This lovely old thing is seen here parked outside a Bradford Lidl.

Looks like it’s used to commute/shop with.

It’s got rod brakes, but new pads, so it’s not just been dug out of a shed/museum.

Can anyone tell me anything about it?

New chain too – what a beast.

Look at that saddle and the saddle angle!

Anyone else use such a relic?

Thats cool

Brooks’ ‘extracoil’ saddle, maybe, I seem to remember magazine adds showing a bloke riding down a flight of stone steps on one. This one’s sagged a bit.

I thought it was a Brooks, but it wasn’t. Maybe a copy of the Extracoil, perhaps.

Wow – rod brakes and cotterpin cranks. Takes me back to my childhood.

Had one a lot like that for a few years, until I went for a second restoration and found the fork steerer bent, so got rid. It was an old post office bike, and had brackets on the head tube for the carrier and twin top tubes for strength. I was told by the bloke I bought it off that the bolts on the bottom bracket put it pre-1930’s, but I’m not convinced. The way the seat stays bolt to the top of the seat tube is very like Pashley’s so it could be one of them.

It was bloody brilliant, 3 speed Sturmey Archer gears and once up to speed just bombed along due to the mega wheel inertia. (I did a 10 mile TT on it once, and did well under 30 mins) Brakes were completely ineffective, especially when wet, I nearly ended up in Lulwoth Cove during a short touring holiday. 😀

With a head angle and fork rake like that, I’d say pre-war – 1920s maybe.

don’t much more recent Chinese bikes (popular in Africa) use rod brakes?

Photo of the chainring isn’t very good, but could be an old Ariel, pre 1925

Now THAT is the ultimate pub bike.

Difficult to say what that is, I reckon its been over-painted black at some point, there’s are no identifying marks on it, or head-tube badge. Could be a Rudge, BSA, Raleigh…
Cool old bike, though, and lovely to see its still being ridden. 😀
Odd tyre size, surprising tyres are still available; 28×1?, as far as I can tell, smooths the ride even better than 650B… 😉
It’s not unlike this 1914 a Royal Sunbeam:

Yo.

Thanks for all the replies. It is a cool ol’ thing indeed.

The tyres were 700c.

So is there no consensus as to the age?

Could be anywhere before 1950, I reckon; I don’t think things really changed very much until the 60’s.

It looks like it’s got pinch bolts for an eccentric bottom bracket, except that the crank spindle is not eccentric in the bottom bracket shell.
I’m not sure what’s going on there, maybe it’s an obsolete way of securing the bearing cups?

That’s the clamp on bracket for the rod brake.

With the short reach, slack head angle and very raked fork, I’m definitely going for 1920s ish – I had a 1914 Humber with very similar geometry.

Awesome sauce. My personal feeling is 20-30s. I hope I find the owner!

Now I look at the pic I can see why CZ said 1 3/8 tyres, it does seem to say that in the image. It did also say 700c so who knows WHAT the heck is going on there!

How’s the rear seat stay joined to the seat tube at the top?

I think it was a bolt.

What are the options?

[/url] image by CountZero1, on Flickr[/img]

I’ve cropped this bit of the tyre, I’m sure it says 28 x1? after ..0 x 35B. 650B, or 27 x1?, was the European standard touring tyre size, and pretty much the standard size on any adult bike until mountain bikes appeared in the late 80’s.
Maybe 28″ was its predecessor.