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Dating the Hartley

2021-04-11T11:03

Over the past few weeks I've began stripping down the Hartley. The more I uncover the better I understand the bikes history. These bikes are uncommon so you can't easily find a list of the parts that a shop used. I've never actually seen another Hartley before. Disassembly, deduction and a little experience is needed to determine what is and isn't original. If you can extract a date from an original component, then you known the age of the bike. The trick is to work out what is original.

Initially I figured the frame was built sometime between 1920 and 1940. It was pretty obvious that at least some of the parts weren't original. The saddle looked like it was probably from the 70s. It was a plastic leather look-alike. The pedals and crank looked to be from the 60s at the latest.

There was also a definite difference in quality in the chroming on some of the parts. The wheels, hubs, and brakes were very badly corroded. The rust got under the chrome and bubbled it off. The cranks mostly just had surface rust which should brush off. The handlebars lost all of their chrome but the metal remained protected because it looks galvanized.

Once I started removing the paint and got a view of the original paint scheme. That's when my doubts grew that the frame wasn't as old as I thought; it looked to be from the 60s. I would expecting to find more pin striping if it were older.

frame.jpg

bottom_bar.jpg

seat_tube.jpg

I pulled the crank out next. The cotter pins that hold the crank arms to the spindle were very tight indicating use. The bottom bracket was a mix of English and Japanese parts. The spindle was marked Make in Japan and the fixed cup didn't match the adjustable cup. Normally, the fixed cup is very, very fixed. I always find getting them out a struggle, but this one came out easily. I'm not sure if this is odd, but the lockring was also of another English brand, Brampton. Because the cotter pins were so tight and the there were mismatched parts in the bottom bracket, I think that the bike must have been ridden this way. To get cotters tight, you have to press them again after a few hours of riding. This bike wasn't half fixed then put back into the shed.

bottom_bracket.jpg

I have a book called "Eugine A. Sloane's Bicycle Maintenance Manual" which was published in 1981. That book refers to 27" wheels as being the old style. I have a '62 Malvern Star (a very popular bicycle manufacture, also from Melbourne) which was made with 28 x 1⅜" wheels. I have no idea when the transition was made from the old 28" (ISO 642) to 27" (ISO 630) wheels, for them or any other manufacture, but I suspect that all the local builders probably changed wheel size within a few years of one another. It's possible that the 27" wheels were original, but right now I don't think they are.

eugene_sloane.jpg

The pedals are Phillips Credalux from the 50s. The crankset and pedals might have been swapped when the bottom bracket was, but I'm going to invoke Occum's razor and say that they weren't.

The crank set was made by Williams. Helpfully, they mark all their parts with a two-letter code that maps to a year. The parts from my bike were were made in 1956 as denoted by the code 'AW'. The paintwork looks like it could be from 1956, so I think the cranks are original. The bike was probably made within a year or so of the cranks.

williams_dating.jpg

My current thinking is that the bike was made in '56 or '57. In the late 70s or early 80s the bike got a nasty coat of paint and the saddle, brakes, bottom bracket, and wheels. They were probably second-hand parts. The bike was ridden for a while before the front was hit from the side which bent the forks and resulted in the bike being left left to rot. Over time the pedals and rear hub rusted and seized up, the chrome disappeared, the tires perished and the top bar began to rust.

I still haven't looked at the hubs so there's a chance I might find another date that confirms or invalidates this theory.

Williams Component Dating

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