Gilding the Baines lily

I had been slowly accumulating nice original parts to make my Baines International TT more period correct and have finally gotten around to fitting them all and tarting it up a bit. I had thought I was completely finished but I've now acquired a Bayliss Wiley hollow bottom bracket axle for a double chainset so it is shortly to get a 'suicide shifter' at the front. Can't wait!

Just for interest the authenticity of the cycle was brought in to question of late after it was posted up on a facebook group. It led to some interesting discussion, I learnt more about Baines in the process and thankfully there was a good outcome in that it is now fully confirmed as correct. There remains a quirk though which is an anomaly amongst other Baines in that the wheelbase is unusually long. In the Baines catalogue it states that you could order whatever wheelbase you liked for an International TT though the standard was 39.5 inches. It seems rather perverse for a customer to choose a design noted for its short wheelbase and then request it to be longer taking it back up to the same as most other cycles on the market. An explanation could be that the ultra short wheelbase fashion was very much waning by the early fifties and someone could have perhaps just been taken by the style of the Baines but wanted conventional geometry.

The Baines International TT as bought.

And as it is now.

B & T (Bantel) Manx brake levers. These levers
match the Manx 'delta' type brakes and are unusual
in that the nipple is on the brake and the clamp on the
lever. They are beautifully made but the clamp has a
very small headed screw and is difficult to tighten up
enough to avoid cable pull through. Also the angle of
the blades does not match drop bars so well and would
perhaps be better suited to flats but as far as I know these
were the one pattern of levers that B & T made and should
be suitable for both flats and drops.

Another detail and the B & T Manx levers.

And the B & T Manx brakes. In function they are
quite average. No doubt in reality a downgrade
from the GB Sport calipers that were previously fitted.

And the B & T Manx front brake.

New old stock Atom four speed block. GB wing
nuts and Benelux Type 2 mech. The Benelux mech
replaced a later Campagnolo Gran Sport and is
undoubtedly a huge downgrade. The Benelux
mech has charm but is a pig to set up and quite
feeble in function.

Milremo large flange hubs front and rear.

The Baines was fitted with these lovely Chater Lea crank arms
and pedals as it came to me but with a 40 tooth 'granny gear'.
I've not got anything against gentle gearing but aesthetically the
Chater Lea chainwheels of 40 tooth and smaller come without
the lovely CL logo on them so I moved up to a 46 tooth which
looks rather nicer. I also added the Catos adjustable alloy toe clips.

The Benelux gear lever is slightly late for the bike but the later
ones come with this lovely logo in relief on the damper knob.
For a strange reason that I have not fathomed a lot of the Benelux
levers have the logo imprinted 'upside down' on the fixing band so
when you are in the saddle it looks wrong. I searched for some
considerable time to find one that was the 'right way up'.

Final touch was on the headset. It is a Brampton headset and the
locknut that came with it was one of those awful hook spanner
type ones. I replaced it with this rather more refined one.