P-B-P Technology

The little post about gearing and hubs managed to put the horse before the cart again - I just loved finding that image and linking the gearing choice of a 30's pro to our own attempts at finding a workable solution.


Here is where I should have started, then continued the hot-rodding train of thought...


Why are we planning to take 1930’s technology to P-B-P ?  Why aren’t we riding the latest generation of carbon weave and 11-speed gearing ?  Besides the fact that, with family commitments, someone would need to give us this type of new bike, the idea is to try to get some idea of the effort required of Oppy in his era.  Craig was laughing the other day, relating that mostly people look vaguely incredulous - as though we are proposing to ride penny farthings  - when they discover that we are going to ride 1930’s era bikes. 

It’s true.  We’ve found that it is possible to roll along at acceptable averages using our antique machinery.  It is a curious thing - just where does effort and technology cross in the context of what we are aiming at ?

 ( As a slight aside, Aero-bars are banned at PBP, intriguing because you can ride a recumbent, or even a trike, as long as it is narrower than 1000mm wide.  I guess the idea is to prevent people from putting their head down and falling asleep while riding in the aero-position.  It feels a little as though generally, the organisers are aiming at keeping ‘bikes’ looking like bikes ). 

Thinking along these lines, it occurs that Oppy didn’t actually use an Australian-made Malvern Star for PBP ! 


His biography refers to a completely new custom frame crafted from the latest Reynolds tubing ( not 531 as this did not reach the market until 1934-35 - unless Bruce Small got his hands on some prototype tubes ).  Fitted with his usual pedals and cranks, saddle, and a pair of timber rimmed wheels ( one single clutch each hub side ).  This little gem is retold by Oppy in the context of the last minute drama of fitting handlebars in preparation for P-B-P.  Oppy’s favoured pair were too big in diameter to fit into the stem that matched the new French steerer.  His normal bars were duly dispatched to a local Parisienne handlebar maker to be copied using local tubing, but the new ‘bars were not ready in time ( despite the urgings of ‘Fatty’ Lamb – probably Australia’s most forceful, physical rider of the era – though likely also a pure gent ). 

Oppy was forced to adapt to the bars that came back from the 'bar maker – a potentially back-breaking situation.  Adapting quickly to this strangeness of position is part of the legend of Oppy’s ride.   

Note the lack of tape on the upper sections - the frame canister is compressed air to inflate a new tyre.

But, aside from this anxiety inducing situation, Oppy notes with some satisfaction the responsiveness of this entirely new machine - based on Continental racing practices of the time.  It would be fascinating to know what became of this bike – whether it was sold off at the end of that European campaign to save lugging it across half the world, or exported to Australia to be studied in detail at the Malvern Star head-quarters, as a blue-print for Australian road racing bikes to come.

Hard at work n the closing miles - away but soon to be caught just 20 from the finish.

My point here is not to nit-pick over history ( Oppy did ride for Alleluia – a French Trade team and so perhaps the linkage to a French bike for the event ) – More that Oppy used the latest and best equipment available to him at the time.  So why don’t we do the same ? 

With some honesty, that’s where we started from – eyeing the Malvern Star catalogue…

The romance of an idea has overtaken us though.  Our original thought was to try to understand and experience something of Oppy’s effort.  To do this we are seeking to approximate his period spec sheet, albeit with some key differences created by the distance of time…

Some of these differences are inherent in our collected equipment, others are distinct choices for practical or safety reasons – to ride authentic 30’s frames and fittings we must use what we have managed to actually get our hands on in deepest darkest Tasmania.  Since starting up this venture, we’ve realised that it is possible to buy pretty much anything from the period given enough time and financial resource, however, to keep to practical and local limits, this is what we currently have to work with – discovered or sourced here in Hobart ;

The Malvern Star that I will use would be completely outmoded in comparison to Oppy’s P-B-P mount.  It is much more similar to the type of frame used by Oppy for his early assaults on the classic 200Km Launceston to Hobart race during the early to mid-Twenties, before switching to a Tour de France model following his return from his 1928 European season debut.  Long wheel base, relaxed geometry, and relatively heavy wall pipes characterise a frame that features some lovely details such as twin plate fork crown and neat fast-back seat stays.  This frame is bred for the rough back roads of Australian bike racing of the late Twenties.  It’s a relatively blunt instrument, but not lacking in personality by any means.

Gav’s Aero is something of a mystery.   I suspect that it is a sport model or a very, very nice roadster that has been updated with Oppy-bend bars and brakes at some point in its early life.  It’s relatively heavy wall tubes suit Gav’s larger frame and leg-power, and in reality, with slender stays and filed details, is no heavier than the others.  It displays similar relaxed frame angles but, like the Malvern Star, relatively tight fork rake.

Craig is on a very battered Cressy from the Henry Whatley workshop in Northern Tasmania.  It is a track frame with comparatively steep angles and thin-gauge tube walls – particularly the seat tube - and shorter wheelbase – it is the most modern of the trio and rides beautifully, at odds to the perceptible downwards bend in the top tube.  This frame probably most closely approximates the item used by Oppy for PBP.  For P-B-P, the original track forks will be substituted for road blades with just a little more rake.  This frame is actually my favourite because it is just so dinged and bruised, and yet it tracks a straight line and is defiantly composed out on the road.  As a local Tasmanian offering from the period, it is also a nice link to local history and an interesting counterpoint to the other two bikes.

Each frame is nearly identical in centre to centre measurement.  They use the same bottom bracket thread and shell dimensions, feature the same steerer diameters, and fine headset thread pitch from this early era.  Dropout spacing is within a few millimetres of each other, and both the Whatley and Malvern Star feature the same seat post diameter of 26.8, while the aero has something a little smaller at 26.2.

Both the Malvern Star and Whatley are stripped and being prepared for paint, the Aero will retain the remnants of is gloss black and pinstriping, marred by areas of neutralised surface rust.

Expect more on the parts spec as each bike gets rebuilt in the next month or so…