Roberts Cycles-Croydon

[Des49]

There are some beautiful bikes in his sale, from frame-only to complete, some with S&S couplings. Some are very expensive indeed, others just expensive. One is used, a couple have paint chips. For the cash, I'd have a bike built for ME, but I've no doubt that most of these will sell as they are pretty quickly. Some already have.

Oooh, they do have some nice stuff on sale! Interesting mix of components on some bikes, I am sure this is all thoroughly considered for the job the bike is intended for.

Some of it does have an indication of age, others don't. But most seem a bit too large for me anyway. Not that I can justify spending on a new bike. Also does seem a bit odd going to a custom frame builder and getting something made for someone else. But if it suits then there do seem some good savings to be made.

[hondated]

8-month waiting list, with Roberts prices - they arent cheap ! Must be good. Plus of course the London factor - everything costs more there, not everyone earns more to pay it.

Good point I had never ever thought about that.

[greyingbeard]

I started a thread about painting for those who are interested

[jimlews]

Probably old news to the denizens of the CTC Forum but...

Very sad news for cycle tourists; the Roughstuff and World Tour were very fine bespoke touring cycles.

I suppose everyone is allowed to retire eventually. Pity there doesn't seem to be an apprentice waiting in the wings.

[greyingbeard]

The cynic in me suspects that the value of the building when sold for housing is a lot more than the income from working

[pwa]

It may be saying the unthinkable, but I wonder how many bespoke steel frame makers there will be out there when the current lot have retired. Anyone lusting after a traditionally made frame might do well to get their skates on.

[PH]

It may be saying the unthinkable, but I wonder how many bespoke steel frame makers there will be out there when the current lot have retired. Anyone lusting after a traditionally made frame might do well to get their skates on.

Depends what you mean by traditional. There's plenty of custom builders starting up, I keep coming across new ones all the time.

[Roughstuff tourer]

Hello,

I was sad to hear the news of Roberts Cycles no longer trading.....
http://www.robertscycles.com/index.html

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/end-of-an-era-roberts-cycles-to-cease-production-next-month-168131

http://lcc.org.uk/articles/roberts-cycles

I hope the staff were able to quickly find alternative jobs!

The Roberts website homepage states 'from the end of May, please refer to the contact page on the website for details of who to get in touch with if you need assistance with repairs, resprays or rebuilds.'
However, unfortunately the contact page was not updated with anything.

Does anybody know what Brian Phillips is doing and more importantly how to make contact with him? he has zero online presence.

I'm sure anybody who has met Brian will agree with me that he is a top bloke and super talented.

I had a Roberts Roughstuff custom built in August 2013. I have to date managed two overseas cycle tours with the bike, Peru (Andes) 2013 and Canada/USA (west coast) 2015. The bike performed outstanding on both trips.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/112091065@N06/

Best wishes

[pedalsheep]

I'm sure anybody who has met Brian will agree with me that he is a top bloke and super talented.

Absolutely, always a pleasure to deal with.
I'm afraid I have no information either but would love to hear from anyone who has.

[patthebike]

Try asking Winston at http://smbe.co.uk/vfw2/VFW2/Welcome.html he used to be a framebuilder at Roberts. He may have heard where he's gone.

[Roughstuff tourer]

Thank you pedalsheep.

Many thanks patthebike, I will try Winston.

[roberts8]

I dealt with Brian when I had my Roughstuff made. What a nice and talented guy, I hope he is still involved in bike building.

[Des49]

I only spoke to Brian on the phone. Quite a few times when I had frames repaired and resprayed, things took way longer than they were meant to. But Brian was always wonderful to talk to and I really enjoyed our conversations.

I too hope all the staff are suitably employed and wonder if Roberts closure is really only temporary.

[jayd]

Any small knock will remove the top colour coat, I am retouching the frame as necessary. For example see below, this was spotted a couple of months ago, not one but SIX chips on the inside of the chain stay. No rough roads or curbs were encountered on the ride and it looks like the chain flipped upwards and the paint has too easily chipped off. I took the pic on my phone at the time as I was going to post on this forum and have a rant about modern paints but never got around to it.

I have the same problem with my 6yr old Hewitt Cheviot. The little pot of green Humbrol enamel comes out... A shame since it is a great bike.
In contrast my 20 yr old Raleigh Randonneur has a rock solid paint job!

[andrew_s]

I have the same problem with my 6yr old Hewitt Cheviot. The little pot of green Humbrol enamel comes out... A shame since it is a great bike.
In contrast my 20 yr old Raleigh Randonneur has a rock solid paint job!

I've come to the conclusion that enamel bike paint hardens quite a bit over the first year or so. Any frames that I've built up straight away chip easily for the first year or so, then don't seem to get worse. When I've taken a year or a year or two to get round to building up a resprayed frame, it's been much tougher.
A frame from Raleigh could have had quite a long interval between spraying and the final customer receiving it. The same could also apply to custom builds of stock frames from the likes of Mercian or Bob Jackson.