Hanlon, Pat

When Peter Underwood bought a 1973 Pat Hanlon several years ago it prompted me look at my own example, purchased from John Pavey in the mid 1990s. I knew nothing about the model nor date – only that when built up it was one of most delightful bikes I had ever ridden. With distinctive lugs, a 39 ½” wheel base and angles of 73 degrees parallel it was designed I supposed for time-trialling or road racing but handled comfortably on the poorest of road surfaces offered up on many an English country lane.

At present it is not known who built the early models. In conversation with Simon Carter some years ago Tom maintained that both he and Vic Edwards were responsible for building the frames. The shop remained open until 1983 when Pat retired to live in Majorca: she passed away in December 1997.” ( NOTE that Simon Carter now owns frame no 208074 and once owned a 1964 model which he believes was stamped 442).

Richard Fox adds that at the Comrades CC headquarters in Quendon Essex there is a memorial tree planted to Pat Hanlon. He parked his car next to it last Saturday.

I am indebted to Graham Brice, Mick Butler and Peter Underwood for their assistance in researching this article. Mick has since unearthed some more information on Pat which continues below the following images.

Further information about Pat Hanlon:

Since writing the above web page further information has come my way with regard to this marque,

A decade and a half after her death, Pat Hanlon’s name remains one of the most hallowed in the cycling world. However, few younger riders and fans know how she achieved her fame, let alone anything about her.

Prissie Jane Howells (as she was then known) was born on this day in 1915 and spent her early childhood in her native Cardiganshire, doing well academically but suffering a series of lung complaints due to the damp Welsh weather, so her parents decided to move her to Somerset. The drier weather suited her and she became healthy; however, as Welsh was her first language her studies went downhill fast. When she was 14, she was given a bicycle as a gift and discovered a talent for repairing it – a skill that in those days, despite the work carried out by women during the First World War when they had maintained machinery on farms and in factories while the men were away fighting, was considered most unbefitting a young lady.

Two years later, Pat went to live with an aunt in London and spent the next decade working as a “nippy,” a waitress in a Lyon’s Cornerhouse teashop. Often, she would wake at 3am to join the local cycling club for a 150km ride before returning to London in time to work the afternoon and evening shift. At weekends, she would ride to Somerset and back again to visit her parents – around 36 hours of riding in total. Soon, she was covering more than 24,000km each year and began to enter races; immediately enjoying some success which encouraged her to seek out a quality racing bike and finding one at McLean’s, a famous bike manufacturer and shop based at 362 Upper Street, Islington (it closed in 1962), and she began to hang around the shop badgering the owners for a job. They would occasionally give her a job to do, but rarely if ever paid her for it.

The cellar at McLean’s was the domain of the shop’s elderly wheel builder – a man who, like many of those of achieve expertise in the art, gave the impression of being as much a wizard as a mechanic. She pestered him, too, trying to persuade him to teach her the skill, but he refused and told her that “women don’t do jobs like that.” Just as the First World War had forced Britain to give women the chance to prove they were equal to men, so the Second World War proved to be the opportunity Pat needed: one day, with the male shop staff all away fighting the Nazis, the boss told her that somewhat gruffly that as of the coming Monday she would be the on-site wheel builder. She remained there for almost twenty years.

At first – and as one might suspect – Pat faced awful prejudice, with many of the shop’s customers making it perfectly plain that they would not be buying nor even trying wheels built by a woman. Pat, meanwhile, knew her wheels were good and refused to give up. In time, reports began to filter back from the more enlightened customers and those who bought their wheels without knowing who had built them – Pat’s wheels were not good, they were excellent; magnitudes better than anything those who were fortunate enough to own them had ever ridden, light and strong and staying true on even the harshest roads.

They sold as quickly as she could produce them: Mr. Berrisford told me that, in an attempt to meet demand, Hanlon would take her work home with her and build wheels while sitting down and watching television in the evenings, just as many women of her generation would knit. However, demand outstripped supply, and winning a Tour de France was by no means a guarantee that stock would be available when a hopeful cyclist visited in search of them.

Pat remarried in 1979 at the age of 64, sparking rumours that she would soon retire and sending shockwaves through cycling as riders realised that the supply of Hanlon wheels would soon dry up forever. She continued for four years, finally calling it a day in 1983 – sadly, husband Jim died soon afterwards. She outlived him by fourteen years, dying in Majorca on the 29th of December 1997.

Some of those riders fortunate enough to have been able to lay their hands on a set of Hanlon wheels still have them, and some still use them. Mr. Berrisford’s dated to 1964, and he claimed that he had never had to true them.

Although the frame is still in its original finish there is no decal indicating the manufacture of the tubing. I’m still in touch with Phil who now lives with his family in Telford. He says he can remember little of the frame now but was able to disclose that the tubing was Columbus. Likewise, there is no serial number anywhere on the frame but the steering column shows it clearly as 01464. I don’t know what lugs were used (except perhaps the BB shell – see above). The front ends are Simplex with mudguard eyes and Campag rear end.

The frame size is 22.5 inches, top tube 22 in, nominal wheelbase 40.5 in, bottom bracket height (with sprints) 10.5 in. I haven’t checked the angles but, judging by the short top tube it’s probably something like 73 degrees parallel.

I rode and raced on the bike for twenty years before selling it and buying a fancy Italian job…….an impulse sale that I quickly regretted and have often wondered if it was still around