FINDING THE HOLDSWORTH EQUIPE

Over the years, four Holdsworth Equipes have passed through The Old Shed.  The first Equipe was acquire through the Word of Mouth Bicycle Finding Procedure - an amazingly effective way to find vintage bicycles, when first getting interested in the activity.

I used to be a Millwright, followed by a documentation specialist.  My writing skills earned me a position building management systems for a large company.  The systems I built focused on Quality Assurance and Environmental Protection, both under the ISO banner, ISO standing for the International Organization of Standards.

One of the many duties I had, as a ISO guy (inside story) was to meet with trades people, study how they did their jobs and then write procedures to accurately described how they did what they did.  The trades people told me how they did their work and they also checked the documents I prepared.  It was a pretty good job, and lasted for quite a while.

During a meeting with an Instrument Mechanic, who we shall call Julien, since that is his name, I mentioned that I like older racing bicycles.  Julien was quick to mention thaT he had purchased, the lightest one he could find, back in the early to mid seventies.

Julien and I, planned a time to get together at his place, after work that day.  As usual, once an appointment is made to view a vintage road bicycle, the balance of the work day seemed to drag.

At any rate, the time came, and I knocked on Julien's front door.  Once answered, he pointed me to the attached garage, indicating that he would open it, from the inside.  No problem, and I went to wait in front of the double doors.

As the door rolled up, it was a bit difficult to see into the gloom.  I did notice, however, four or five bicycles hanging from the rafters, and one of them was the Holdsworth.

At this point in my collecting career, I was not as fussy about what I get, as I am today.  That does not mean that I would not take a Holdsworth today.  What it does mean, is that, in those days, sometimes I thought a found bike, to be more than it actually was.  In this case, Holdsworth was a well known name.  It was fitted with Campy components, even though I had no idea that those fitted, were of entry level quality.  And, it was from Europe, assuming you consider England to be part of Europe.

Three more Holdsworth Equipes came my way, one, once again, through Word of Mouth, one I found at the Dump, and one was a product of Yard Sailing.  But those other bicycles would not show up for quite some time.  With that in mind, and with my new, from across the Pond, bicycle clutched in my possession, I was filled with anxiety at the thought of getting it road worthy, and taking it out for a ride.

But first I had to get the bicycle ready for the road.

NEXT - BUILDING THE HOLDSWORTH EQUIPE