Pennine Restoration
February 2025.
FOR SALE Yes it's time to let go and pursue other projects. Bike comes as seen here in the final images. I changed the saddle to a Brooks leather, the rear mudguard has some damage to the very end.
The sale will include all the boxes that the new old stock components arrived in.
I've ridden it twice covering just 93 miles.
I'm open to sensible offers.
If interested then use the contact page to get in touch.
I'm based in Clitheroe, Lancashire and ideally collection is preferred.
SPECIFICATION PDF
Pennine Specification
My 1975 Pennine Bike
A life story in words and pictures.
By the end of summer 1974 I had scraped enough money together to buy a custom steel frame. It hadn't been easy working on the council dustbin rounds during all my school holidays. My father took me to Pennine cycles on Ingleby Road, Bradford. It was your typical bike shop of the period with fine engineering going on behind the scenes. Johnny Mapplebeck was summoned from the back to speak to this young man from over the border, Lancashire jokes out the way we got down to business.
Long story short, we settled on a 22 inch 531 Italia frame, with sloping forks, in red with world championship bands. Clearances were enough for mudguards and touring wheels, frame angles were left to Johnny. The final bit of bling was a Campagnolo Record headset. So if I remember rightly the frame was about £31, with headset, postage and packing it came to £39.
Christmas came and went with Santa doing me proud with Campagnolo transmission and Shimano DurAce brakes, that looked fairly similar to Campagnolo.
The frame arrived mid February and the build started. As it was a winter manufactured frame it had the snow scene enameled on the seat stays.
Well time for number 14 to do battle around 4 laps of the Dolphinholme circuit.
Later that year I got a 2nd place in one of the Goosnargh Handicaps - we got 10 mintues start on the scratch group, remember the scene from Gladiator.... "if we stay together and fight together we can come through this", well that is just what we did! - they didn't see us again until 200 meters from the finish. The scratch group consisted of big names that made up the Olympic squad. So as little junior riders we were unbearable to live with for months after!
Jump to 1977 and Nick o'Pendle British Student Hillclimb championship. The Pennine is in stripped down version here. Single fixed 56 inch gear
A new life began for my Pennine as my father adopted the frame and built it up with spare parts. It gave him many years of service until he bought a shinny new 'bargain'. The bike sat in the garage for many years until my father suggested I might like to remove it.
So at this point I decided it was time to start a restoration project. First of all the frame was taken to Ellis Briggs for a paint job, some chroming and minor alterations to accommodate allen key fitting brake stirrups.
The original had no chroming as I was on a tight budget. Under advice from Ellis Briggs I just had the Campagnolo ends chromed. Chrome doesn't like rust and the frame could have been weakened trying to remove some of the rust spots.
I spent the next three months sourcing components for the build. NOS, New Old Stock is becoming very difficult to find, especially when you take into account matching threads from Italian, French, British and ISO. Also I wanted to reflect on some upgrades that I could not afford in my youth. So DurAce brakes gave way to Campagnolo Record and the Record rear mech was substituted for a 1980's Super Record. I can live with the mix of types as it does reflect the build back in the 70's and it is still practical due to the difficulty in obtaining a full Record or Super Record groupset.
Campagnolo Record brake levers,second hand with just a few light marks, the rubbers were in bad shape so third party rubbers from Germany completed the job.
FOR SALE Yes it's time to let go and pursue other projects. Bike comes as seen here in the final images. I changed the saddle to a Brooks leather, the rear mudguard has some damage to the very end.
The sale will include all the boxes that the new old stock components arrived in.
I've ridden it twice covering just 93 miles.
I'm open to sensible offers.
If interested then use the contact page to get in touch.
I'm based in Clitheroe, Lancashire and ideally collection is preferred.
SPECIFICATION PDF
Pennine Specification
My 1975 Pennine Bike
A life story in words and pictures.
By the end of summer 1974 I had scraped enough money together to buy a custom steel frame. It hadn't been easy working on the council dustbin rounds during all my school holidays. My father took me to Pennine cycles on Ingleby Road, Bradford. It was your typical bike shop of the period with fine engineering going on behind the scenes. Johnny Mapplebeck was summoned from the back to speak to this young man from over the border, Lancashire jokes out the way we got down to business.
Long story short, we settled on a 22 inch 531 Italia frame, with sloping forks, in red with world championship bands. Clearances were enough for mudguards and touring wheels, frame angles were left to Johnny. The final bit of bling was a Campagnolo Record headset. So if I remember rightly the frame was about £31, with headset, postage and packing it came to £39.
Christmas came and went with Santa doing me proud with Campagnolo transmission and Shimano DurAce brakes, that looked fairly similar to Campagnolo.
The frame arrived mid February and the build started. As it was a winter manufactured frame it had the snow scene enameled on the seat stays.
It's early May 1975 and my first Junior road race on open roads and the first outing with the new Pennine.
Machine check, had a lot more hair in those days! Red Lutz tracksuit top.
Machine check - spinning through the gears, we were restricted to 86 inch top gear.
Well time for number 14 to do battle around 4 laps of the Dolphinholme circuit.
Later that year I got a 2nd place in one of the Goosnargh Handicaps - we got 10 mintues start on the scratch group, remember the scene from Gladiator.... "if we stay together and fight together we can come through this", well that is just what we did! - they didn't see us again until 200 meters from the finish. The scratch group consisted of big names that made up the Olympic squad. So as little junior riders we were unbearable to live with for months after!
Jump to 1977 and Nick o'Pendle British Student Hillclimb championship. The Pennine is in stripped down version here. Single fixed 56 inch gear
One year later and Pennine's last competitive outing in the Student Hillclimb championships.
A new life began for my Pennine as my father adopted the frame and built it up with spare parts. It gave him many years of service until he bought a shinny new 'bargain'. The bike sat in the garage for many years until my father suggested I might like to remove it.
I stripped it down and put the frame in the loft with good intentions and there it lay.
The Campagnolo Record headset looking very sad.
The fir tree winter scene enameled on the stays by Johnny's wife. This was the one part of the operation she always did. In summer the scene would be palm trees.
So at this point I decided it was time to start a restoration project. First of all the frame was taken to Ellis Briggs for a paint job, some chroming and minor alterations to accommodate allen key fitting brake stirrups.
Back from Ellis Briggs - and what a job they made of it - amazing!
It seemed to make sense to let the guys at Ellis Briggs fit my new headset and bottom bracket.
Lugs lined and the rear bridge altered to take the allen key fitting stirrups.
Sloping forks - these were all the rage back in the 70's
The original had no chroming as I was on a tight budget. Under advice from Ellis Briggs I just had the Campagnolo ends chromed. Chrome doesn't like rust and the frame could have been weakened trying to remove some of the rust spots.
I spent the next three months sourcing components for the build. NOS, New Old Stock is becoming very difficult to find, especially when you take into account matching threads from Italian, French, British and ISO. Also I wanted to reflect on some upgrades that I could not afford in my youth. So DurAce brakes gave way to Campagnolo Record and the Record rear mech was substituted for a 1980's Super Record. I can live with the mix of types as it does reflect the build back in the 70's and it is still practical due to the difficulty in obtaining a full Record or Super Record groupset.
All the way from Belgium and bought on Ebay, this box has seen some action but what about the contents?
A mint condition Campagnolo Record chainset - never fitted and just a few rub marks from being in the box.
Out of the box and ready for fitting - might get a polish first!
Then from Spain a NOS Campagnolo Super Record rear mechanism complete with the blue card washer - never fitted.
Sourced in the UK through Campoldy 36/36 small flange, also purchased Campagnolo Omega rims
Hubs and rims found their way to Paul Hewitt Cycles, Leyland, for a build-up. Paul has built all my wheels for the last 20 years and I've never had any issues.
Campagnolo Record brake levers,second hand with just a few light marks, the rubbers were in bad shape so third party rubbers from Germany completed the job.
Regina Gold Oro 5 speed block with 14 - 28 sprockets
NOS Campagnolo Record pedals from Milan courtesy of Ebay. I bought these following a pair of Giepemme, that are Campagnolo copies. They appeared on Ebay at a reasonable buy it now price so I jumped in and bought them. I'm going to keep both sets, one for show and one set for riding and probably getting scuffed. I'll leave it up to you to decide which pair are for show!
I couldn't walk away from these mudguards! Well I did actually - several times. They appeared on Ebay from a dealer in Cyprus along with other mudguards. It looked like old stock left in store for the last 30-40 years. They looked like a perfect match, after much heart searching I pressed the BUY IT NOW button - and no I'm not admitting what I paid for them!! The deal worked out well and the mudguards arrived within a week - yes a perfect match!
It seemed difficult to source Cinelli vintage bars and stem that were either NOS or in good condition. So I went for the ones that are still manufactured, the bars come in a milky white aluminium finish, whereas the stem was the traditional polished finish.
To complete the wheel build I sourced Strada Bianca hand made tyres and latex innertubes. In hindsight 700 x 30c is a little on the large side and 700 x 28c would have been fine. I didn't get on with the latex inner tubes, they leaked and required inflation every day. I eventually swapped them out for butyl tubes.
Yes! I've also bought the wool jersey, 1970's black perforated shoes and crochet leather track mitts and a Campagnolo cotton cap.
Riding in the Sportive Lakes À L'ancienne vintage sportive at the side of Lake Windermere.
LINKS:
Sportive Lakes Veloretro event each July based at Ulverston.
Veloretro
Paul Hewitt Cycles
Ellis Briggs Cycles
Special thanks to Paul Gibson and his team that brought my frame back to life.
NOS Campagnolo Record pedals from Milan courtesy of Ebay. I bought these following a pair of Giepemme, that are Campagnolo copies. They appeared on Ebay at a reasonable buy it now price so I jumped in and bought them. I'm going to keep both sets, one for show and one set for riding and probably getting scuffed. I'll leave it up to you to decide which pair are for show!
I couldn't walk away from these mudguards! Well I did actually - several times. They appeared on Ebay from a dealer in Cyprus along with other mudguards. It looked like old stock left in store for the last 30-40 years. They looked like a perfect match, after much heart searching I pressed the BUY IT NOW button - and no I'm not admitting what I paid for them!! The deal worked out well and the mudguards arrived within a week - yes a perfect match!
It seemed difficult to source Cinelli vintage bars and stem that were either NOS or in good condition. So I went for the ones that are still manufactured, the bars come in a milky white aluminium finish, whereas the stem was the traditional polished finish.
To complete the wheel build I sourced Strada Bianca hand made tyres and latex innertubes. In hindsight 700 x 30c is a little on the large side and 700 x 28c would have been fine. I didn't get on with the latex inner tubes, they leaked and required inflation every day. I eventually swapped them out for butyl tubes.
This is my posh pedal setup featuring Campagnolo Record pedals, toeclips and Binda toestraps.
So all the parts are sourced - let the build begin!
Campagnolo chainwheel setup with the traditional 52/42 rings, Super Record pedals, clips and Binda toestraps.
Rear transmission setup with Campagnolo Super Record mechanism, Regina gold oro freewheel and matching chain.
Brooks leather bar tape and a leather tool bag attached to the saddle. The fitting of the bar tape was quite a task - not to be repeated!
The complete bike
I'm going to trim down the brake cables once I've ridden it and got the feel of the bike.
I will be adding pictures of the bike out and about once the better weather arrives
Yes! I've also bought the wool jersey, 1970's black perforated shoes and crochet leather track mitts and a Campagnolo cotton cap.
Riding in the Sportive Lakes À L'ancienne vintage sportive at the side of Lake Windermere.
LINKS:
Sportive Lakes Veloretro event each July based at Ulverston.
Veloretro
Thanks to Paul Hewitt Cycles and Ellis Briggs Cycles
Paul Hewitt Cycles
Ellis Briggs Cycles
Special thanks to Paul Gibson and his team that brought my frame back to life.