Which handlebars for 1960's rebuild

[dvines]

I'm going to be rebuilding a classic Holdsworth frame, with Nervex Pro lugs, which maybe 1950's or 60's - (I'm unsure which)

I am going for 1960's as a period to rebuold to as I have some record hubs and nuovo record gears TA cranks, and other similar period bits to put on it.

I know nothing of the handlebars of this era -

bearing in mind the bike will be mainly campag what make/model of bars & stem should I be going for ?

I haeseen some on ebay which have a "spearpoint lug" type of styling - are these correct or too early ?

[thirdcrank]

Just about all drop handlebars of that era were referred to as Maes pattern. I don't know which Maes they were named after because there were two, Romain and Sylvère who won the Tour three times between them in the 1930's. Perhaps that's why there were various styles of Maes bars - some were named after R and some after S . I think it's a widely-held belief that second-hand handlebars are a bit of a no-no, especially old ones because you don't know their history and you don't want one to fail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Maes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylv%C3%A8re_Maes

[djnotts]

Old ones are indeed often badly scored in the centre - new "repro" might be better for safety if not originality!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BANKRUPT-BIKE-RAC ... 27a9e7b747

[dvines]

OK... maybe new bars

But what style stem should I be going for to look "1960's"

[thirdcrank]

Remember during those far off years, stuff stayed current for years. In the UK a pretty popular style was they GB type Maes handlebar. The accompanying GB stem did have a long pointed reinforcement on the top (point at the front) except for the shortest version, which had a girder section, instead of the tube of the others.

Found this old ad for GB bars - it even shows some other models besides Maes. A likely story.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris531/323645734/

Here's a GB stem

http://www.coopertechnica.com/_image/19 ... ycle-2.jpg

This is a bit like the TV prog - All our yesterdays.

[ANTONISH]

My 63 steel bars are Cinelli Giro. I no longer have the Cinelli steel stem that went with the bars but it had a hexagon head on the bolt rather than the recessed allen head. I frequently see examples at Jumbles, which are a good starting place if you are trawling for a particular vintage. I don't think that there is a definitive sixties pattern but at a large jumble such as Ripley you will meet people with an encyclopaedic knowledge of these things.

[thirdcrank]

In those days Ron Kitching used to import Cinelli stuff, including frames. IIRC the Cinelli chrome stems used to have a rather posh badge fastened on top - a bit like a smaller version of a traditional head tube badge.

[scottg]

Nitto makes very fine quality traditional looking bars and quill stems.

Some Nittos have the centre sleeves, the super light versions don't.
The Gran Bois Phillipe bars are Nitto superlight.

http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/Handlebars.html

[willem jongman]

I would not mind an old steel handlebar, but I would shy away from old alluminium bars. NItto make modern high quality bars and quill stems that match any period bike for style. They do a Maes pattern bar but also a nice randonneur bar, besides many others. Alternatively but probably harder to get in the UK there are now Japanese Grandbois bars (also made by Nitto in fact) that resemble the French bars of earlier days.
Willem
p.s. Dutch framebuilder www.m-gineering.nl stocks both the Nitto bars and the Grandbois ones. Handlebars are called sturen in Dutch.

[Russell160]

I am 'working' on a similar project at the moment and it seems to me that the classic complement to Campagnolo componentry is the Cinelli handlebar and stem; the Campione del Mondo handlebar seems to crop up frequently. The link below is an excellent history. 3ttt also seem to crop up. Also, as others have said the GB bars were the 'benchmark' for British bikes. I would say it depends on whether you want to go for an Italian style or an English style, but your Campagnolo parts would indicate the former. I personally like a lot of the Japanese parts like the Nittos, these are a bit cult in fixie circles, but from a purist perspective would not be 'right' for a 60s bike.

http://www.43bikes.com/cinelli-bars-stems.html

Also, for inspiration:

http://www.raydobbins.com/

[Cranks]

Worth looking at velodrama for bars too.

[willem jongman]

If you go for Cineli bars or stems, remember that many had a 26.4 mm clamp size.
Willem