowest gearing possible. I therefore built up a period correct 1974 "Maeda Industries" freewheel body using cogs from boxes of old freewheels at a local Bike Coalition. With some chain whips and customization of the largest two cogs, I made up a wide range 5 speed freewheel with 14-17-20-26-32 teeth. This was an interesting exercise because it made it clear to me why "Maeda Industries" (aka Suntour) rapidly displaced older Regina/Atom freewheels inthe 1970's. The Maeda/Suntour freewheel had 1) a much better system for removing from hubs with freewheel tools, 2) a much better system for replacing cogs on the freewheel body, 3) and a better overall selection of cogs with a better tooth design (no grooves at top). I was surprised at how much better the Suntour shifted than the Atom freewheel, never missing a gear, and avoiding the dreaded skating of an unengaged Regina Oro chain along the top of Atom teeth that I had seen repeatedly before.

With a 42 small front chainwheel and a 32 large rear cog, I was able to climb up the steepest 15-20% gradient sections of the Sequoia Century. I did the super metric version of the ride, giving 130 km (80 miles) and about 7500 feet of climbing for the day.

It was great fun to ride a classic bike that was originally build only a few weeks before the first edition of a classic ride. Saw very few other steel bikes out on the ride, but I thought the Jack Taylor performed great, attracted lots of smiles and comments, and more than held its own amidst a sea of carbon on Sunday.

jjames1452 

Real Beauty!

devinfan

Great post and stunning bike! Glad it went to an owner who appreciates it so much. Enjoy!

SJX426 

An exceptional bike and a great ride too! Congrats and good to know others like to "play" with the cogs! Only 5 is limiting, isn't it? Quite the challenge.