Road Path To Restoration & Cross Dressin'

After some eighteen months of angst, hand wringing and several failed attempts, a friend has managed to rescue and gift to me the classic plain gauge 531 road-path frame that had been languishing in a friend of a friend’s ex-wife’s garage for nigh on a decade. Hand finished in Greeves “Mooreland Blue” it is remarkably well preserved save for some very minute traces of surface rust. Now rare, “Road Path” bikes were a genre of performance, fixed gear track machine with more relaxed frame angles and wheelbases, designed to double as capable working bikes in the post war period where few skilled workers could afford two bikes and car ownership was still very low in the UK.

Something of an orphan, little is known of this bike’s history or indeed it’s origins. Given my feeling that decals only serve to inform thieves your bike is worth stealing, this is not intended as a concours restoration, rather I seek to build a minimalist (single brake) fixie for time trailing and sunny day fun. Curious as to its heritage I took note of the frame number before it becomes hidden beneath a luxuriously thick powder coated finish-the most cost effective way of getting a durable and yet very alluring re-spray on my limited budget. However, it will remain a seductive ornament until I can harvest sufficient, suitably alluring and period sensitive components from various spares bins.

Regulars in the congregation could be forgiven for thinking otherwise but Michael cannot live by road path bike alone and so I've been popping out to savour the early season cyclo cross racing. Despite a small tide of cross-practical fixers from the like of Specialized, Surly, Bianchi, IRO and On-One, they're pretty thin on the ground at most meets. Whilst not the obvious choice for antics beyond asphalt, the transmission's simplicity makes for an extremely robust and dependable drivetrain when things get gloopy. Given conditions frequently demand riders dismount and carry their bikes, fixed enjoys a serious weight advantage over their (over) geared rivals.


It is easy to draw parallels between cross and fixed scenes. Races are undeniably competitive but riders take their fun seriously with an atmosphere suitably convivial to entice everyone. You'll find first category road racers looking to retain fitness in the darker months, mountain bikers looking for some skinny tyre action right through to children and those just wanting to try a cheap and accessible branch of cycle sport.

Start lines are nothing like the movies, £2,000 ti cross thorough breads rub shoulders with battle scarred, pared to the essentials tourers/hybrids shod with cross tyres and various incarnations of mtb. Despite owning a traditional geared crosser complete with carbon fork, I find myself drawn by the spirit of the road/path tradition to shod the Ilpompino with 35mm cross rubber, pin on a race number and join them all on the start line. Raised eyebrows? Possibly but Ilpompinos, Rob Roys, single speed Tri-Cross and Bianchi San Jose’s are in essence cross framesets with track ends, rack and fender mounts...

I’ll leave you to mull this one over….

Next Week: Restoration gets underway