J F Wilson of City Rd info/memories sought

[220 City Rd]

There used to be a proper square metal chewing gum machine on the wall between Wilson Cycles and Mr & Mrs BB's Bread and bucthers shop...a big penny for a big chunk of green gum..

[220 City Rd]

yes i would have been glad of a bat in our loo when i was 5 yearsold at night time for a bit of company...mind you the candle used to make 4 or 5 shadows on the crumbling white wash wall with the wind that blew under the bog door, so you never felt completely alone...

 

It was a pleasure at a young age, when it had snowed deep to plunge each slippered foot into its silence...to go to the out side toilet; candle in hand, covering the flame by the other...but knowing there was a damp box of matches somewhere inside that tardis should it fail on the way...

[gonetoolong]

yes i would have been glad of a bat in our loo when i was 5 yearsold at night time for a bit of company...mind you the candle used to make 4 or 5 shadows on the crumbling white wash wall with the wind that blew under the bog door, so you never felt completely alone...

 

It was a pleasure at a young age, when it had snowed deep to plunge each slippered foot into its silence...to go to the out side toilet; candle in hand, covering the flame by the other...but knowing there was a damp box of matches somewhere inside that tardis should it fail on the way...

 

I remember getting stuck in the snow on the Quarry thing on the way home from school on Wybourn to City RD...had to be rescued!

[220 City Rd]

Hi there put all your stories of Jim on here....they are very very precious....i've a lot to put on with the sporting side of Jim that the music side gets a bit neglected...more the the merrier....2 channels are better than one...

 

As Jim's son i will never forget the night time listening to Jim play the Hammond organ and singing the blues down stairs in the bike shop, being carried off to sleep by it...Jim played regularly with Jack Dupree for a period....no wonder today i sing gospel to the guitar and Morrissey/Smith songs to the bass!...I have pictures of me at 5 or so years old in Jacks arms out side his house in Bradford, and next to his car with Champion Jack Dupree on the doors next to Jim all of us standing in the snow...

 

Olive (my mum) had an ladies hairdressing salon across from my bedroom...the ladies used to walk through Wilson cycles, climb the stairs, pass my bedroom, say hello Nigel (when i was a little lad) and enter Olive's salon.

 

In the day time looking back at the hubub of life there at 220 City road it was an incredible atmosphere...with the smell and noises of ladies hair spray, customers' happy laughter & chat, bike building, brazing smells, and grandma's home made cooking lasting all day in to late evening...

 

To Jim this was his dream lifestyle... after dunkirk it was never really considered as work or a job...open 8.30 till 6pm every day, even 'serving' on Christmas day if a customer called in.

 

I have been there 45 years, and I'm 45.

 

Yes it has changed in line with society...there has to be shutters everywhere now...but they don't keep out the marvelous memories of those times, on the contrary they keep them in.

[DUFFEMS]

Somewhere we have a photo of several Beighton Wheelers setting off for somewhere, our son Russell used to ride with them though he hasn't ridden a bike for years, kids and mortgages get in the way! Most of the Beighton Wheelers had JFW frames, they used to go out riding with Phil Axe.

[neepsendlane]

We was out in Derbyshire on a Sunday run when a bloke on a rusty old Wilson came flying past and we all said the same thing. Thats Syds bike! so we followed him to a house on Windy House Lane and next day Syd fetched it back .

It had been pinched from outside the shop and was instantly reconisable as the frame was unsprayed and red rusty.

This would have been about 1959.

[220 City Rd]

This ties in very well with a true story that Syd crashed in a road race a week before going to ride the 1959 Manx Premier Professional Road Race on the IOM with his brother Jim's team...well Jim repaired the tubes and did not have time to re stove enamel it,

 

So syd started a new trend...no paint, less weight!...and you could see the craftsmanship of the brazed lug work...there's a picture of Syd riding up Snaefel with the legend Fausto Coppi on the same BIKE / frame!....imagine that today...the riders would cry in shame...

 

i guess Syd kept riding it after...no worries my father's frames were made to last and be used...unlike the disposable Carbonfire rubbish they PAY the pros to ride and thus promote today...

 

click on link and go to W...click Wilson...

 

http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/builders.html

 

also

 

http://www.wilsoncycles.co.uk/shop/aboutus.php

 

http://www.wilsoncycles.co.uk

 

Enjoy and Merry Christmas

 

Nigel Wilson and Family

[Guest]

Nigel Just clicked on your links above and made the photo of Syd and Coppi in the Isle of Man my background page .

Cavendish won the BBC sports personality last night what a turn up for cycling eh! all these years after another local hero Tom Simpson.

Have you seen my thread on your dad and Sid .

Jim Wilson and Sid Wilson cyclists.

[220 City Rd]

Hi, i have, they are marvellous memories and have inspired me along with the other contributers found here to write again now there is time in the Christmas holidays...

 

what a coincidence, i only obtained that 1959 Manx Race Programme last week, relating to the Coppi / Syd photo on our website (and confirming the date!) and neepsendlane posted the story of Syds un painted bike being stolen with the date 1959!

 

By the way Syd used to have other eccentric finishes on his JF.Wilson frame's over the years, as well as no paint!

 

such as the barbers pole design ...not just red and white but for example Powder blue and pink....Gold and Metallic Red...if there was one mass production company with an ouce of imagination they'd make millions selling bike frames with finishes like that today...and be remembered for something!

 

but no its got to be Carbonfire Black, Canonfodder dale red...plain, bland and characterless...notice too that this has rubbed off on today's cycling society...and they even ware the clothes and the attitudes to match.

 

But thankfully there are always through backs to bygone eras...I'm one..but my pal Mark Hudson for example had a frame unpainted like Syd's but we went one better and applied the Wilson transfers to the bare tubes and then powder coated over it all in clear powder coat...so people could see the brazing workmanship and the frame's well protected too..

[Guest]

Hi, i have, they are marvellous memories and have inspired me along with the other contributers found here to write again now there is time in the Christmas holidays...

 

what a coincidence, i only obtained that 1959 Manx Race Programme last week, relating to the Coppi / Syd photo on our website (and confirming the date!) and neepsendlane posted the story of Syds un painted bike being stolen with the date 1959!

 

By the way Syd used to have other eccentric finishes on his JF.Wilson frame's over the years, as well as no paint!

 

such as the barbers pole design ...not just red and white but for example Powder blue and pink....Gold and Metallic Red...if there was one mass production company with an once of imagination they'd make millions selling bike frames with finishes like that today...and be remembered for something!

 

but no its got to be Carbonfire Black, Canonfodder dale red...plain, bland and characterless...notice too that this has rubbed off on today's cycling society...and they even ware the clothes and the attitudes to match.

 

But thankfully there are always through backs to bygone eras...I'm one..but my mucker Mark Hudson for example had a frame unpainted like Syd's but we went one better and applied the transfers to the bare tubes and then powder coated over it all in clear powder coat...so people could see the brazing workmanship and the frame's well protected too..

Hi again Nigel ,you refurbed my old Wilson about 7 years ago with all the new gismo,s.And a smashing job it was But! i soon started to miss my old down tube changers and centre pull brakes so now they are back on old habits die hard.

Are you still building frames the last i heard was that you and a lad at clowne were the last two proper frame builders left in the area[by that i mean useing Renolds tube].

Did your dad ever tel lyou about a frame builder called Thomson who had a shop near Heeley Bridge ,Him and his wife also had the Pewitt cafe at Owler Bar and that is where all the clubs used to end up after the Sunday run.

I remember your dad pushing me up Baslow Hill on the race to be first to the Pewitt[ my age about 13 or 14] as i have said before not many blokes stick in your mind throughout life but Jim is one i will never forget he and his team where hero,s to me as a kid. I could go on all day!