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These were being built in a wee village in the Highlands in 1910.
I've been looking for one for years.
K Mackenzie, Black Rock Bicycles, Evanton.
His descendants are running the bike friendly cafe at the top of the hill on the cycle route as you climb out of Dingwall on your LeJoG.
I think they had magic scales just like the current industry 😉
Raleigh Chopper - 40.7 lbs
I think they had magic scales just like the current industry
They certainly did. My steel frame fixed gear with some fairly light stuff on it weighs 18lbs. If I were to add a B17 saddle, steel bars, steel quill stem, steel cottered cranks etc,. if would be adding a lot more than 3lbs
I think they had magic scales just like the current industry
It says 21lbs and 23lbs. I'd believe 44lbs.
I don't know but I'm now going to refer to my bike as a 'mount' instead of a 'steed' 😁
15.576 kg
Thank the lord for short seat tubes and dropper posts.
How much would a set of laminated wood rimmed wheels weigh just on their own?!!
Doesn't even tell you the stack and reach!
26 inch wheels FTW!
My croix de fer must weigh 32 pounds! 😂
Yeah but it's got no brakes, gears or basically anything else on it.
kerley
If I were to add a B17 saddle, steel bars, steel quill stem, steel cottered cranks etc,. if would be adding a lot more than 3lbs
Looking at its specification, I think it would be very near its stated weight.
With wood rims and Chater Lea hubs. spokes like piano wire, the wheels would have been very light.
The frame design eliminates weight from the seatpost, head tube, and stem. Lightweight tubes were available back then, and with the front triangle being nearly a perfect triangle it would have been reasonably stiff.
There was wider choice of lightweight steel components in the early days. They fell out of favour with the introduction of aluminium alloy substitutes, so any more modern steel components tend to be heavy run of the mill stuff.
It was also common to lighten steel cranks by milling them in areas where it would not weaken them. You make be surprised at how light they could be.
There is a STW member who has a 1930s Lauterweight, and it's probably the steel bike taken to the limit, being much lighter than my Giant Bowery.
It was common practice for sporting riders to weigh a bike when considering purchase. No self-respecting bike shop would be without scales, and even back then the accuracy was taken seriously.
Of course, we won't know the true answer to the weight question unless I can actually find one, but I don't think it's an impossible weight. 🙂
EDIT: just checked, Sunbeam were guaranteeing the weight of their racing bike as 22lbs. That was in the 1890s. So the weight is credible.
molgrips
Yeah but it’s got no brakes, gears or basically anything else on it.
It does say Racing Model, so no non-essentials. 🙂
EDIT: just checked, Sunbeam were guaranteeing the weight of their racing bike as 22lbs. That was in the 1890s. So the weight is credible.
But everything is 10% lighter than the last model, so if you assume a new model each 4 years, 100 years is 20 models, which is 672%.
So a 16lb fixie now should be about 108lb?
The bike industry wouldn't lie to us that it's basically charging £1k+ for a product that's seen no development in 100 years would it?
And that £6 in 1910 would equate to £700 today!
I have had two post war steel bikes that weighed under 25lb with gears and brakes.
tjagain
I have had two post war steel bikes that weighed under 25lb with gears and brakes.
I have pre-war bikes that weigh 25lb with steel everything including rims.
One of them you would have loved epicyclo - it was a Kilp. Hand built in Glasgow - unfortunately stolen
By no means in the same league, but when I was at uni in the late 90s I used to cut around on a mid-seventies 10 speed flat bar puch and that thing was lighter than any mountain bike I was running at the time. I would’ve estimated probably 23-24lbs.
Loads less than a Pashley path racer that's for sure.
Make of mine built one up for a rather eccentric gent recently who wanted something not run of the mill, but also didn't want a modern interpretation; I think he used a rudge frame and some other bits he'd found buying up all the rusty old stuff at the local bike auction.
For a pure road bike, it was actually quite pleasant to get about on, fairly quick too, not heavy, just nice.
Yeah but it’s got no brakes, gears or basically anything else on it.
Nor has my modern steel bike yet it still weighs 18lb. And that is with things such as 160g saddle, 190g seatpost, 150g bars and so on.
Wooden rims are essentially carbon fibre but without the ecological impact.
Oldpashnit
Are you talking about resin saturated linear cellulose cells? God was way ahead of his time!
@wheelie Thanks for that, consider that term borrowed for re-use elsewhere 🙂