Buying a used Witcomb bicycles

We've had a lot of people recently asking about used or second hand Witcombs, and also for information on other bicycles we used to produce. On a scout around the internet we've seen a few fakes and impostors out there, together with some great bargains.

So here is a quick guide to buying our brands from ebay, gumtree or in person.

Witcomb frames:
Firstly, does it have a serial number? Witcomb numbers are always stamped on the underside of the bottom bracket shell, they fall into three categories:

WIT or W1 before the number: Congratulations, it is a bespoke, custom made Witcomb from before 1990.

W then the number, this will be a handmade 'off the peg' frame, still made by us and still a Witcomb, but it was made for sale in another bicycle store.

No W just numbers. This is where our archives help. Every bicycle produced will have a six digit code, we can match this in our archives and give you a history. If not, then it is not a real Witcomb. -We do no charge for archive enquires.

Not all Witcomb bicycles are steel, there are a few MTB Witcombs from the 1980s which are Alloy and ten carbon fibre ones from 2000-2002, these are very rare, but also not a good investment due to the materials used being 'short-term' bicycle frames.

On average expect to pay between £150 and £700 for a frame, the most valuable being our limited editions: Giro, L'aviner, USA, Tour de France, and more recent editions. Prices for complete bicycles are very similar.

We do strongly recomend emailing or calling in with the serial number to check authenticity against our database. (Well, database for 2000 onwards, books and archives for 1949 onwards.)

If you discover a Witcomb Flyer, Witcomb Legend, or Thomas Witcomb, then your very lucky! We will buy this from you, they are all dated before 1949 as we have no records. They would have been made by Thomas Witcomb, Malcom Barker or Bill Hurlow. So far we only know of one example of a Thomas Witcomb from this period now privately owned in Japan.

Other frames:
We also carry a few other brands in our archives, these are other bicycle shops, brands, or exporters we made bicycles for:

• Baren or Barren
• E.A. Boult (our sister company until 1954, these are technically Witcomb frames)
• Herne Hill track frames (at various dates)
• Hetchins (1960-64 in small quantities)
• Holdsworth (in small quantities at various times)
• Raleigh (1958-1960 a small number were made)
• Rotrax (from 1956 onwards)
• Sid Mottram (also made by Mercian at times)
• Sunshine Cycles
• Witcomb
• Witcomb Shopper
• Witcomb USA
• Vanguard
• Velocity
• Velosport
• Youngs (London)

Condition
Focus more on the steel work, not the paint, a respray will cost around £115, and will bring it up as good as new, but the frame must be in good order to achieve this.

There are a few things to look out for with old steel frames. Problem areas tend to be around the seat-posts and rear stays. Are they attached ok, is there any cracking in the enamel where they join, do they move?

There are lots of "fixed wheel" frames out there, one tip from Barry is to check it really is a fixed wheel, and has horizontal drop-outs which open to the rear of the frame. Also check they are attached properly, there are a few road to track frame conversions which have used silver instead of brass brazing to join older steels.

We are often able to advise and help you in your purchase, or if you are selling a Witcomb let us know and we'll feature it on our blog to help.

Christmas and New Year opening

Our opening hours for the festive period

We close on 20 December 2008 at 5pm

and the workshop will re-open on the 10 January 2009

We would like to wish all our customers a very Merry Christmas, and best wishes for the New year!

Le Tour de France

There are however strong links between the prestigious race and the UK. Bill Burl and Charles Holland were the first British riders to attempt the Tour de France in 1937, but it wasn't until the first British team took part in the 1955 race that a British rider made it to the finish in Paris. Of the ten members of that 1955 team two men, Tony Hoar and Brian Robinson, managed to finish the race, while their team mates fell foul of saddle sores, broken bones and a plague of punctures. The record holder for winning the Tour the most (seven times), is however not British but American: it is Lance Armstrong. Along the years, British riders have won 23 stages of the race in total. One of those pioneers was Stan Britain who won his stage of the Tour in 1958, 49 years ago, on a now legendary Witcomb bicycle.

It was all started in 1903 by Henri Desgrange, the editor of what has now become France?s foremost sports newspaper, l'Équipe (then called L?Auto). The race was devised as a marketing tool to compete with the Paris-Brest-Paris ride (sponsored by a rival paper), and Bordeaux-Paris. This proved a great success for the newspaper: circulation increased from 25,000 before the 1903 Tour to 854,000 copies, achieved during the 1933 Tour. Today, the Tour is organised by the Société du Tour de France, which is part of the media group that owns l'Équipe.

From its inception, the Tour de France has been one of the most demanding sport event. Although the number of stages has varied, the modern Tour has consisted of about 20 stages and a total length of 3,000 to 4,000km. The three weeks of the race usually includes two rest days, sometimes used to transport riders long distances between stages. For the first half of its history, the Tour was a near-continuous loop, often running close to France's borders. Since the 1960s the Tour frequently skips between one city or one region and another. A spin on the Tour is comparable to running a marathon several days a week for nearly three weeks. The most famous ?hors-catégorie? peaks, all of which recur most years, include the Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux, Col du Galibier and Alpe d'Huez. The vertical distances travelled in the Alps and Pyrenees are equivalent to climbing three Everests. Participants consume and burn as much as 10,000 calories per day.

The race alternates each year between clockwise and anti-clockwise circuits of France. The 2007 edition will go clockwise and will finish like every year since 1975 in Paris on the Champs-Élysées.

From 1984 to 2003 there was a race called La Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, often considered Tour de France for women.

2008-2009 is the 50th Anniversary of Stan Briten's tour ride, and we have a limited edition of 100 bicycles, also celebrating 30 years of the London Cycling Campaign. Click here for more details.