Vintage Dawes Help

[Harrismith]

Hi all. Wondered if anyone here is knowledgeable about Dawes and could help me out please.
Bought this recently for light restoration. Looks to have been painted cream recently. Beautiful geometry and lug work imo. Original brooks saddle.
Confirmed from Dawes themselves it's from 1959, based on frame number. I believe it's a Windrush but not sure. Would love to know a bit more about it, especially what steel was used. Can anyone here help?

I've given her a good clean and planning to get sympathetic gear/brake housing, bar tape, etc and to line the lugs.
Cheers

 

[Andrew1971]

Nice find. Looks good so far. I am assuming 5 speed will you be upgrading the gears.
Andrew

 

[Harrismith]

Thanks. Yes 5 speed but would like to minimise changes. It shifts fine so am planning to keep it as it is

 

[ChrisEyles]

Lovely! The anatomic bars don't look period correct to me, but if you get on with them no need to change.

I'll bet it rides really nicely

 

[Harrismith]

Lovely! The anatomic bars don't look period correct to me, but if you get on with them no need to change.

I'll bet it rides really nicely

Thanks
Yes I may remove those
Just ordered some panaracer pasela tyres. Will post final result next week (hopefully)

 

[raleighnut]

Nice

 

[Illaveago]

Looks nice . I see it has the early style head badge .
If you remove the seat post and look down inside to see if it has or has not a weld seam running the length of of the frame tube it will give you an indication of what material was used .
How much do you want to spend and how period do you want to restore it ? Dawes did a lovely set of handlebars with engraved scroll work on them . I was lucky . Mine came with my Dawes Double Blue .
Do you have a set of ally wheels for it as they make a huge difference to how they ride and feel ?

 

[Illaveago]

It does look like a Windrush going by the lugs and rear dropouts. The pump pegs seem to have gone ?

 

[Johnsco]

Some very nice features.
With a little bit of TLC this will be a treasure.
One of my oldest friends regularly uses his Dawes that he's been riding for the 50 years that I've known him.
He loves it.
It's a shame that the "recent" paint job hasn't really done the bike any favours ... as the photos show.
As said .... A set of ally wheels will be in keeping with its heritage and will give it a lift.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Excellent choice of tyre - I run those on my 1960s Cinelli and they're great, look the part, fast rolling and only a single puncture in a good few thousand miles so far.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The diameter of the seatpost is the most reliable indicator of frame tubing type, short of stripping the frame of absolutely everything attached to it then weighing it.
I would strongly suspect it is made of some flavour of plain gauge hi-tensile steel tubing. The highest quality frames, generally those made from Reynolds or Columbus tubesets, have always been very much in the minority and the bulk of mass-produced bikes, even from second-tier size concerns like Dawes, would have always been hi-tensile. The frame generally only accounts for less than 25% of the total weight of a bike, and the difference between a basic plain gauge one and a high quality double butted example is often only a pound or so.

 

[Harrismith]

Thanks all.
I was hoping it to be 531. Apparently some Wiindrushes were, some weren't. The Dawes catalogue from 1955 states that the Windrush for that year was Kromo tubing.

Yes shame about the paint, and yes pump pegs gone.

Handlebars are original, I think so will keep them, even though the engraved ones are beautiful.

For the wheels, the rims I also believe to be original and have come up nicely.

Would you recommend swapping these for something else?
I have a couple of DAWES decals which I'm also going to use on the down tube

 

[midlife]

Nothing wrong with Kromo

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/images/British/Hobbs/hobbsK3.jpg

 

[Johnsco]

The rims look pretty good for their age.
They're certainly in better shape than the 27" x 1.1/4" steels on my 1960s Carlton, which are not original, and are looking a bit scruffy.
My heart says - Get a couple of alloy wheels.
My pocket says - Don't.
If you want to take some weight off - Then upgrade to alloys.
If you're not so bothered about weight, stick with the originals.

 

[Illaveago]

Yes Dawes seem to have changed the frame material at times . Some of the Dawes Double Blues had Reynolds 531 whereas mine has Accles and Pollock kromo tubing.
Alloy wheels make a huge difference to the way in which a bike feels . You may be able to get some relatively cheap .