In the second in our series about our passion for our machines, we hear from East Lothianbased Peter Main who restored a Graham Weigh frame in homage to his father, an accomplished racing cyclist who died in a tragic biking accident in 1992.
Arrivée149Autumn2020
REBUILDING MY DAD’S OLD BIKE WAS A LABOUR OF LOVE
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My father, Len Main, bought his Graham Weigh frame around 1990, built a bike and raced on it until 1992 when, at the age of 79, on another bike, he died in a cycling accident. I inherited the bike together with a lifetime’s worth of his cycling bits to add to my own life’s accumulation. Dad was a keen cyclist all his life; his racing career spanned 60 years from 1932 to 1992 with intervals for WW2, family and work. Over time he was a member of Goodmayes Wheelers, Suffolk Roads, Crawley Wheelers and Ribble Valley Cycling Clubs and was a good rider at all ages. As I’ve aged, I’ve become increasingly impressed with his racing times. He clocked 29 minutes for a 10 mile time trial at the age of Len Main circa 1939 78. I had the frame resprayed in 2005, fitted lots of new bits and added decals to advertise our business, which sparked off quite a few conversations. This was my “best” bike for several years. When I upgraded to a different machine it became my winter bike, but it gradually deteriorated until another renovation was necessary. My thinking was that the renovation should be a nod towards my dad’s memory. It’s also true that I have a large pile of old, random, cycling gear. I thought it would be an interesting project, and I fancied creating a gravel bike. The assembly took a while. It was a
bigger job than expected, and I wanted to get it right. The major problem was that the bottom bracket threads turned out to be badly worn, and kept coming loose. As it stands now, a cartridge bottom bracket is held in place with epoxy resin together with the remains of the threads, but if this fails I have a threadless bracket waiting in the wings. The frame was powder-coated by a local firm, MK2 Powder Coatings, Gilmerton, East Lothian. They mostly work with motorcycle parts but also do bike frames. They did a good job. You can check them out on their Facebook page. The oldest components are the Campagnolo handlebar changers, the Brooks saddle with hammered rivets and the Maes handlebars with engraving; all used by me in the 1960s. Other are mostly from the 1990s onwards, some are new. The first layer of bar tape is Lizard Skins – this was a great deal from a charity shop but I didn’t like it much, I found it too sticky – so I over-taped it with some nice Richie cork tape. The whipping uses ordinary string and is finished with shellac to keep it in place. Clear varnish would also do. As the aluminium seat-post is stuck forever, I had it coated with the frame. It’s my height, so there’s no need to ever move it again. The bolt to hold it in place is just for completeness. The pump was an excellent roadside find. I would like to have bought more of the kit directly from our local bike shop but, in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown, I was reluctant to visit any shops. The plan is that most of the time this bike will used on my turbo trainer and, occasionally, will be taken out and used “off-road”. In East Lothian there are many
It’s a wrap… the whipping uses ordinary string and is finished with shellac to keep it in place
miles of fast, rideable gravel and farm tracks, not rough enough for a mountain bike. With the addition of mudguards, it may also be an alternative winter bike. Would I do It Again? Absolutely not. It was fun, interesting, challenging and, mostly, enjoyable but it was timeconsuming. I want to spend my time riding my bikes and doing other things like going swimming and walking, not spannering away in the garage. However I’m very pleased I did it.
