Cycling UK Forum

UPDATED : The business is continuing . . . . . . .


======================== What follows in this topic is Out-of-date ====================================

I'd seen rumours, but it's now been confirmed on the website:

"After 85 years of frame building & restorations Bob Jackson Cycles will be closing it’s doors for the very last time on the 18th December 2020, We are very much an ageing work force and over the years have not been able to find younger members of staff to train up and move forwards. After what has been a very crazy year for all of us we have decided it’s time to hang up our welding torches and spray guns for the last time and enjoy some retirement while we can.
All current orders and work with us will be finished as promised, Any customers who still need our services ( No Chrome Plating) will need to have their frames with us by the 7th November, Frames after this time will not be accepted .
On a personal note all at Bob Jackson Cycles now and in the past would like to thank all our customers for their business over the last 85 years, We are sorry it has come to this but nobody can stop the passing of time and everyone is entitled to enjoy a few years of retirement.
Thank You,
All At Bob Jackson Cycles"

I'm surprised they a) couldn't train up enough builders to carry on; and b) couldn't find someone to take over. This will presumably affect all the builders that used them for paint, as well as all the people that used them for resprays.

sad but almost inevitable

Resprays etc will become a thing of the past-people will be crating up frames for Taiwan.

blimey. What a crazy World we live in.

In memoriam

Here's a streetview of how things are now. When they first moved here from the bottom of Dewsbury Road, the shop was on the parade on Stanningley Road where the white convertible is parked. The shop closed a while ago and since then they've just had the upstairs part with this entrance.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.80660 ... 384!8i8192

If I eventually get round to getting the Jackson resprayed it'll have to be somewhere else. Either that or it'll be time to reach for the Hammerite.

Way back in the 1970s I had a JRJ, the predecessor to Bob Jackson. It was made in the 1960s for a pro cyclist who built it up. Sadly it was stolen.

Used them to respray my Higgins trike and tidy up the frame, the shop was open then. Maroon paint finish still going strong.
Later found a mixte frame of theirs, no 848, made for the 1953 CTC York Rally. Resprayed in pearlescent grey.

mumbojumbo wrote:Resprays etc will become a thing of the past-people will be crating up frames for Taiwan.

You can send them to the States, a friend had his Jackson redone at Franklin Frames.
There are fair number of British trained builders over here where they can make a living.
One fellow learned at a British shop, then years later returned to train a new builder at the
same shop.

Given the amount of young frame builders around the UK at the moment They could not have tried very hard to recruit staff to carry the company forward.

You can't move for hipsters building steel.

I wish them a happy retirement.
Though they haven't offered anything that particularly appealed to me, I've always been impressed that they stuck to what they did. Though a little puzzled that it didn't get the attention I'd have expected from those looking for retro. I only know two people with BJ bikes and one of those bought second hand, yet I know a dozen or so who've paid considerably more for very similar bikes (Some of which were probably painted at BJ)
What's the chances of the name reappearing sometime soon? Will it be on some upmarket bespoke product or something mass produced?

Bikes`n`guns wrote:Given the amount of young frame builders around the UK at the moment They could not have tried very hard to recruit staff to carry the company forward.
You can't move for hipsters building steel.

I does make me wonder, maybe the business couldn't support someone else coming in to learn. I saw the recruitment advert for a fabricator at a local frame builder, it wasn't looking for any cycle specific skills, experience or knowledge. That the design and manufacture are so often carried out by the same person is a result of the cottage industry tradition of frame building. There's no reason why the person with the expertise in one should have it in the other, though there's nothing that excludes it either.

thirdcrank wrote:In memoriam

Here's a streetview of how things are now. When they first moved here from the bottom of Dewsbury Road, the shop was on the parade on Stanningley Road where the white convertible is parked. The shop closed a while ago and since then they've just had the upstairs part with this entrance.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.80660 ... 384!8i8192

I thought they were on Harehills Lane, not far from the FForde Grene pub, before they moved to the other side of Leeds.Think the Bob Jackson shop is now called Drake's Cycles.

Bikes`n`guns wrote:Given the amount of young frame builders around the UK at the moment They could not have tried very hard to recruit staff to carry the company forward.

You can't move for hipsters building steel.

Can't tell if you're being facetious or not?

How many young framebuilders do you think there actually are who are sticking bits of metal together, versus dreaming and talking about it? Maybe 20 or so in the UK?. How many of those would want to make it their career, rather than a hobby? Of those who remain, how many are in Leeds or are in a position to move there? Of those, how many will already be earning a salary higher than an apprentice framebuilder and willing to take a pay cut.

gaz wrote:If I eventually get round to getting the Jackson resprayed it'll have to be somewhere else. Either that or it'll be time to reach for the Hammerite.

Don't use hammerite- it's rubbish. Use Humbrol.