My first real racing frame, which I bought second hand from one of my older Eltham Paragon club mates, was a 1951 hand built Gillot. It was finished in black with the Gillot decals on the head and seat tube. It came with a 4 inch steel Necini extension.
This frame together with sprint rims built on Airlite hubs, a Williams chainset, Lyotard pedals, and a Brampton chain was used by me to ride track events . When fitted with a G.B. front brake it was also used as my transport for work and pleasure rides and also road time trials from 5 to 100 miles.
The lug work and finish were superb and when I sold the frame a couple of years ago on E-Bay it was collected by an enthusiastic bike restorer who asked endless questions of the frames history and who said that it would be returning it to its original showroom state.
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| Gillot special fork crown shows damage from constant fitting of brake stirrup |
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| Gillot frame number shows date frame made |
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| seat cluster showing top of the pencil rear stays |
Although I miss my old frame is great to think that someone now is getting pleasure from the machine that served me so well all those years ago.