Jack Taylor Curved Tube Cyclocross Built as Light Touring
Built as a light touring / city bike. Currently running as a 5-speed. My first Jack Taylor (see also my Curved Tube Path Racer built by Taylor apprentice Colin Laing). Norman Taylor of Jack Taylor Cycles passed away at 85 this summer [08] - have a nice ride, Norman.
Built in 1984, I'm guessing this was a custom-order curved tube cyclocross bike. It has cantis and fender mounts but the lack of rack mounts and bottle braze-ons and the use of a butted tubing and a curved tube make me think this wasn't built as a "touring" bike. It could also have been a randonneur bike too but no bottle braze ons still doesn't make much sense (maybe the orderer liked old clamp on cages?).
Update: Erik Zo writes, "[Adding Canti bosses] is something that was done on most all of the curved tubes that came through Fulton St. Cyclery as the team was into cross and [Holland Jones] was a fan of the canti."
Build:
Jack Taylor canti-mount handlebar bag rack
Ideale 90 saddle
Thomson seat post
Campy Super Record Cranks
Single Simplex Retrofriction lever with Simplex clamp on mount
Shimano Crane (pre Dura-Ace) GS long cage rear derailer / derailleur
Specialized (MKS) track pedals, MKS clips (ones that I hand
leathered), nylon straps [replaced with MKS GR-9 pedals with leather
straps]
Salsa SUL stem [not recalled]
On-One Midge handlebars with Cane Creek levers
MAFAC cantis, salmon pads
Wheels: Campy Record high flange road hubs to Super Champion rims,
30mm Grand Bois
Thanks to Nathan, Sean, The Freewheel, Box Dog Bikes, Jonathan and Montano Velo. Inspiration for using Midges from Nate's Resurrectio.
Jack Taylor Cycles was the framebuilding collaboration between the 3 Taylor brothers, Jack, Norman and Ken of Stockton-On-Tees, England. A range of frames for touring and racing was produced under the marque from 1936-2001, and they are considered by many to be the closest thing Britain has to a French-style "constructeur" a la Herse and Singer etc. Well-known for beautifully clean lugless ("welded", or fillet brazed) construction (a method which rose out of neccessity during the war years - lugs simply weren't available) as well as for lugged frames, and impeccable box and lug lining.
Reynolds and the Taylors had a close relationship, and Reynolds actually produced custom... double-butted curved tubes, for the marque... initially exclusive to the Taylors
Italic copy from Joel Metz's excellent Jack Taylor page www.blackbirdsf.org/taylor/
Comments and faves
meauxtown, Andr:ew, missingane, i@nc0nn, and 52 other people added this photo to their favorites.
onetwentyeight (43 months ago | reply)
Dope. We should have a taylor ride when I finish mine.
ronlau8 (43 months ago | reply)
Very nice. With the curve tube, how long is the chainstay? This bike must climb like a monster. Good job.
oohdoiloveyou (43 months ago | reply)
Beautiful.
Andr:ew (43 months ago | reply)
It could have been a randonneuring bike, but I guess the one chainring up front says cyclocross
fixotic (43 months ago | reply)
It could have been a rando without too I guess. JT price sheets show that they sold bikes as 5-speeds into the 80's. To be honest, I'm not sure how well a front derailer works on curved tubes since the place where it mounts would be further forward than normal.
professor gd's photographorium (43 months ago | reply)
lovely bike. curious question: what is the seat post size?
fixotic (43 months ago | reply)
This one is 26.8. My Laing with the curved tube is 27.0. Go figure.
fixotic (43 months ago | reply)
@ ronlau8 -- interesting question. I took some measurements from hub center to BB center. The number doesn't mean much to me alone so I measured other bikes for comparison.
This Taylor ~38.5cm
Laing Curved Path Racer ~39cm
Bianchi Pista Concept ~39.75cm
Cannondale CAAD3 Road ~41cm
The shortest of the short! This bike isn't climbing like a monster yet due to rider fitness at the moment... but when I stand with my hands on the wide drops and crank it has a nice responsive feel.
ronlau8 (42 months ago | reply)
Fixotic,
Thank you. I have a fixedgear Bilenky than has a curve tube also, it has a 38cm CS. Usually short CS means a good stiff climber.
Thanks.
rebalrid (42 months ago | reply)
A stunner. Cracking short wheel base classic.
christiancoomer (34 months ago | reply)
Looks amazing! Always good to see something different!
弁慶 (10 months ago | reply)
Beautiful and I'm a big fan of the five speed setup. The stem and poompy bar tape are buzzkillers for me though. b :)
maxwell.merkle (9 months ago | reply)
Question for ya, mark! I've got one myself, not too different from yours. I'm currently fussing with the build. Where did you put your chainline? I'm finding the short wheelbase rather limiting (I guess it wasn't a problem if it were to be a 5speed...) with 6 speeds...maybe you have some advice? THanks!
fixotic (9 months ago | reply)
I think I got lucky there because it seems to mostly work. I have the single chainring on the outer position of the double crank. Don't remember the BB width, sorry. The freewheel is a 6-speed but I set the limits so it's only 5-speed. In the smallest cog there wasn't space for the chain to clear the frame.
Fredrik Posse (7 months ago | reply)
This bike is featured as a prop in the new Battlefield 3 game if you didn't already know. I spotted it in several places in the map Seines Crossing :)
onetwentyeight (7 months ago | reply)
We were just talking about that at the shop today... Jonathan has been playing that game and mentioned a blue JT was used as a prop, and I thought of mine till he said "curved seat tube"
Someone take a screenshot!!
fixotic (7 months ago | reply)
Yes, please!