Gillott, A S - Stems and more lugs
Posted: Monday 01st June 2020
Gillotts were making fancy stems from early on. I have seen Spear, Fleur de Lys and a Curly Cut stem. Later on they had them outsourced with ‘Gillott’ stamped in a swirly oval on the clamp. The fancy lugwork was dropped, the stem looking very like a ‘Titan’. Tandem stems were also available. In the first 4 years they had to struggle with Vaughans lugs, full of hard carbon inclusions and porosity. They were dirty and tough to file. George Holt made a stainless steel mandrel for tweaking the angles which were decidely laid back and pre-war. Everyone wanted the new Continental styles. Harry eventually persuaded them to alter the castings but shortly afterwards Oscar Egg fittings became available. I do think that the early fork crowns are more richly varied than post Oscar Egg. The lugs on 94636 have distinct Hobbs style but later Gillotts standardised their designs. On the way to this they offered the Curly Cut, four examples are known to exist.
Their most popular style is the extremely elegant Spear with its parallel element on the top tube, down tube and bracket sockets carrying the eye all round the triangle in a flow which makes the bike seem to move even when standing still. They offered this with windows calling it the Connoisseur. The Fleur de Lys was the most expensive, if to my taste a little fussy and was also available with or without windows or as a bi-lam. The Bi-lam sleeves were cut out of tubes, not flat sheet stampings as with other makers. They were tacked, steel to steel to the main tube then mitred together. The assembly was then fillet brazed together with perfect contours flowing from tube to tube. The torch was held in a certain way so that radiant heat did the work, Len Hart was a master at this having spent the war building aircraft assemblies.
Their most popular style is the extremely elegant Spear with its parallel element on the top tube, down tube and bracket sockets carrying the eye all round the triangle in a flow which makes the bike seem to move even when standing still. They offered this with windows calling it the Connoisseur. The Fleur de Lys was the most expensive, if to my taste a little fussy and was also available with or without windows or as a bi-lam. The Bi-lam sleeves were cut out of tubes, not flat sheet stampings as with other makers. They were tacked, steel to steel to the main tube then mitred together. The assembly was then fillet brazed together with perfect contours flowing from tube to tube. The torch was held in a certain way so that radiant heat did the work, Len Hart was a master at this having spent the war building aircraft assemblies.
The Continental frame used an off the peg Oscar Egg lug but as with all lugs they were finely thinned and polished prior to enamelling. The most specialised model was the Alpine Tourist De Luxe. I have an original example bristling with braze-ons including Resilion brake pivots and cable stops, lighting wire loops, front and rear carriers, front derailleur and the ‘piece de resistance’, the frame number on a little plate brazed on next to the headbadge. This was so you didn’t have to turn your fully laden touring bike upside down to satisfy the border guards. A few ladies frames were built, several tandems, most for racing and very few tricycles. I have the only one known, 564512, it is lugless with a Higgins axle and was built for racing. Tubing was always Reynolds or A & P. Harry ordered special tubing from Reynolds with , I guess, shorter butt lenghts to save weight. Fork tip profiles were specially made for them too.
Fork blades were bought straight and curved on special mandrels in house, this elegant rake is a known Gillott feature. Harry told me that Mal Rees had rung him on several occasions begging for a pair of Gillott fork blades. So Harry sent him a pair, Mal rang to moan about the fact that they were straight!
These Curly Cut lugs above are not in any catalogue but mentioned in a December 1948 The Bicycle article:
Posted: Monday 01st June 2020
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