Witcomb News

London store moving

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:05:00 +0000

After 40 years of operating from 25 Tanners Hill we have found that recent demand for our bicycles has forced us to expand and move to a new purpose built factory.

Our new facility will be based in Wales and will enable us create more modern fiber based bicycle frames together with our handbuilt steel bicycle frames which we have made for over 60 years.

If you have a bicycle with us for restoration or you have ordered a new build don?t worry, we will be contacting you as soon as it is ready and will arrange collection from this store.

Our plans will bring to the UK the most advanced bicycle workshop in Europe which will be grounded in our handmade and traditional craftsmanship.

We last had a factory in th 1970s also based in Wales when WITCOMB was at the height of it?s fame, so we hope this change will be equally prosperous.

We?d like to thank all our shop customers for the last 30 years. It is with great sadness we make this move.

A bit of a teaser

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:57:00 +0000

This place could change the way people think, design, and build bicycles forever. But for now it is top secret.

Witcomb fashionwear: for men and women!

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

WITCOMB has now officially launched it's fashion clothing range with the availability of our new t-shirt range. We have adopted a strict policy that we produce all our designs in both Men and Women fit clothing. To meet this aim we have selected American Apparel's clothing range to produce our designs on.

For our initial t-shirt range click here.

At present we are taking pre-orders for the first shipment from 'AA' to arrive, email our online store team at: customerservices@witcomb.eu with your product code, size and male / female choices and we will reserve them when ready to be posted to you direct.

Want to work with us?

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:25:00 +0000

We currently have a few positions within the company on offer at various locations in the UK and one position in the USA.

For more details look at our HR page by clicking here.

WITCOMB now twittering away

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:17:00 +0000

We now have our very own Witcomb Twitter page. Where you can keep up-to-date with what we're up to and new products we are launching. You can read our Tweets on the website homepage: www.witcomb.eu or direct on twitter where you can also follow us: twitter.com/witcomb

Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow in London. The office will be closed during the current snow showers as we are not sure all members of staff can get into work. Back to normal on Wednesday we hope.

20% sale continues to this Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:59:00 +0000

We're continuing our 20% off sale through to this weekend. With 20% off selected items. This includes saddles, luggage racks, helmets, locks, lights and many other stock items.

Saturday 19 January 2009, 10am to 5pm

Our new signage

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:54:00 +0000

The new signage is going up at the workshop. Our last sign was starting to show its age, so we have looked over many old images of the shop, deciding to create a new sign which borrows elements of the 1950s original but layout elements from the 1970s version.

Here we have Terry putting up the new Ply-wood for the signage, before it is painted black and the signage stenciled on. We just need a few days of dry weather to finish it!

Frame sale!

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:12:00 +0000

We've got a selection of used steel, alloy and carbon frames from many different makers available. These have all come from our clearing of the upper levels of our building to make way for our new facilities.

We are offering these on Saturdays for a price of �250 for 'sold-as-seen' or �400 for a fully restored frame and forks in a single colour. Visit our workshop on a Saturday for more details.

Please note: there are no Witcomb Frames in the selection.

20% Sale this Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:20:00 +0000

This saturday we have a sale with 20% off selected items. This includes saddles, luggage racks, helmets, locks, lights and many other stock items. We're making space for future rebuilding works and also to make way for our own 'Witcomb' brand products.

Saturday 10 January 2009, 10am to 5pm

2009: focusing on frames

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:00:00 +0000

From the re-opening on the 10th January 2009, we will be making changes to how we work at Witcomb Cycles. Over the last two years we have seen a vast turnaround in our business, at present we have more new frame orders than we have had during the last decade combined.

Keeping our focus on quality and handcrafting we will be focusing on making our bicycle frames and other Witcomb products by reducing some of our other services. We will now only be offering servicing and repairs to Witcomb bicycles or those restored by us. We will still offer our frame and bicycle renovation and restoration services to any brand.

The most dramatic of these is a change in our opening hours. Our workshop will be open, Monday to Friday every week, but only open to the public on Saturdays. We will also be open on Sundays during the summer months.

During the week we will be open for new frame appointments only. At weekends we will be open to customers for sale of Witcomb products and for same day servicing and repairs to any brand of bicycle.

We now have approval to proceed with our heritage center and gallery space, this will be located on the first floor of the building, the 2nd floor will be restored during 2010 to 2011 as part of our ongoing restoration of the 361 year old building.

2009 will also see some exciting new products, some of these include a new range of frames which will be made here in deptford as "off the peg" frames, retailing at �750 and for a frame & fork set. More information about these will be released in the spring, these will be offered alongside our custom frames.

The Limited edition London Cycling Campaign bicycle is also still available for the 2008-2009 period, at only �1500 for an off the peg frame or �1900 for a bespoke bicycle. We will also be adding a second limited edition to this, a thoroughbred velodrome bicycle, which again is in collaboration with a charity, and limited to only 50 bicycles.

Our clothing and accessories will be extended with new cycling products throughout 2009, and we'll also be introducing our own brand range of energy drinks based on collaboration with infinite nutrition's laboratory.

Barry is going to be continuing to train up Terry, our new framebuilder some of you may have met, together with other young framebuilders who will be joining us throughout the year.

Open hours during 2009

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Saturdays, 10am to 5pm
Sundays, 11am to 4pm
(Sundays are April to September only)

from 10 January 2009
Our workshop will only be open to the public on Saturdays, 10am to 5pm, and in the summer months we will also be open Sundays, 11am to 4pm. We will no longer be open during the week for servicing, repairs or shop customers.

SERVICING, REPAIRS AND RESTORATIONS
Our servicing department will now only be open on Saturdays for one day servicing options. You are welcome to book in advance for this. Bicycles for restorations may book their frames in at anytime by prior arrangement. New frame orders are now being taken by appointment at any time.

We are sorry for any confusion as we switch to our new hours. We have made these changes to allow us to focus on our framebuilding services to meet the demand for our frames

Buying a used Witcomb bicycles

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:55:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:32:00 +0000

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

zefrognc@yahoo.co.uk (Zefrog) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:45:00 +0000

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'�quipe (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 Soci�t� du Tour de France, which is part of the media group that owns l'�quipe.

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-cat�gorie? 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-�lys�es.

From 1984 to 2003 there was a race called La Grande Boucle F�minine 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.

VAT reduction!

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:40:00 +0000

As we're sure you know, in the 1st December 2008, VAT will be reduced temporarily to 15%.

We're eager to pass this saving on to our customers, so all sales an orders after the 1st December 2008 will be at the new VAT rate.

We will not be updating our price lists, as VAT is stated on these, so you may need to call into to confirm current pricing with the VAT reductions.

We hope this helps our customers through the current economic turbulence and look forward to welcoming you at our workshop.

Witcomb Badges

zefrognc@yahoo.co.uk (Zefrog) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:15:00 +0000

www.witcombcycles.co.uk/fashion/

cappa-mocha-latte-witcomb-chino

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:35:00 +0000

Just a note to say we've had our coffee machine fixed!

We always get people who just come to "be" at Witcomb cycles, look at our photographs, stroke our frames, chat about "the good ole days of cycling" and of course get into heated debates over tubulars or clinchers. So when we started the refurbishment last January, we added the sofas. This was good.

The sentiments of many of our visitors were summed up by one customer: "This is not a bike shop. It's a cycling happening".

In February we added the coffee machine. This was better. After two months it broke. This was not good.

But now it is all working again and cappa-mocha-latte-witcomb-chinos are available again for anyone who wants to "be" at Witcomb Cycles for some good chats about bicycles.

(PS. Tubulars are more fun. Tony.)

Witcomb Lilac

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:38:00 +0000

In 1952, while still trying to define the Witcomb brand, Ernie had a long chat with the current owner of Holdsworth cycles. "You need a colour" he suggested. -Holdsworth at the time had been using their shade of orange for 20 years. "But which colour?" Ernie replied. "Oh, You need a lady to choose that."

"I know just the lady" Ernie replied as clarity hit.

Lilly Witcomb arrived at our shade of Witcomb Lilac by spending a lot of time looking at other bicycles and also furnishings and house paints. Lilly arrived at Lilac by realising it was a much under-used colour, and also lent itself to fashion as well as bicycles. She had also just bought a pair of lilac curtains, which heavily influenced her choice. By the end of 1952 nearly a whole product line was designed by Ernie and Lilly featuring the newly registered colour, "Witcomb Lilac".

The colour has seen us well over the year, always keeping our bicycles looking stylish. So much so that at the 1967 London Cycle Show, Holdsworth sent Ernie a bunch of flowers with a note to see their stand as they had all of the bicycles on their stand in Lilac as a tip of the hat to the success of our Witcomb Lilac.

We keep our enamel mixture for Witcomb Lilac a bit of a secret, and still use it today on our frames. It has seen us well over the years, a testiment to Lilly's colour choice. (We're also glad she didn't buy brown curtains!)

Around the world on unicycle

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:52:00 +0000

Quite randomly in 1978 a Japanese gentlemen cycled into the shop, past the counter, into the workshop and handed Barry a flyer, then cycled our again on his unicycle. Quite surprised, and amused, Barry and the other framebuilders looked at the flyer to see he was cycling around the world on his unicycle.

We don't know if he ever made it, but we still have his flyer up in the workshop.

Clement Evolution - 13c 'Tubulars' sort of..

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:26:00 +0000

While clearing space in our archives up stairs we found lots of pairs of these odd tubular tyres / tube combination. Even Barry has no idea what size or shape rim they would fit on.

They have a sort of flat panel underneath which hooks like a modern Clincher tyre, but would require a specific rim to fit them.

So if anyone has been searching for these rare tubulars, please get in touch, we've got a lot.

Another new look

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:48:00 +0000

The current shop front, 2002 to 2008

The Witcomb workshop at Number 25, Tanners Hill has seen many different changes and alterations over the years. And as our last sign was looking a little tired and in need of an update we've decided to re-paint it over the winter. Keeping it in style with our Grade II surroundings and neighbouring businesses.

It also gives us a chance to boost our security system with new equipment as well as performing some repairs to both the timber framing on the building and the horsehair-plaster coating.

Don't worry we're still here and open as normal during both the re-building works to the street outside and while we carry out this face-lift.

Over the decades Ernie took great pride in re-inventing the front of the workshop, and below are some archive images of previous incarnations of Witcomb Cycles's home.

An early 1950s shop-front. Note the door on the opposite side. -It's original position.

Above and below, examples of our 1964-1970 Shop front.

The opening of the new extended workshop in the 1970s to include numbers 23 to 25 Tanners Hill.

Our first shop front further up the road in Tanners HIll, used alongside our unit in Woolwich, circa 1949.

Quick caption competition

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:07:00 +0000

We had this in our image archives and we know it is famous framebuilder Bill Hurlow. (Known for his curley rear stays on Hetchings bicycles.)

The best caption by 4pm on today -Saturday 18 Ocotber 2008 will win a Witcomb Workshop Apron worth �25

Our workshop assistants, Adam, Jack, Niamh, and Michael will choose the winner.

email to: office@witcombcycles.co.uk

Good luck.

We've all got headaches, but we don't mind.

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:56:00 +0000

On Monday work started on re-building the street outside of our collection of old buildings in Tanners Hill, new paving, trees and better accessibility and drainage will be the result of around 6 week of work undertook by Lewisham Council.

The site was designed by Shirley Broughton, who has spent many hours looking at the plans and discussing her ideas with all the residents and business of Tanners Hill. All of the shops are open as normal during the works, and if you need any help accessing or getting to our workshop or any of our neighbouring businesses the workmen are very friendly and will go out of their way to help you through the roadworks.

We are all looking forward to seeing the final result and welcoming you to the new look Tanners Hill this Christmas.

Keeping prices simple

noreply@blogger.com (TM) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0000

As the website has been updated, we've also had another look at our price list. There are so many options when choosing a bespoke frame, we've tried to make our price lists simpler to use.

We've also changed our prices for the first time in five years (except, we added VAT to everything during 2007/08 for re-registering for VAT).

Thankfully, this time it is better news. We can now offer all our frames with a Witcomb Lilac colour finish included in the cost of a new frame. Our enameling costs have also come down further on new frame orders. We've achieved this by welcoming new suppliers to supplement our in-house enameling. All our enameling work is still carried out in the UK, and to our own strict standards on quality control and finish, with an even faster service.

You can view our new pricelist for custom built frames on our downloads page at:
www.witcombcycles.co.uk/downloads

Or ask in our workshop for more details.