1973 Youngs bicycle - glassy stares when I look for spares

Fogie

Years and years ago (literally half my lifetime) I used to cycle in London from Charlton to Eltham every day to get to college. I had a lovely handbuilt lightweight bike from Youngs (Lewisham). Later on, I had neither time nor storage space for it so gave it to a friend. A couple of weeks ago he asked if I wanted it back after I mentioned that I'd like to get back in the saddle again as a fun way to get more exercise and hopefully combat some breathing problems.

The bike was returned (it's now my avatar) but hadn't been cared for all that well and needs a fair bit of tender loving care to replace some corroded or missing parts. Yes - I know the avatar makes it look OK, but close-up it isn't.

This is where growing frustration has started to get me down. Local cycle shops just seem interested in servicing modern bikes, especially those which have astronomically expensive frames. The Youngs cycle dates from about 1973 and once I start describing what I want, glassy stares appear on sales folks' faces as if I'm describing stuff that is only ever seen on the Antiques Roadshow.

And can I find the few fairly simple spares I want - can I heck! And does my most local dealer show any enthusiasm for searching for them amongst his contacts - does he heck!

Has any other forum member encountered problems restoring or maintaining an old-ish road bike? Surely 1973 isn't THAT old - or is it?

giant_man

Have you tried the Retrobike forum? just a thought

craker

Congratulations on recovering your old bike, commiserations on your experiences with bike shops.

If you know what you need, post some mails in the wanted forum. EBay is always a good place to start.

estampida

they should stock all you need or a close fit........

http://singlespeedcomponents.co.uk/

ugo.santalucia

If you were still living in London I could help... I maintain two period bikes and have all the tools for period components... North Yorkshire is a bit off range though...
You need to find a local collector and become his friend, shops won't bother with that

Fogie

Thanks for the responses.

The singlespeed link looks useful - thanks to estampida for that one.

I doubt that I actually need anything especially unusual, it just seems to be that cycle design has moved on and beyond what I have and was once very familiar with, and as it's been so long since I regularly cycled, I have to resort to trying to describe the bits 'n' bobs I want rather than using their technical names.

For instance - on the stem where there's a large nut to let you set the height of the handlebars, the Youngs has a VERY badly corroded bracket which protrudes at the front and is where the cable for the front brake is held in place before the exposed part of the cable connects to the calipers. What's THAT bit of a bike called?

And how about the little bolt-style thingammies on mudguard brackets through which which the support staves are locked in place to hold the guards in position and clear of the tyres.

It's difficulties like these (ie: not knowing technical terms) which make it harder to search websites.

The Youngs bike is well worth bringing back to life because it's a really, really light frame which is what I now need. My friend now rides a modern all-terrain bike and says how featherlight the Youngs feels in comparison. (Apparently, my friend's window-cleaner, who's a serious cyclist, saw the bike when it was being brought out of a shed and was keen to know if it was for sale.)

At the moment, the Youngs is fitted with 3-speed Sturmey Archer gears because once, when I was riding home from college down Charlton Church Lane (VERY steep), the swing arm for the Durallier gears sheared and I ended up kissing tarmac. After that I didn't trust them but I may now consider having the bike returned to it's original gear-style. That's a decision for the future.

nicklouse

cant think of any parts that you will not be able to get from a proper bike shop.

Fogie

Either I'm unlucky with the seeming profusion of 'glassy-eyed ones' around here, or my descriptions of bike parts are too vague. I suspect it's the latter.

I think my best bet will be to dismantle parts of the bike and to take the broken or corroded bits to shops in hope of matching them (or at least discovering their technical names so that I can search online).

For my own amusement I'll probably keep a photo record of the renovation and turn it into a slideshow for Youtube - it'll make a difference from the guitar reviews I often post.

nicklouse

see the links in my sig have a good look at both sites.

sheldon for old and odd ball infos. and Park for general procedures and info on parts etc..

me-109

First bit sounds like a cable retainer/hanger for centre-pull calipers. Second bit mudguard eyelets?

Paul 8v

Look out for some of the cycle jumbles, best source for random old bits, ebay is useful but it'llprobably cost a lot more. You can also bring the part you're trying to replace to a jumble to try and match it;-)

Giraffoto

Fogie wrote:

. . . I have to resort to trying to describe the bits 'n' bobs I want rather than using their technical names.

For instance - on the stem where there's a large nut to let you set the height of the handlebars, the Youngs has a VERY badly corroded bracket which protrudes at the front and is where the cable for the front brake is held in place before the exposed part of the cable connects to the calipers. What's THAT bit of a bike called?

It's the cable hanger for your centre-pull brakes. Which are probably Weinmanns. Mention when you're asking for it that it'll be for a threaded headset and probably one inch rather than one and an eighth (worth measuring). By the way, you have a quill stem rather than an A-head.

Fogie wrote:

And how about the little bolt-style thingammies on mudguard brackets through which which the support staves are locked in place to hold the guards in position and clear of the tyres.

Best of luck going anywhere and referring to anything as "staves" - but if you're looking for a little brass bolt with a hole in it that the wire stay goes through, take one of them in with you, say it's off a mudguard and ask for more. Failing that, a new set of guards won't break the bank. If it's at the frame end of the stay rather than the mudguard end, it's probably a p-clip and you'll need to specify the size again.

schweiz

I renovated my dad's 40-odd year old bike a couple of years back.

viewtopic.php?p=15867689

Getting spares or modern parts to fit wasn't really a problem especially with the help of google. Cables haven't changed, non 11/10/9/8/7 speed chains are easy enough to find, brake blocks too. The only difficulty I had was hubs. I could have used the originals but they were 32h front and 40h rear and new 40h rims were hard to find (and expensive when found) so I went for new wheels. The OLN distances were 95mm and 117mm so I had to get the hubs milled. I got the stem milled for a new handlebar rather than buying new, but a 1" new quill stem is easy to find too. I was able to get many of the original parts bead/sand blasted to get rid of surface corrosion. If you know anyone who works in a small engineering workshop then they'll do it for bottle of vino or two!

Giraffoto

schweiz wrote:

The only difficulty I had was hubs.

Wheels is where it all went wrong for me - specifically, 27" wheels. Couldn't go 700c because the long-drop Weinmanns wouldn't go any further down, getting anything brazed on was very expensive for a very tired frame, and I'd just have been waiting for the next thing to go obsolete anyway . . .