Pat Hanlon - late 70's/early 80's

This frame was Pat Hanlon’s own and was built for her by Tom Board in the time after she had closed her shop but was doing some trading from home. The frame is 19¼” which befits her small stature and Tom Board blended the two head lugs into one to give a clean appearance.  She fitted it with Campagnolo equipment so I have built it as it was when new in what we estimate to be late 70’s to early 80’s. The frame has no frame number.

I had in my collection a Pat Hanlon which was too large for me but I kept it as I admired the work on it – (see image right).  My spy in London told me that there was a tiny Hanlon frame at Mario Vaz’s shop which was in primer – it was too small for the owner, Peter Huke but he wanted to preserve it as he had lived near Pat’s shop and knew her well. He had purchased the frame from Mark Stevens of the V-CC who bought it from a close friend of Pat Hanlons.  We got in touch and found that my own frame fitted Peter and a swap was done as we both realised that the frames would be well looked after by their new owners, both fans of Hanlon.

I was told by one of Pat’s former employees that her own ‘racy’ machine was finished in purple.  Another friend says that she never actually raced but owned both a touring machine and this sporty one. We managed to get a set of original Hanlon transfers but after the frame was finished we found that the frames she sold from home were fitted with simple ‘Pat Hanlon’ decals cut from vinyl.

It seems that Pat rode this bike for some time before giving up riding on the road.  She then fitted the machine to a turbo trainer to allow her to do some fitness work on it.  After a while she gave it to a lad who lived opposite her house as he expressed an interest in cycling.  The lad however wanted to go mountain biking so made no use of it.  It was advertised for sale and Mark Stevens saw the advert, went to see it and bought it.  Later deciding he had no use for such a small frame, he moved it on to Peter Huke (see para. 2 above).