Happy New Year to all from J.F.Wilson Cycle Manufacturers
220 City Road Sheffield S2 5HP 
Established 1948 

Happy New Year to all from J.F.Wilson Cycle Manufacturers

 

 J.F.Wilson Cycle Manufacturers

220 City Road Sheffield S2 5HP

Established 1948

Dan Smith+ J.F.Wilson Cycles, Winning the Carlton Bank Hill Climb.

James Frederick Wilson 

Author Nigel Wilson

James Fredrick Wilson - Sheffield Phoenix C.C. Life Member and Independent Racing Cyclist - founder and rider-manager of the Wilson Cycles Team established the Wilson Cycles company at Sheffield in 1948. Jim (pictured right) rode in the first Tours of Britain and had numerous placings aboard in semi-classics including 6th place in the Hanover-Brunswick plus rides and finishes in Classics such as the Tour of Flanders.

Jim was not only a highly successful team manager but he was also able to find sponsorships to create and run various winning teams, one of which was the Elswick Hopper Team in 1958.

In short Jim Wilson was an amazing bike rider, athlete and person, considering he had come back from near fatal injuries after being left to fend for himself on the beaches at Dunkirk in 1940. Finally returning home the doctors at the time told his mother that he had no more than a year to live! Then to go on and ride and finish with distinction in the kind of races mentioned above showed phenomenal courage and determination.

This feat proved to be a great inspiration to many other people at that time, and still does,to those who know, today! My father's greatest talent was bringing people together from all walks of life and selflessly turning them into something greater than they may have realized they were capable of if left to themselves and society as a whole.

When the Sheffield Phoenix cycling club awarded Jim a simple paper poster after he finished the 1951 Tour of Britain (when he was not suppose to be still alive, let alone finishing such tough races!) with his picture stuck on, and with these words hand written above and below it..."JIM WILSON - HE HATH COURAGE!"

It meant more to him and to those people who knew of Jim's exploits at that time than any Oscar, or for that matter the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year awards!

This true story of one man's endeavours was an inspiration that created the solid-silver Courage Cup - given to Jim by the Sheffield Phoenix  which Jim gave back to them to be award not annually, nor given just for winning races, but awarded for exceptional courage in the face of severe adversity and still managing to win.

Trophies won by the Wilson Cycles road racing team in 1958

Founder in 1948 of J. F. Wilson Cycle Manufacturers he was also the most successful British road racing team rider/manager in the mid-to-late 1950's with the WILSON CYCLES and the ELSWICK HOPPER TEAMS. This included:- 5-Times National Road Racing Championship Winners and an all-time record number of road race 'firsts' in 1957.

Wilson Cycles' 1957 season still holds the record for the number of British road race wins in any one season.


Above: Program with full details from the Manx Premier Professional Road Race

My father J.F.Wilson is listed above at numder 40 (and racing at world level at 40 years of age!..I did not realize he kept racing that long at that level), his brother Syd, 10 years younger, is number 41. And on the programme there are 3 professional teams that my father created / established and managed...viz, the O'brien-Wilson team, Ovaltine Alp team and the Elswick Hopper team.  This is a total of 17 riders and I know them all, i.e. Ron Coe (31) Dave Orford (51) Dave Bedwell (the pocket rocket no 39), Frank Clements, Doug Petty...
 
That is nearly a quarter of the professional riders in the race who would not have had a job racing at that level without the sposors Jim Wilson found - not to mention managing them.  If you add the four Sheffield Langsett riders, Jim will have influenced all of those riders and probably helped them enter the race by association. This is more than a quarter of the entire race.


The British Cycling Federation at the time would have taken credit for the spectacle put on for the crowds lining the route but these riders were the back bone of british cycle sport at this time. Fausto Coppi was an internationally known living legend at the time, as well known as Beckham is today and Pele in the past.

Above: Italian rider, Fausto Coppi (Fanini) alongside Syd Wilson (J.F.Wilson Cycles)
 in the Manx Premier Professional Road Race on the Isle of Man in 1959

 
I have the pleasure of knowing my father, a man that was beyond all of their imaginations as a rider, in the background and selflessly helping everyone in the sport. He was unsung until now.

Riders from the Wilson's Cycles team

Left to right:
Sid Wilson, Wilson Cycles' super-domestique winning the Welsh Road Race Championships
James Frederick Wilson (Wilson Cycles)
Jim Wilson, Wilson Cycles - the real-deal 'rouler' in the Tour of Great Britain
Doug Petty, Wilson Cycles' ace climber

Left: Jim climbing for a prime
Right: Taking the prime at the notorious Holme Moss


Another prime - this time at Shap


Jim (behind in collar and tie) in his role as manager of the Elswick-Hopper team
at one of many prize presentations.
Far left Jim's brother,Sid Wilson; centre Harry Reynolds; right in Elswick-Hopper jersey is Ron Coe


Elswick-Hopper riders - Harry Reynolds (left), Ron Coe (centre), Syd Wilson (right)

Another young youth who visited Jim's shop was Tommy Simpson - on a couple of occasions Jim repaired Tom's bike in an emergency the day before his big races (and for nowt!) according to Keith Marvin, Jim's Tour of Britain team mechanic and regular helper in the shop.  Keith loved to be around Jim and all the characters that Wilson cycles attracted, and he'd help out his mentor for his dinner and tea and payment in kind; to Keith it was a privilege...and a dream job!

In 1953 Doug Petty signed as Independent for Wilson Cycles of Sheffield, assigned the job of teaboy for Belgian racing trips. "They don't 'ave tea over there, kid." He suffered his first telling-off when his mum bought inferior quality tea from Keighley Market. "WHAT'S THIS?!" bellowed Jim Wilson. "Er - it's t-tea Mr Wilson!" stuttered Doug.  "We're goin' to tak thi abroad kid," said Jim later. "Whatever they've telled thi, it's six times better." When they saw a huge field of rugged Belgians lined up for a race near Ghent, one of the team blurted out, "These aren't cyclists, they're bloody wrestlers!"

Doug found himself at the front; as one or two were struggling, he decided "I'll just slow it down a bit" for the team. "A big hairy hand came out of the bunch and gripped me from behind and shot me backwards; then another hand did the same, and another and another, till I were shot right out the back!" "I forgot to tell thi kid - they don't do teamwork 'ere!" Jim commented.

At another race, the rookie as keen as ever: "What's tactics for today Jim?" " 'Ang on as long as thi can!".  Head down in another race, Ken Stratford hit a post and fetched six riders off. Jim collared Doug at the finish. "Kid, if tha sees Ken, tell 'im not to come back 'ere. They're goin' ter kill him."

Doug rode the legendary Manx Premier International Road Race in the Isle of Man on 17th June 1959 - the "Coppi race". There were 25 continental riders in 5 teams; including three Tour de France winners - beside Coppi. Completing the start sheet were fifty-three British based Professionals! The O'Brien-Wilson Team were: 39 Dave Bedwell; 40 J.F. Wilson; 41 Sid Wilson; 42 A. Bladon; 43 Doug Petty; 44 J.A. George.

Doug recalls: "Dave Orford said, "I'll get on Bobet's wheel!" then he punctured. Coppi did a huge effort and split the field in pieces. Andre Darrigade attacked and went up to the break, I hung on his wheel and he took me up and then he went on to win the race." Fausto Coppi died the same year, of malaria caught on a hunting trip in Africa with Raphael Geminiani.

From Sheffield Forum: Judd Newton Cutts - "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."

Also from Sheffield Forum:  "As a kid of about twelve I was a keen cyclist and still am 50 odd years later, I used to go to Jims shop on City Road as I had a paper round at that time and used to save up my 10 bob (ten shillings) a week to spend on my bike. I remember one time I was in the shop and was looking at some real Italian cycling shoes [I had never had proper cycling shoes] and I couldn't in a month of Sundays afford this lovely leather pair. After about two hours hanging about [Jim never used to mind how long you hung around] I told him I was off, just as I opened the shop door to leave Jim threw the shoes to me and I told him I couldn't afford them. Jim just said, " take 'em I know you will pay me if you can." It took me a few weeks to pay Jim in bits and bobs at a time but he never asked me for owt. I have never forgotten Jims generosity and trust and witnessed it on many occasions,a true gentleman."

Author of this piece, the son of Jim Wilson,  Nigel Wilson winning the 1985 Sheffield  City Centre Race

In the image above, I was 19 years old riding for my dad's life-long club the Sheffield Phoenix CC which, in my father's day were an ace club and I felt obliged to support them.

I also managed a Silver medal in the North Midlands Division Road Race Championships, National Junior and Senior road race Champion Simeon Hempsall was 3rd, Wayne Wrandle, Commonwealth bronze medalist 4th. Martin Maltby who won had four top team mates in a chase group about 20 seconds behind us so I had to ride with him on my wheel for the last 6 miles, if I'd have had just one team mate I could have said to Martin ride or my super fast mate will win the sprint. I also won the Yorkshire 100-mile Time Trial Championship in 1989, riding my normal road bike with no tri-bars, aero helmet or skin suit, but with nice fat road race tyres. The Yorkshire Championship event was incorporated in the National 100-mile Time Trial Championships and I came 9th overall but Ian Cammish won with some mad time.

When Jim died I had to hang up the dream of riding the classics and tours or go out of business and lose the shop.  I kept racing locally though and felt free to leave the Phoenix then, ironically starting the Wilson cycles road racing team again (in 1995) in Jim's memory instead of having a memorial race, I had to retire from racing eight years later because of ARVD of the heart in 2003....I had raced, worked and trained hard for 22 years. The team was disbanded at the end of this year after sixteen years although Nigel is hoping for a resurgence of up and coming talent in the future to re-form the Wilson team.

From 1995 to 2003 as rider-manager the team made steady progress which included two British National track Gold medals in 1999 and 2000 (both Richard Teare - Wilson Cycles) and numerous local road race wins.  When I was not able go to the races the team of 22 riders melted away within 3 months of the 2004 season and I realized then that I'd been carrying them and along with work and trying to fit training in to the amount at my peak I had burnt my candle at both ends and the middle.

Nigel still runs the family company Wilson Cycles at Sheffield

Letter to Muhammed Ali

Dear Muhammad,

I would like to pass on my heart felt Thanks for the Inspiration that you have Inspired into Millions of Souls, myself included, as my poem below illustrates.

Ali verses Tyson; or Anyone!
Ali Wins because he can move,
Hit fast and has stamina to last,
Clever and strong his will is vast,
Pretty in motion, poetry in man,
His belief in God, he believes he can.

~ N.W.

Plucking leaves from your tree of expressions, for instance when you say that the sport of boxing is dead without a strong, bold voice, or silence is boxing’s greatest enemy!

In a similar vein I’m building a web site to try and express my thoughts about my sport of cycling and cycle racing.
In the hope of a more open coverage of ALL SPORTS! I think that all Countries should have Sport as their National Sport, not football, soccer, etcetera. In Britain there seems to be a sporting bias, bordering on a sporting racism! Young people in particular are being influenced through the media to think that there are only a couple of worthy sports! You may be interested to read my letter to the Prime Minister, (via the Points of View link left hand side on our home page and then go to letters section) which explains my different views and ideas.

Thanking you for your precious time,

Yours in Sport,

Nigel Wilson.

Letter to the Prime Minister. (Circa 1999)

Below is a Letter, and an unveiled Tribute to our Hundreds of undiscovered, British Yellow Jersey and Rainbow jersey Wearers and Winners, thanks in full to a time immemorial biased and blinkered British media.  

Dear Prime Minister,

 

I’m sure that you are a very busy man, so I would like to help in any way that I can.

On hearing that there are further plans to expand and increase roads and their systems, - an action that only seems to fuel car use - I would like to suggest that the real root of the problem is a cultural one, and lies within today’s very powerful, and seemingly unrestrained, yet selectively blinkered media. For instance, reduce car advertisements and I’m sure it will follow that you will reduce car usage. Replace with similar, professionally choreographed cycle advertisements, and the message coming across would be, it is cool to ride a bike too! Not only would it help another British industry, it would also help our people in a much more beneficial way: a healthier nation, ‘with the option of driving!’ on less congested and polluted roads, in the long term; and this only serves to name but a few advantages for our society, should this new tack be taken.

Over many years, television, radio, cinema, magazines, billboards and the newspapers have glamorised the car and of course made it something more than fashionable - turning it into a pitiful and unjustified necessity. At thirty-seven years of age I cannot recall one t.v. advert for the bike that wasn’t more than an affordable flash. For a long time, the psychology of the public in this country towards cycling has only been influenced by some wobbly clown of an actor in the saddle. Lets have world-class bike riders promoting the bicycle, film stars, football players, music’s rappers. James Bond shouldn’t be seen without his bike, (a British one! of course.) because you don’t become as fit as him by just driving a car! Sounds far fetched but that is what is sorely needed, a sea change in how people perceive things. The public admire famous figures and will always follow in their fashionable ways.

Having started cycling with my mother and father from a very young age, over the next thirty years I have seen the sad decline of cycling in general on the public roads, especially in the last ten years! In direct contrast to an increase of motorized traffic. The saddest loss, in my opinion, has been the family club runs on Sundays. Where, thirty or so Mums and Dads, with their children, would meet from in and around Sheffield, and cycle into Derbyshire, - just one of a dozen cycling clubs in our area, and virtually every city in the United Kingdom used to have a good number of these clubs! - People wouldn’t dream of doing that today! because it is too dangerous! Instead, almost everyone goes in their cars, after driving to shop at Meadowhall they then drive out and fill Derbyshire in their droves, and there the vicious circle is complete. How sorry I feel for their children, our children! that have missed out and will be missing out on all that freedom, fresh air, fitness and fun! Those citizens who want to ride their bikes dare not! This being out of hand is an under statement. When the first cars were invented a man with a red flag had to run 50 yards in front to warn pedestrians, horse riders and cyclists alike of its arrival. The car now has pushed all such courtesies aside and forgotten its place behind these friendlier forerunners; motorists have taken these liberties for granted en mass over a relatively short period of time, and in doing so, they have almost scared off the roads all forms of alternative transport; a transport of which has more moral right and an even greater virtue to be on the roads! To get their own way, and be on it, car drivers are even starting to encroach onto the public footpaths; the car ads never show their cars stuck in traffic jams, only driving through car-less Capitols or wafting along unpopulated beaches!
 

Incredible! an obvious blind. You would think to any intelligent race that is supposedly in touch with the real world! Instead, it appears that they have all become trapped into a brainwashed mentality of the medias’ commercial designs; unwilling to admit to themselves that they have had a life style chosen for them! It would be unthinkable then, to see any of these alternative forms of transport as a socially acceptable option. How wrong is all of this? Owning a car myself, I could easily write a book on the benefits of alternatives to the car as a way of living, without feeling hypocritical, just by the use of my own common sense, (and by the use of my legs when ever possible!) not to be led along into believing that there’s only one way to travel, or should I say live!

Prime Minister, I would like you to help this cause. In parliament could you please consider looking at the various medias, and ask them to ‘hype’ the helpful good for a change! This land and its population deserve a better train of thought. Every child that has ever been born, (including you and me,) has eventually kicked a ball, and ridden a bicycle! All future commuters in one way or another, lets not forget this talent as they/we grow older. For example, regarding the sport of cycle racing, we have all tried writing to these media establishments to cover cycle sport and influence more people towards a useful and worthy pastime, and find that these companies are always biased to the ‘popular?’ especially the bbc or biased broadcasting company as I’ve come round to naming them.

The idea of giving incentives to the cycle industry, enabling it to raise its profile via t.v. and in the newspapers etcetera, maybe discussed; government funded ads could lead the way to this eventuality. Added together with the above broadcasting of cycle racing on one or more of the big four channels (not satellite channels, cycling has to be as familiar as coronation street! to capture the public’s attention and imagination.) only this kind of concerted and concentrated effort would be a major help towards decreasing car traffic. It has got to make better sense than the plethora of motorcar programmes, and much better viewing than watching big brother! The kind of effect on society that this mind numbing rubbish breeds is incalculable! And you yourself will go to and from your work much more smoothly within a much more balanced, wholesome and happier society.

There is no ulterior motive of personnel financial gain in the writing of this letter. I own and run a small family business, established now, at the same location in Sheffield, for 55 years, and making a steady living. We could not and would not want to take on any more work, brought on recently by the closure of a number of local cycle shops (selling bicycles that you can trust on the roads) mainly due to the supermarkets (selling bicycles you might trust in the park, if by some freak occurrence they had been assembled correctly!) and Far East imports. No, I truly want to help my country, because I believe the motorcar, at the moment, to be ruining this ‘free Isle’ and it’s people, who sit in it’s daily crush of traffic, stress and pollution. I have never seen such miserable faces, and so many! We have the most expensive cars and houses that can be afforded and are still far from being happy in our gilded cages; and those that don’t yet have such ‘glories’ seem to want to aspire to this! Having been brainwashed by a continuously unbalanced barrage of media hype, an ever-growing number of people have lost touch with their humanity. People, that I feel, to be missing some of the more simple joys of life. Joys that improve the person’s whole well being, something that money and it’s products can never buy or gain, because they are priceless lessons in free values, and do not harm any kind of environment, just the opposite!

If you sit in a room full of cigarette smoke, chances are that you will smell revolting on exiting and probably die of lung cancer some time in the near future. If you sit in a room full of car emissions you will not leave that room under your own steam as you will be dead off the seat! Yet there is a government health warning attached to all forms of cigarette sales. Incredulously I see none for this deadlier pestilent! In fact the exact opposite! So not only are today’s compulsive drivers causing global warming, chaos and misery on the roads, they are now to be joined by the invisible spectre of a slow death! For themselves and no doubt, as gridlock escalates with today’s media led mentality washing over us, everyone else! As hourly bumper-to-bumper cueing, or in effect nose to exhaust pipe, starts to kick in; because at the moment I feel that the consequences for this kind of society are going to be ‘on going’ like any cancerous disease. In the meantime these drivers falling on their own swords are the last of my worries as I see the faces of children waiting innocently for their buses through huge palls of filthy traffic fumes, pedestrians too as I cycle by trying not to breathe! There are cleaner, healthier, less deadlier ways to create revenue for our Country. This serious problem needs addressing and reducing to a safe, practical balance. Water is good for you, but drink too much and it will eventually kill you! The same can be said for our ‘love’ of the car.

As in life, or on the roads, we are all Human Beings! The cyclist, first out of courtesy has ridden in the gutter for long enough! Today in our Country we all have equal human rites; cars and other machines obviously do not! driving a car does not give anyone more rites, neither does riding a bicycle. It should be safe enough to walk on the roads! If this sounds out of the ordinary it is a mark of how immersed many have become in this dogmatic worship of the cars’ own culture, to the highest of false esteems; wars have been fought, for much less than the freedom of one’s own nature! The motorways are the car’s domain, off these are where Human Beings ‘freely’ move and breathe! With cars taking a very careful third place, behind pedestrians, horse riders and or cyclists. Again, if this sounds in any way preposterous, ask yourself why?

Cycle paths only help to enhance the myth that cyclists should not be on the public roads! Unless, that is, they are built to the specification of cycle paths that are to be found in Holland, where they build cycle lanes down the middle of the road, and the car drivers are held to account for any accidents.

Following in my father’s wheel tracks, one of the many ways in which I have helped the sport of cycling (and continue to do so) in this country, is by the encouragement and sponsorship of junior, espoir and senior riders; looking after the sporting interests of these riders over the years has been immensely satisfying, along with road racing myself for the past twenty two years, the last eight as team rider - manager to all of these aforementioned riders that have progressed to the higher, racing team level. This year, myself and one other rider from the team, managed to gain selection to ride in the National Road Race Championships in Wales. Of the 150 riders in the ‘British’ Championships, we were the only two on completely hand-built British bicycles! How poor, and at the same time frustrating do I find this current state of affairs, when not so long ago Britain were the World leaders in innovative cycle frame building and design. For example my father putting weeks of craftsmanship into each hand built cycle frame, - an example that has been handed down to myself - frames that reappear for another re-spray fifty years after they were built! Unlike today’s disposable trash, designed to fail! so that these big companies (and generally from a foreign source to boot) can rip you off at the highest price once more, - in more ways than one - and as soon as possible! Again, this time the cycling media, showing and vouching for glossy foreign imports, (or tat disguised as quality in modern day media sheen!) have in their ignorant way slowly brainwashed our countrymen and women, until there has become hardly any other option in the market place, and our craftsmen have in their turn all but disappeared! Obviously a vast amount of this British money goes abroad which in turn helps other countries’ economies, and so their industries, British money that indirectly and directly funds their sports people! The difference is that these countries televise cycle racing, and in return each country becomes cycling friendly, more people relate to it, bringing more people into this arena. Some will be businessmen interested in sponsoring such a high profile sport; manufacturing enthusiasts would see a relatively new opening for commerce, proud to build for the riders of there own Country, others will be the young, future World Champions! Who inspire nations of other young people, and of course people of all ages to cycle for leisure, race or commute; but the point and fact is that they aren’t behind the wheel of their cars at the same time.

Cut off from all this by our blinkered and down right biased British media, on our island of car, football and soap broadcasts, I would like to finish by quoting something that my father used to say, which still stands as true today, “There’s a World Champion walking around down town right now!” “But he’ll never know it, and we’ll never know him, because he will never put his leg over a bike in anger, just because it will never come into his mind to do so”, (as a means of earning a living). We have always known that the talent is there in our Country! Sport as an industry has only reached its smallest potential in this Country. Each sport is a veritable gold mine! IT JUST NEEDS THE LONG AWAITED HELP OF TERRESTRAIL TELEVISION ET AL, WHICH HELPS TO FORM THE RIGHT SPORTING CULTURE AND ENVIROMENT, NURTURES CONFIDENCE, AND IN TURN, THE GROWTH OF ANY SPORT! The money, prestige and National pride that these people generate for their country is immeasurable, and there would be no need to widen any more roads! As, in a reversal, the car wouldn’t readily come into our people’s minds!

Thank you kindly for your valuable time, yours sincerely,

Nigel James Wilson

Letter to Cycling Weakly

(Letter Below Sent Together With the PM's Letter)

Dear sir/madam,

Last year, (1999) I sent to your offices a poem of mine entitled, Progressive industrial ruin of the word ‘Quality’.
 

That was obviously too close to the truth for comfort, as it was not printed in your ‘Cycling’ magazine, or should I say Disposable Cycling accessories, frames, wheels, and posing equipment, magazine! Which in it’s self isn't quite completely wrong! If ninety–nine percent of the products were ‘British’! Money that would be pumped back into the sport of cycling in Britain and also in to its economy! A positive circle instead of the present viscous one!

Here is a copy of a letter that I have sent off to number ten Downing Street. You can ignore this and throw it in the bin too! for all I care about the worth today of a once Great British ‘Cycling medium,’ Once full of REAL characters, character and to a lesser but better extent foreign products.

A British Cycling magazine that for quite some time now has been ignorantly brainwashing its readership into paying the wages of other countries riders! with month after month, week after week, page after page of souped up glossy dross, Taiwanese and Far East sourced frames etcetera, badged and built up at the highest possible price (in more ways than a monetary one!) from every country under the Sun; apart from our own?

No I doubt it, but there is not enough belief in our own bull, so let us push our British ‘only in name’ products to the forefront! Instead of trek, cannondale etc.. let us bullshit like they all do and put for example Churchill on these frames, a British tag of recognition to show the World that we are at least still a player!

It means a damn sight more than trek! trek? what’s that? A long walk home when your three grand carbon fibre frame and fork snaps in two going down the first pothole or blows over in the wind.! (I’d reckon actually worth (?) £5 to manufacture, and after the first million not even that! If it was actually worth a million pounds I wouldn't buy it for three thousand, in fact they couldn't pay me enough to ride pencil lead because I value my life (and the product’s shite!)

The name trek gives it away, don’t you think? To anybody with anything about them it does! It is not human sounding like Donohue, Barker, Dolan, Edison, Caygill, Lloyd, Wilson, Taylor…. If people still want to ride carbon or alloy after that, at least guide them as much as possible to waste their money in Britain, buying the same products but under British marquees, make them realize that it is the only way, (with the help of the help of the none Cycling media as well) to find future British Tour de France winners - not just one, and other riders of that ilk on a relatively regular basis!

Because at least they will be helping to fund British riders through some semblance of our own cycle industry, an industry that is more likely to sponsor British ‘growing’ riders than the American, Taiwanese or Italian industries.

If you don’t want to know about Quality Hand built British bikes this is the only way to compete. (Its no good just leaving it to the National Lottery!)

But I’am telling you now, Armstrong, Cav & Wiggo et al would ride just as well, even better! on a hand built 853. Especially when made to measure! Why don’t they ride them then? Because they are paid to ride easy to produce tat!

Any company trying their hand at producing Light Weight steel Craftsmanship with the ‘steel’ hallmarks of Quality and Longevity goes belly up these days, there is no quick resell in a long lasting Quality item. They call Quality Over- engineering these days!

If it’s all about weight, build a frame and / or bike out of paper! and if you find this a dash heavy, try sugar paper! There’s a point where lightness becomes a disadvantage and you lose the ideal transition of power, and the most power is being used when you start to climb! So a slightly heavier, well-made frame & forks, or if you like bike would ironically send you to the top quicker!

Maybe that’s why Armstrong has had to develop a fast pedaling action to overcome the disadvantage of having to ride a carbon wavy bike that is far too light for his power! Ullrich has to keep seated lest he should break his disintegrable and disposable stead.

Nobody needs this! there are no real advantages, only a host of Real disadvantages; people are paying good money, to the wrong people, for bad fallacies, and they are out there riding these replicas! around in traffic, when they make better and are much safer as hanging ornaments or wall decorations!

Italian bikes are pushed in this Country by the British cycling media as if they were being built by the Pope! and blessed by God Almighty himself! no wonder the Italians have heaps of big professional teams, with plenty of well paid riders; because they have a thriving cycle industry for one! courtesy in no small part to thousands upon thousands of British media led mugs!

Again I feel sorry for the young kids, who follow by a misinformed example, and have not been fortunate enough to know or realize a superior past of World renowned, long lasting Quality and Craftsmanship, one that flickers today in the ashes and the debris of alloy and is all but lost in the carbonfires.

Depending on which one, some World cup races have eight Italian teams, six French, six Spanish etc.. and not one British Team! NOT ONE! What kind of a World cup is that? How fair is this? How unlevel a playing field can this be said to be? Well? Heinz Verbruggen and your forunners!

EVEN IN BRITAIN ITSELF! THERE IS TO BE FOUND NOT ONE PROPER PRO TEAM! (at the date of this letter) THIS DOES NOT SURPRISE ME! Do these people that influence and run our sport know anything about cycle racing tactics, Business, and the working combination of the two?

You, the Cycling Weakly, and then the seemingly unknowing public, indirectly support this massive sporting discrepancy! On top of this some of these Continental riders/teams (funded in good part by the u.k.’s misled fools) have been caught cheating and continue to race to applause and acclaim! get them out of your magazine and out of the SPORT! and give my team's riders coverage who are clean; and then indirectly a ride in the biggest races in the World, with these British muggins’ money, along with two other clean British teams!

If you want to hype and bullshit, promote the home scene - in every facet - with as much gusto as you do pushing this massive production foreign Crap! that you keep touting.

For one there is no comparison, when the British Bull dog of Industry and Commerce becomes fit. Backed by its Nation’s people, there is no other Country with as much grit. With the right British Team I could put Armstrong out of ‘le Tour’ in four days! Sooner if the Spanish teams were to stop riding round like a bunch of fairies.

At the moment we stand with a lost heritage of traditional sporting and business nous, and with it a big part of our Nationalistic pride; without a mutual invested interested in its own Country’s cycle Industry! by its people, even its own riders! THIS HAS TO BE REFOUND!

If you were an Italian living in Italy, especially someone involved in their Cycling federation! and you were foolish enough to suggest that the Italian National team should ride for example British J.F.Wilsons, Mercians or Bob Jacksons you would probably find yourself bumped off a cliff!

Yet we have the British National Team on Treks! Money and commerce that is all going to Taiwan and America, before that what was it? pinnerello, colnago, potato, play dough, whatever! I know it wasn't’t British! Why? Why should we as a proud people care to sponsor other nations’ athletes and industry? THROUGH AN ABSOLUTE BLINDING IGNORANCE and MISMANAGEMENT TOO BIG TO SHAKE A LIGHT WEIGHT STEEL TUBE AT! What’s an Italian ever done for you!? Do you think that the Italians, or any other country, are going to be good enough to say to our young talented riders living in the United Kingdom, “we are going to sponsor you in British teams to ride at home and abroad all season.”

It’s no good these British riders training their hearts out, on their de rosa, scott, fondriest or other pop cans, getting as good as any other Country’s riders and then them turning round and saying "where’s my British team and sponsors to take me to the tour?"  

Gone Bust Sunshine! While You Where ALL Living in your Continental fantasyland!

Young riders, any riders shouldn't have to go abroad to make it! They will always be at a disadvantage doing this, one in a million might struggle through, USELESS! to make any definite lasting impact and inspire a Nation!

We need to support ourselves and each other’s interests to have a fighting chance! The theme running through my letter to the Prime Minister is a call to help Cycling in Britain and its people in every possible way! And for cycling in all its forms to be constant and respected pillar of British culture and society; one that it truly deserves.

Yours in Sport,

Nigel Wilson

Progressive industrial ruin of the word "Quality"

Sheffield made steel and was World renowned,
And then when the media world and Taiwan 'regurgitated alloy' and now Carbonfire-fibre we found,
Strong and very good exchanged for expensively cheap, convenient dud.
Future usefulness sold off, un-noticed in our present day consumer rush,
Encroaching crumbling letdown, forgiven by expected, forgotten by acceptance.
Tat disguised as quality in modern day media sheen,
Imitated memories of the craftsman.
That wasn't just a dream!

~N.W.

          

The Poem above is an acknowledgement:

To the values of a media led, industrial fuelled throw-away society.

The above example is only one of Many.

The Media’s Legacy not Taiwan’s: Of An Instant and an Eternally Reoccurring Short-lived Crapness!

And Ultimately the Downfall of Humanity on Planet Earth.

~ N.W.

SHEFFIELD FORUM CLIPS ABOUT J.F.WILSON CYCLES 220 CITY ROAD SHEFFIELD

 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

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 brick house tardis should it fail on the way...

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 on their right, say “hello Nigel” (when i was a little lad) and enter Olive's salon on their left.

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, tyre rubber, cardboard boxes, 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 47 years, and I'm 47.

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.

Story: 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. That’s 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 recognizable as the frame was unsprayed and red rusty.
This would have been about 1959.

Epilogue; 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

www.wilsoncycles.co.uk

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..

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!

Hi yes, still building frames using the proper stuff, built my first frame on my own at 19, Jim kept an eye on me even so, he was pleased with the end result...it took 5 years though to get that approval!...and i raced on it for years...

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

Don't recall Thomson mentioned but there was a lot going off...i remember Pewitt cafe though, like something out of a dream scape, a little shack out there near the top of Owlar Bar....10p for a cup of tea and a penguin buscuit...that was the first step to Derbyshire for a young lad or lass riding a bike from Sheffield...

the mobile phone media culture & its society...would never be able to relate to that lifestyle...happily for me they can't harm that memory...there's a grand house there now with its own stables and clock tower marking the spot of little Pewitt cafe...the new mansion is probably owned by some media moguls....who no doubt will be miserable enough in their collective ignorance ; )...today's society has lost a lot of its real gems for fake ones...and what they don't know of, is infact hurting them.

James Fredrick Wilson (2ND FROM LEFT as you view it) Sheffield Phoenix C.C.

J.F.Wilson Cycles Sheffield UK