Building Racing Bikes in the Late 1930's. . The gentleman in this Photo, Lloyd McKain, bought a bike off us, & from it came this wonderful story.

You see when Lloyd came back from WW II, he got a job building bikes. I started in a bike shop in 1938 – left in 1949 - in that period 5 years was taken out for war service. After one has served as an apprentice the basic wage was 5 pounds 12 & 6 in today terms $ 11.25 a week. A puncture repair cost the customer 1 Shilling about 10 cents.

He says back then, there were No gas touches as we know them today, a forge - which is a unit somewhat like a huge brake drum off a big truck. This was on a stand 3 ft off the floor. The forge was filled with coke- not the stuff you drink. Coke was the residue of coal after the gas had been extracted. Most towns had a Gas workshop & the gas was piped into homes for heating & cooking. The gas was piped into our workshop to heat the forge for building the frames of the bikes that your Grandparents used to ride. On the side of the forge was a bent pipe through which the controlled gas flowed & added to this was compressed air. Now we had a gas torch & by directing this into the coke we could get a real hot fire.

The tubing for the frame was bought in lengths- "I think it was Moly"- something double butted, meaning it was a little heavier gauge at the ends. The bottom bracket, head, seat & back stay lugs were purchased in bulk. I think the firm we used to deal with was HOPE GIBBONS & JOHN BURNS. ( 70 years ago ). " I'm not as bright as I used to be."

After the tubing had been cut to the appropriate lengths, the ends to be bronzed inside of the lugs were polished & we mixed a bronzing flux or BORASIC Powder onto them. This made a very strong joint. The joint had to be heated in the forge to cherry red, this was the right temperature to make the brass rod run like water. You can see the brass run into the joint because it changed colour.

MY WIFE & I used to get $ 1 or 10 shillings ( in money of the day ) for completely assembling a new bike. This included building the wheels, truing them, putting on the tyre and tubes. The back hubs were usually Eadie Coaster or Perry- back pedalling internal expansion brakes. My wife had the worst job of all- putting on the dress nets. A dress net was a manufactured net especially for the ladies cycles & it was clipped onto the back mudguard to prevent their dress from getting caught in the back spokes.

If you are interested in things that happened in the era- Carbide lights, early battery light, internal 3 & 4 speed gears. Feel free to contact me.

Lloyd McKain

Stories

Brittany

This months story is about a great young girl by the name of Brittany Edwards. She attends St. Patrick's Primary School here in Te Awamutu. Brittany is 10 years old and has Down Syndrome, but that doesn't stop her.

Brittany’s mother Melanie came to us a few months back now and wanted to get her daughter to work on her fitness a bit more without the danger of being on the open road by herself.

We went through a few options with her and one stood out. A tandem bike that herself or her girls could ride with Brittany.

So we got the bike down, built it up and called Melanie to come and test it so we could fit both her and her daughters into it. After a couple of hours or so of customising we had them all fitted and ready to ride.

After the first ride the girls came back with a unanimous “COOL!” They couldn’t wait to get it home to go riding some more.

Melanie would like to thank the Halberg Trust for their help saying, “they are a fantastic organization”, and helping her out was “brilliant.”

They have been seen riding around town on finer days and look pretty cool with the new fitness machine.

INTREPID TRAVEL CYCLE VIETNAM

This is a trip for people who hate having to organize themselves in a very different country or for the solo traveler who wants something reasonably adventurous but doesn't want to travel alone. Trip length was 15 days starting in Hanoi and ending in Saigon. We went at the beginning of last September which coincided with some extremely hot and humid weather; October may have been a better choice weather-wise. However Vietnam is a long country and it is very difficult to have ideal weather over an entire trip. Intrepid groups are never more than 12 people—ours had 1 Brit, 4 kiwis and 6 Aussies. We had a Vietnamese guide through the whole trip and of his offsider, tiger, (he thought that he looked a bit like Tiger Woods) for about 10 days. Local guides were hired as well. The group were mostly in there twenties or thirties, into sport though not necessarily cycling. The heat was the first thing that hit people, the second thing was the number of little motorbikes on the roads—millions. Some people had a crappy little Chinese number for commuting and a far superior model for longer trips. We caused a crash on our first day cycling when 2 guys were so mesmerized by the foreigners on bikes that they ploughed into each other before our eyes. We were not allowed to help them in any way as this could have led to an entanglement in red tape, long delays, imprisonment etc, etc. The cycling tended to be around 70km a day and it was structured so that no-one got left behind, lost, or died of heat exhaustion.

We were accompanied by an air-conditioned mini coach and a small truck for the bikes; the former was always in the front and the latter always followed the last rider. A typical days ride would be to do 20kms, stop at the bus for a regroup and water, do another 20kms, bikes in the truck , us in the buss for 2 hours, off and do 15kms, water break, another 15kms, then back on the bus to the hotel. It may sound somewhat odd but it was very effective and the days were always long as there were sights to stop at along the way. Lunch was often a little, basic, local restaurants—usually very very tasty noodle soup. Accommodation mostly at family run hotels, always good. The roads were narrow but had lovely smooth seal, flat along the coast but undulating inland. There were 3 big hills and the second was probably the hardest as when we regrouped at the bottom to begin the climb the heat was so bad that it was difficult not to keel over. Luckily about halfway up we could see rain approaching and when we arrived it was just so delightful to get soaked and cooled off.

Bikes—Most people took their own, either mountain or hybrid. Road bikes would not be suitable. Bikes can be hired by Intrepid but they tend to be not too flash, rather heavy and had gearing issues. Not every day was a biking day as when we were 2 nights at a place we had time to do what we liked.

Overall this trip was a good way to travel as there was the active part interspersed with relaxation. And it was all interesting—scenery, food, culture, people, beaches.

By Frances Murphy. Poi Poi