1963 Carlton Flyer

1963 Carlton Flyer

Wow. I could not believe my eyes – a Carlton Flyer. I was browsing eBay one Saturday morning over breakfast when I saw it. The auction was about to end, and bidding had clearly been lethargic – the price was still stupidly low. I wasn’t really looking to buy anything but it found me. It was in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire hence the low bid price I guess.

For me that was no problem as we were due to go right past there in a fortnight to visit the in laws. Ten minutes to go, so I waited until the last few seconds and slapped my highest bid on it. I emerged victorious with one more bike, at a much better price than I expected. I was yet to find out quite how unique this bike is.

So… fast forward 2 weeks and I picked it up, without a hassle. The seller was very friendly, and pleased to sell it to someone planning on restoring it. He and his wife told me quite a lot of background information. Amazingly they had not only the original sales receipt from early 1963, but also the builders’ notes detailing the exact specification and the glossy Carlton sales brochure for 1962. All of which came with the bike – I will scan these in when I get a chance.

The original owner had this bike custom built to order by Carlton to his own rather unique specification and the notes prove that it is all original. Further, the seller I spoke to was only the second owner and his wife had met the original owner a few times. It turns out he was an author called Geoff Porteus, who lived for a long time in Dartford but travelled much of europe and possibly India on this bike in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This is pertinent as one customisation was incredibly far sighted, and is now a standard feature on modern mountain bikes – a top mounted gear cable path. My guess is that this was to keep cables out of the dirt on long tours and make the gearshift more reliable – the same reason it’s done that way on modern Mountain Bikes.

Rear derailleur cable eyes and stops just visible on rear stays

To achieve the cable routing they brazed on the gear shift bosses to the top tube rather than the down tube, then routed the cables MTB style along the top tube and down the rear stays and seat tube for the rear and front derailleurs respectively. Again this is clearly a factory fitment as there are beautifully finished double eyelets, cable stops and adjusters in all the places to make this work, and where you would never expect to find them on a bike of that period. Further proof that this is original is in the builder’s notes where the exact specification was noted – in particular the phrase “gear levers on top tube” with a ? marked in pencil afterwards. It seems that this requirement raised eyebrows and was double checked before building the bike.

Top tube shifter bosses and cable path

It is worth noting that according to the catalogue, Flyers were the top end Carlton frame of the time and were frequently built to order either as a bare frame or complete bike, with a range of standard variations listed in the catalogue. The catalogue also lists a wide range of equipment choices, frame variants and possible colour schemes, but again the buyer specified his own – grey with red bands.

Sadly the more recent owner took it apart with a view to restoring it but never completed the job, and some parts were lost in a house move. So we have lost the cranks, the derailleurs and the shifters. Everything else is present and correct and from the specification it is clear it was fitted with a Cyclo Benelux Super 60, apparently Cyclo’s last and possibly best derailleur, but a commercial failure. It now has a rather nice Suntour VX from the mid 1970’s which will do until I find a Super 60.

And it goes without saying that the frame is Reynolds 531 butted tubing. It is very light, especially when compared to the Corsa!

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