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Richard Williamson’s two-storey garage isn’t used exclusively for bikes – yet – but his collection is mightily impressive and dates back to the 1920s
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‘Do you know how much I paid for that Mercier? It’ll make you cry. £200. It’s all original Shimano 600 [the precursor to Ultegra]. It rides really well because of the tubulars. I’ve always found if you keep the tubs in good condition then you don’t have many problems. It’s not totally perfect – I think it has been resprayed at some point as the pink doesn’t look quite perfect to me.’
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‘I bought this from the States. I was scanning through eBay and no one had bid on it so I got it rather cheaply. It was just a frame but it came with a load of team clothing. I think I have four jerseys, two pairs of shorts, socks, scarf, mitts – the whole lot. It was fantastic. It’s funny because it’s got a Columbus sticker on the fork as part of the sponsorship but of course it’s not made by Columbus, is it? There’s nothing Columbus on it but I guess the relationship was still there from the Precisa fork.’
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‘I was with a friend of mine who lives in France, and we were having a few glasses of wine, as you do, and he says, “Come upstairs, Richard, I’ve got some bikes I’m thinking of selling.” Anyway, I ended up buying four bikes off him and this was one of them. ‘The Atom is one of my favourites. The lug work is so ornate. To achieve it they had to chrome the entire frame and paint over it. I hardly ever ride it because it’s absolutely mint, but I do ride it on occasion because it’s so lovely. All this drilled out work is such a lovely example of when bikes were properly handmade.’
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‘The brakes are wild on this – they’re made by Resilion. They actually work really well. There’s a single cable that comes in and operates this linkage. I was talking to Gary Smith [ex-owner of Evans Cycles] and he remembers fitting hundreds of these as a young lad, back when they just had the one shop on The Cut.
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‘It’s an odd bike made for some anniversary. It’s got the back end off a C50 but with the HP chainstays and a huge bottom bracket. It’s very “of its time”, when they did a similar bike called the President. It’s got a 50th anniversary Dura-Ace groupset to match the bike too and, although I’m a bit of a Campy man, it’s fabulous.’
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The signature of any bicycle is its head badge, which speaks to the heritage and ethos of the builder. In Richard Williamson’s garage, neatly stacked in sets of wooden drawers, are row after row of metal head badges. ‘It all started when I went out and met this chap on the M40, gave him some money and came back with a load of badges. I’ve added a lot to them because once you set off down this path, well, you’re on your way aren’t you? I think it started with around 150 and now I’ve got around 400. Some of the French ones are beautiful – they’re so ornate. I get them from all over. Occasionally I look at these badges and try to find a frame to match them. It’s an expense tip of an iceberg, though. I find it a great shame that bicycles don’t have proper head badges anymore.’
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‘The Galli Gold groupset is rather rare too. I went down to a jumble sale in Stenning last year and managed to get the matching gold toeclips to go with it. Really they should have cantilever brakes but I don’t really like them. I try not to change bikes too much, unless it really spoils the ride.’
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‘One of the older Italian bikes is this Freijus, which I actually bought on eBay about seven years ago. Bar the bottle cage, it’s exactly how I bought it. The saddle has a great chunk of leather missing but it’s the original, so when I ride it I put a different saddle on it.’
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‘It’s quite rare now, this Roberts, and it has original paintwork too, which I think is quite nice. I’m not 100% sure how old it is, but I know it’s an early one. It rides well but it’s very heavy. The wheels are bombproof – built by Harry Rowland, actually.’
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‘I lend bikes out too, so when it’s Eroica time it can look a little thin up here. It’s just nice that they’re getting used. Like these two with mudguards on them – I use them both in winter, which is unthinkable to some collectors.’
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‘This Hetchins Brilliant is from 1936. They were in Tottenham originally before they went to Southend or somewhere. The bars are comfortable but the bike isn’t because it’s rather antiquated. I’m off for a ride tomorrow and I’ll probably take a Hetchins as the weather looks a bit suspect and I’ve fitted a few of them with mudguards, although all the curly [lug] bits make them a devil to keep clean.’
