So, the Harry Quinn is finished!
A couple of days off work, some splendidly efficient postmen, and lots of elbow grease and I have my fixed wheel! A couple of shakedown runs in the park, a few adjustments, and here we are at the end of the project. And I must say, I’m loving the finished result.
So, here’s how it went:
The old bottom bracket had to go, but one cup would not be removed by persuasion and I didn’t have the right tool to shift – some kind of unique hex tool, so off to my favourite bike shop/cafe, Lock 7 at the bottom of Broadway Market, where they did the deed. Now I could put in my FAG Nadax B.B. The sealed bearings and titanium axle are a vast improvement. Once this was done I could finally fit my Campagnolo Super Record crankset. Then I fitted the wheel and cut the chain to size. I should be able to go up a few teeth on the back as the wheel is so far back in the dropouts I had to remove the adjusters. Using a technique called cold setting, or in practice, big heavy feet, I respaced the rear of the frame from 126mm to 120mm and set about adjusting the chainline using a spirit level and a plum-bob. No need. The chainline is absolutely perfect!
I had a stem but no bars. Hubjub had run out of Nitto bullhorns, so I had to pop out to Brick Lane bikes to get some, at considerably higher cost unfortunately. They did sort me out with some grease for the headset though, so I cleaned up and reassembled that. Then the Brooks Bar tape went on. It’s expensive but it’s good quality, looks and feels good and if it lasts 4 times as long as cloth then it’s no costlier in the end. And instead of looking knackered it will “acquire patina”! I bought a pair of the Specialised brake lever extensions, simply because they were the best looking brake levers I had seen. I was not prepared to have black though, so I spent all morning stripping the paint off one of them and polishing up the aluminium.
So there we are. One finished Harry Quinn. Time to go out for a ride. And take all these pictures of it.
Click on the thumbnails for bigger pictures.
Enjoy! I will…
It’s a work of art! Be proud of yourself.
Zxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Really nice job… you should take the stickers off the rims though!
Quick tips – if you want to removed the sticker on the rims, simply peel it off, and then use white spirit to get rid of the sticky stuff, and bingo, you can never tell if there´s sticker on it.
very nice job! am looking for a quinn frame myself. where did you get the dating info?
definitely have to agree with the above comments re stickers though..
like your tip about sugar ’sand’ paper. cheers for that.
The date is a kind of guess. This info is put together from several second-hand sources, so if anyone can correct me then please do.
My dad ordered one of the last Liverpool-made Quinns before Harry Quinn retired (for the first time) in the early 80s. It was a thing of beauty, with hand filed Prugnat lugs and 531 tubing. The lugs on the seatpost had been filed right down so they smoothly blended into the tubing.
The headbadge on these should say “Harry Quinn Ltd” and “Walton Rd, Liverpool” but not all did. My father’s frame, being very tall, just had “HARRY QUINN” letters, arranged vertically, as on the forks. The serial number on these will be in the format “Q1234″. My serial number doesn’t fit this pattern.
Soon after that Ernie Clement’s Brother bought the brand and then sold it to Falcon cycles. They churned out a range of very ordinary factory bikes branded as Harry Quinn. The headbadge on these says “Harry Quinn” (without the Ltd) and in my case “England”
The quality of the finish on mine leaves a lot to be desired. The lugs don’t appear to have been filed at all. Yet the tubing is good light stuff, and the stays are chromed under the paint. It was originally supplied by a bike and toy shop in Shropshire, according to a sticker on the frame. This pretty much rules out it being sold as a made-to-order frame, so it must have been sold as a complete bike, which can only mean Falcon/Townsend era.
In the late 80s Harry Quinn, having moved to his son’s farm in Tenby, Wales, was reportedly so annoyed at the poor quality of the bikes bearing his name that he bought the brand back and started building hand-made bikes again with his son, Peter. They built everything from tourers, racers and track bikes to mountain bikes, and also ran frame building courses. These Welsh-made bikes obviously wouldn’t say “England” on the headbadge. They may have just had “HQ” letters.
In the end if you spot a frame and it looks like the right one for you then buy it. Transfers can and do get changed. If you have a “Q” serial number then Harry built it in Liverpool. Mine the fork steerer tube had the tubing type stamped in (presumably so they knew what stickers to put on it after paint) I can’t imagine you’d need that on a hand-made frame; it’s the sort of thing a factory would do though, so if you’ve got that it’s probably a Falcon.
Hi,
I am Peter Quinn, son of Harry Quinn and co-builder from 1983 to 1993. Some of the info in your article us correct and some is not. The serial numbers are nothing to do with the number of frames build since 1948, we didn’t start at 1 ! If you send me your frame’s serial number ( stamped on the bottom bracket shell ) I should be able to give you a bit of it’s history.
The bad news is that Harry died on 1st October this year, his funeral is on monday 12th. He passed away peacefully, no illness – just time !
Regards
Peter Quinn
Wow, thanks for getting in touch, Peter!
I heard about your father’s passing just this morning. My sincerest condolences.
There are some beautiful bikes bearing his name. I now have three, the best of which is a remarkable track frame with red candy clearcoat over chrome plating.
I will be happy to correct any inaccuracies and disseminate the correct information.
regards,
Niall