Another Dayton Elite… in Russia!

Well, there aren’t many Daytons about but they do seem to pop up in the most interesting places.

Alexey from Russia just got in touch with some photos of his amazing Dayton Elite. Like mine it has an amalgam frame and from the components I suspect it’s a similar vintage, around 1956-7, but the decals are different from mine, more similar to Bernie’s and some other Daytons I have seen. He tells me that the bike has been in his family for many years and he received it via his grandmother. I would be fascinated to know more about how it got to Russia and when.

The condition is incredible but as he appears to work at a professional bike restoration workshop, so perhaps that is no surprise. The chrome work looks really good as do the decals and paint.

The detailing on the frame is lovely. Enjoy…

Alexey’s Dayton Elite – frame in detail

Alexey’s Dayton Elite – Head Badge

Cyclo Benelux Sport Derailleur

From looking at the derailleur, it is different from mine (Cyclo Benelux Mk 7, dating from 1957). Alexey’s appears to be a variant of the Cyclo Benelux “Sport” which was in production from 1952-1958. Thanks to Classic Lightweights for this reference.

Alexey’s Dayton Elite – Note the lugless amalgam tube joins

Alexey’s Dayton Elite – Downtube Decal

Alexey’s Dayton Elite – beautiful chrome

 

 

Alexey’s Dayton – All the bits

Bernie’s Dayton

Well the weather has been too good to sit inside blogging so I have been out on the road as much as possible. Over Easter I finally met Bernie, and more importantly perhaps, his Dayton Elite.

Bernie and his Dayton, me and the Falcon

I met up with Bernie in Richmond Park, on a stunningly hot Easter day. His (clearly very understanding) daughter accompanied him and kindly managed the photography for us. His Dayton really is in excellent condition, especially when I compare it with my poor old rusted example. It is such a pity he has lost the original drivetrain, but he’s done a fine job resurrecting it with newer parts and the old Simplex derailleur he found looks the part.

Having now seen a Dayton in the metal, so to speak, I am definitely motivated to make this the year for my Dayton’s resurrection. Right now it is still waiting, safe and dry, in my store room for me to find someone who can reproduce the decals. I toyed briefly with taking a “grunge” approach and simply preserving it as it is, but returning it to rideability. But the chrome and the paint are so utterly terrible it’d just look hideous and the old girl deserves better.

My one concession to modernisation, probably, will be to add alloy rims, primarily as the old steel ones really seem thoroughly rotted. But they will be laced onto the original hubs and I will use all the original gears and drivetrain (well, a new chain will be needed). I have found a 40 spoke rear rims, a Mavic Module 4, but I’m yet to find a suitable 32 spoke front rim of similar design. I will try, I promise, to resurrect the old rims but I think the rust is too extensive and they will probably fall apart. I will however keep them for posterity along with any other bits which need to be replaced (very few I hope).

Bernie hits the road…

Just a quick and slightly belated update to all you Dayton of London fans out there…

Bernie’s Dayton Elite has, he reports, made it onto the road. Apparently it’s light, fast and smooth as silk. He has fitted it with some newer Weinmann 27″ alloy wheels and screw-on hub, a 5 speed block and 1960’s vintage Simplex derailleur. Not quite original but certainly in keeping with the vintage of the bike. He has re-used the original steel Williams cranks and it all works beautifully.

What’s more, it looks pretty good too…

 

Bernie's Dayton Elite - almost complete

More Dayton Info

Inspired by Bernie’s Dayton I have done a bit more web searching and found some more Dayton Cycles London info, linked below.

• Dayton Cycles of London – a brief history
• Dayton Sales Catalogue
• Another sales catalogue for the patent Amalgam frame
• A Dayton in Thailand
• Images of a stripped Dayton Roadmaster amalgam frame

And just to cap it off, a Dayton ridden by Tom Saunders won the Tour of Britain in 1948.

PS A bit more trivia. Dayton Cycles of America comes from the same town (Dayton, Ohio) as the Wright Cycle Co, established by Willie and Orville Wright to finance their experiments with flight. There are some suggestions out there that the companies may have been related. But neither of these is in any way a relation to Dayton of London which was established a few years later by Chas Day.

Another Dayton Elite!

Well, an interesting development. A reader, Bernie, got in touch as he has another 1950’s Dayton Elite, even older than mine (early 50’s) but in rather better condition although missing some parts.

In the interests of posterity and putting what little seems to be published about the Dayton Elite bike onto the web, Bernie agreed for me to publish some pictures of his bike here.

So, without further ado, here is Bernie’s Dayton Elite:

Dayton Elite early 1950s

The frame is more traditionally constructed than mine, with butted Reynolds 531 tubing and elegant lugs. The decals are different from mine, simpler and more rounded, and there is no chromework where mine has (had) quite a lot on the forks and rear stays. The paint is in really good condition.

Dayton of London head badge

The head badge is identical to my later 1957 model, apparently cast lead or pewter. It’s in excellent condition, the D looks stylised, a bit like a shackle. I wonder what the original designer was trying to represent?

I think the purple colour is the same as mine, but in much better condition and evidently original.

Seat tube lug

Reynolds 531 transfer and nice brazing detail for the seat stays, located very neatly either side of the lug with quite a small contact patch. Slightly odd effect created by reversed seatpost.

Seat tube decal

Close up of the seat tube decal, very nice with the shape of the Y character rounded as in the head badge. This decal is missing from my bike, there is just a plain band as far as I can see but i’ll take another look when I get it out next (currently it’s buried behind 2 Bianchis, a Marin and a Rocky Mountain).

Dayton Elite - components

Various components removed from the Dayton. What looks like a Williams crank, some GB components etc. I am impressed by the quality of the paintwork given the age of the bike, and the decals are also in good condition. I think with nicely cleaned up components this bike will look great and rather characterful as it is. I hope I have convinced Bernie not to repaint it now. Anyone can have new paint, having the genuine original article is the rarity…

Cyclo Benelux Mk 7 Derailleur

Benelux Mk 7 Derailleur removed from the Dayton. I have roughly cleaned it in diesel to check the mechanism.

Benelux Mk 7 Derailleur

It is superficially rusty and will need a re-chrome, but it is in good working order now I have freed it up and cleaned the accumulated gunk from the jockey wheels. Even the ball bearings on the jockey wheels look clean and sound for many years’ more use.

Benelux – side view

I’m fascinated by the way it works, quite different from the standard paralellogram of modern derailleurs and in engineering terms a perfectly sound design. It uses a sliding pivot shaft with a spring to push it open and a cable pulling via a small chain in the centre (like Sturmey-Archer 3 speed). Single pot disc brake calipers on modern cars use a similar sliding pivot design, also not entirely maintenance free but relatively durable.

Benelux sliding pivot exposed

The difference in this case is that it uses a sliding flat spring (shown retracted here) rather than a rubber boot so the seal will be imperfect with water and road dirt more eassily gaining entry to the inner shaft and the all important inner spring. It is therefore more prone to seizing up and rusting if not well maintained I suspect, although this one looks pretty good. With some copper grease and regular cleaning it should be fine to use for many more years.

I found more a full scan of the original servicing instructions for the Cyclo-Benelux Mk 7 derailleur at http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/benelux-instructions.html

I’ll store it complete for now but when I’ve got everything off and sorted out I’ll dismantle it to remove the chrome parts. These will be rubbed back to a sound base and sent off as a job lot to the electroplaters for re-chroming.

Further references for anoraks:

• Quite a good reference to the largely similar 1958 Benelux Mk 8 Tourist Derailleur (he describes the Mk 7 as “seminal”)
• A dutch engineering reference with some detail on the mechanism (and some untranslated dutch)
• And more background from Classic Lightweights UK

Dayton Elite components

As my Dayton seems so completely original here’s a list of what was on it when I found it.

• Cyclo Benelux Mk 7 rear derailleur (early type around 1957)
• Cyclo Benelux shifter (single, it’s a 5 speed not a 10 speed)
• “GB” forged alloy stem and drop bars with elegant fluting and “British Made” embossed in the casting
• “GB” Arret Brake levers with small round blue enamelled badges bearing “GB” in fine white lettering. Under the badges is stamped “Arret” in the aluminium.
• “GB” Sport side pull brakes (GB Sport Mk 3 and British Made stamped on the bodies)
• Brooks Champion Swallow B15 (modern version is Brooks Swallow B15 I think)
• Williams 47 tooth chainwheel and fluted cottered cranks (I’m pretty sure it’s a Williams with the triangle design)
• Pedals look similar to Sheffield Sprint but hard to tell. When I clean them up I’ll have a better idea.
• It had mudguards but they’ve long been cut away, I can see the remnant of the rear one under the brakes.
• Forks – oval section (not elliptical) steel, butted with chrome almost up to rim height finished with a neat band. Headlamp braze-on nut included on right fork leg with a bracket.
• Wheels – 27″ (40 spoke rear, 32 spoke front, the old British standard). Not yet identified but I’m going to try and see if they can be recovered and restored.

Found on a skip – 1950’s Dayton Elite racer

Walking home late at night on 2 August (after falling off another bike, long story) I saw a frayed looking old bike peering at me from the top of a fully loaded skip near my local church.

Dayton of London - Elite

I couldn’t just leave it there so I picked it up and wheeled it slowly home to be greeted by my astonished but understanding wife.

I put it out in the garden but after 20 minutes searching the web and realising this was a very rare bike, I went back to the garden and brought it inside – the first TLC it had received in many years.

The bike is complete and appears to be totally original but in superfically poor condition. I have dated it as being around 1957 by the Cyclo Benelux Mk 7 derailleur which I found featured on the excellent Classic Lightweights UK site.

On the same site I found the reminiscences and photos of Dennis Talbot’s racing days. In 1951 he raced a Dayton Elite for the Dayton cycle team. This is looking very interesting indeed…