Old Wearwell Cycle Co. build

[cledry]

I have been looking for an old lugged steel frame in a small size for over a year and finally came across a bike on Craigslist advertised as a 1954 Wearwell Tour Of Britain. I drove a couple of hours to look at the bike and even though it was rougher than I expected I made the purchase for $110.

After much research I discovered that the Wearwell Cycle Company from Wolverhampton England had been a major player in cycling in the past, winning the Tour Of Britain in 1954 was their big claim to fame but the company disappeared in the late 1970s and the bikes are almost never found these days. My bike I suspect was not made in 1954 however and was a lesser quality bicycle from the early 1970s.

One of the things that attracted me was firstly the rarity of the brand and secondly the headbadge, I think it is beautiful.

Here's a few shots of details as I found the bike.

 

[cledry]

My idea is to build the bicycle using modern but retro components of good quality and with a mind to building a sort of city bike. So I began buying components when I could find good prices.

My first purchase was a Brooks B17 Select, this one is made from organic Scandinavian leather and is thicker than a normal Brooks saddle. It comes in natural colour but darkens with applications of proofhide. I also like the larger hand hammered copper rivets. This was an eBay purchase.

 

[cledry]

Next up was a crankset and pedals. I had thought about going retro here but the choices were bewildering to someone unfamiliar with all the tapers and other choices. So I narrowed it down to about 3 current models finally settling on a IRD Defiant crankset because I wanted a 165mm length arm, and MKS Sylvan pedals.

 

[cledry]

I decided I liked the look of the Sturmey Archer X-FD drum brake and how it looks on bikes like the Pashley Guvnor. I also read up on it and it has very good reviews and good braking.

For the build I decided to use Velo Orange Raid rims, these are a double wall box rim in polished aluminium, to these I added Wheelsmith stainless 14 ga spokes and their brass nipples. The nice thing is the drum brake won't be wearing on the nice polished rim like a rim brake would.

The wheel turned out very nice. I also removed the silkscreened logos from the Sturmey Archer hub before lacing the rim.

For the tyres I chose Schwalbe Delta Cruisers in cream without the reflective stripe.

 

[cledry]

Whilst I was waiting on the next bits to arrive I decided to clean up the headbadge. A simple soak in lemon juice and salt cleaned it up nicely and a quick rub with brass wool and a cloth brought out the luster. Once done I sprayed it with laquer front and back.

 

[Sphinx]

Good to hear from you. Did you and the Missus move back to the UK?

 

[cledry]

Good to hear from you. Did you and the Missus move back to the UK?

No, I've been so busy that a move has been pushed a couple of years down the road. Partially due to earning good coin right now I want to save a few hundred thousand $$$$ before the move. I also have an immense amount of stuff I have accumulated over the years that simply won't all fit in a typical house I can afford in Cornwall, so I have been selling things up. I still have a lot of heavy machinery, lathes, drill presses, metal brakes, etc. that I won't be taking as well as thousands of books, records. All these possessions are like an anchor weighing me down.

 

[Machine Age Victim]

I really like where this is going!

 

[cledry]

With the front wheel sorted out I turned my attention to the rear wheel. I decided against the Sturmey Archer 2 speed kick back hub, and I didn't want a cable to shift a 3 speed Sturmey Archer so I went with the SRAM 2 speed Automatix which shifts automatically. Reports show it is far more reliable than the Sturmey Archer and has a better roller brake. It is based on the old Sachs Torpedo.

Components gathered for build. You can see the little spoke washers I used because the hub has rather large holes designed for heavier spokes. Prior to lacing the rim I removed the gaudy SRAM logos.

 

[cledry]

The seatpost was a source of some frustration. The old frame uses a rather small post that isn't in common use, and none of my choices was available in this diameter. I had thought about reaming the frame sightly with a brake hone and turning a seatpost down slightly on my lathe but in the end I chose a cheap Kalloy Uno post. As with most things on the bike I removed the silk screened logos. To remove them simply I use ultrafine steel wool and acetone.

I chose Velo Orange porteur bars.

 

[deven_science]

I'm interested...

 

[cledry]

With most of the bits on hand I turned my attention to the frame. The frame was a little out of true so I had to use Sheldon Brown's long 2X4 technique to even things up. This is gauged using a string wrapped around the bike through the dropouts and around the head tube, you then measure from the down tube to the string on each side and it should be even.

I removed all the cable braze-ons for the brakes and shifters at this point as they won't be required.

I decided to try my hand at brazing, a rather simple task but not with Mapp gas.

I made a little bracket and brazed it to the inner leg of my fork for the Sturmey Archer brake reaction arm. This gives a cleaner look as no clamp is required.

That turned out well so I made another little fitting for the rear coaster brake arm, again to eliminate a clamp.

 

[cledry]

Next came time to have the frame powdercoated. I had a lot of colours in mind. Originally I wanted a light gray blue or a light olive green or even a tan... these seem to be popular colours for city bikes these days. Then I thought I should perhps go traditional blck or dark green, but decided that black has become cliche these days and the green looked a bit too staid, so I ended up with Ruby Red Ral 3003. A local guy does a frame and fork for $60 including blasting the frame.

It is a hard colour to photograph, it isn't as bright red as it looks, it is a deeper colour which is what I wanted.

First thing I did was screw on my now shiny headbadge to see how it looked.

Inspired I added the saddle and seat post. As you can see the saddle has darkened by my repeated treatments of proofhide in my oven!

Next I pressed in the headset cups and installed the bearings and fork. I ended up using a Tange Levin headset because the small frame required a low stack height. Originally I had purchased a nice Velo Orange Gran Cru sealed alloy unit but was unable to use it due to the larger stack height.

 

[cledry]

I decided to use the kickstand that came on the bike when I bought it. It is the standard old Pletscher Esge model which I buffed up on my buffing machine, I used some clear silicone tubing between the clamp and frame. I also mounted the wheels. Now it is starting to look like a bicycle again.

 

[the_undecider]

Loving the build, but I am partial since this reminds me a lot of mine:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=65343&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

You foreshadowed your build in my thread, so it is neat to finally see what you have.

I chuckled a bit at your comment about the unreliability of the Sturmey 2 speed kick shift hubs. Mine has done nothing but pop and clunk since I got it. In all fairness, Sunrace/Sturmey-Archer did send me a replacement internal assembly and I just haven't put it in yet. Hopefully, that fixes it. Sadly, the bike has gone unridden.

 

[cledry]

Loving the build, but I am partial since this reminds me a lot of mine:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=65343&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

You foreshadowed your build in my thread, so it is neat to finally see what you have.

I chuckled a bit at your comment about the unreliability of the Sturmey 2 speed kick shift hubs. Mine has done nothing but pop and clunk since I got it. In all fairness, Sunrace/Sturmey-Archer did send me a replacement internal assembly and I just haven't put it in yet. Hopefully, that fixes it. Sadly, the bike has gone unridden.

Yes, your build was a bit of inspiration, especially when going with red for the colour. Most of the other things you have done I also was of similar mind already. I wish you hadn't cut those VO fenders though. I want a full set and I have an original set of English shorty Bluemels to swap.

I'm hoping the second Sturmey Archer hub works out for you. Sadly I have seen a lot of issues with them posted on other forums. If it doesn't work out try the SRAM I am using. Just take it apart and add some grease as they are very thrifty with it from the factory.

 

[cledry]

One thing I hadn't purchased was the bottom bracket. I couldn't decide on spindle length to give me the proper chain line. I decided to go out on a limb and use 110mm which is what the crank manufacturer recommends. Ordered a Gran Cru from Velo Orange along with sume caps for the crank arms. As usual Velo Orange delivered in 2 days! Very good customer service.

Had a little trouble getting the aluminium threads started. I am glad I saved the old steel cups, I used them to chase the threads and then the new bottom bracket threaded in. Mounted the crankset and pedals and all is looking nice and shiny.

Slipped the chain on and I think the chain line is spot on, phew!

One little detail I wanted to keep was the grease fitting. Originally this bike had a press in grease fitting to grease the bottom bracket, earlier English bikes had an oil port. I bought a set of grease fittings in the smallest size from the NAPA auto parts store and it was still too big, so I chucked it into my Stark lathe and turned my own pressed end. However it was too long because now a sealed cartridge bottom bracket was installed so I had to reduce the length as well.

Slowly getting there!

 

[cledry]

I decided on a Nitto Techomic stem because it is long and I wanted a European "sit up and beg" riding position. I may shorten it later.

I was originally going to re-use the old Milremo stem that came on the bike, but it was too short.

Here you can see how the reaction arm for the brake sits neatly in the tab I brazed to the fork for a clean look.

I am using a retro looking Dia-compe brake lever but didn't like the modern shiny black cable, so I sourced some NOS mid 1960s ribbed white cable from England.

That's where I am at right now. I have to tweak the dropouts slightly, install my chain and hopefully Rivendell will get the cork grips in soon so I can ride the bike. I will put some Honjo or VO fenders on it and probably braze myself a custom rear rack. The bike will also have some roll up paniers for shopping, and a small handlebar bag for a camera, as well as a seat bag for tools, a tube etc.

 

[JohThomas Sorrels]

Wow, everything you've done so far is perfect, Im hoping to build something similar soon.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

beautiful, beautiful beautiful.