Holdsworth 1961 Monsoon Restoration.

By Master Craftsman, John Eden

I acquired the frame and forks in June 2017 from an old friend of Frank Kippin who sadly died in December 2021 – the friend not Frank! I paid £10 for it, it included a Campagnolo Grand Sport seat pin (seat post) from the 1950’s though I could not see that until I polished it. I had no clue what I was buying, the paint work was in a bad state, and I did not have any plan of restoring the frame, but I knew it would cost a lot to restore!

However I saw a restored Holdsworth on a website and realised my frame was the same, a Holdsworth Monsoon produced between 1954 and 1965, and which were quite sought after. So in November 2017 I decided to restore the frame myself and add any components I had kicking about, so the bike is not period correct, components range from the 1950’s to 2017.( I will list the components in a further writeup)

If I had known how much it would cost me in money and time to respray the frame myself I would not have done it. It would have been almost as cheap to get it done professionally!

I knew very little about Holdsworth, but I had read that the Holdsworth brothers had an association with Anerley BC through our Club history, “A Story Told by Members 1881 to 1981” ( well worth a read at https://anerleybc.org/?s=A+story+told+by+members) Both the Holdsworth brothers rode in the famous Anerley 12 Hour classics in the 1920’s, and Jack Holdsworth won it!
Sandy his brother started building cycles in the 1930’s. Both brothers were often marshals at the Anerley 12 classic bike race. My Monsoon was built in Anerley where the main Holdsworth factory was situated.

It took a bit of time and trouble to source the finishing touches to the frame, but it was well worth it Doesn’t it now look grand!

But these are photos of the finished restoration. There was a lot more involved in getting to this, my finished restoration project. (more to follow!)

John Eden.