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Club Bicycle
Club bicycles were the elite, high-performance machines of their time and place, England in the 1930s-1960s. They were popular with members of the many active cycling clubs. The poorer, less performance-oriented club members would ride sports bicycles, but the more hard-core "clubmen" would have true club machines.
A club bicycle will typically have Reynolds 531 frame tubing, a narrow, unsprung leather saddle, reversed North Road handlebars (or drop bars), steel "rat trap" pedals with toe clips and 597 mm (26 x 1 1/4) or 630 mm (27 x 1 1/4) wheels. Even fairly high-end models had steel rims, which, at the time, were widely believed to be superior to aluminum. The steel Dunlop Special Lightweight rims used on the better club bicycles could give the aluminum rims of the day a run for their money.
Club bicycles would be likely to have an exotic Sturmey-Archer hub, perhaps a medium- or close-ratio model, 3 or 4 speed, with an aluminum alloy shell. A very few even were equipped with the rare ASC 3-speed fixed-gear hub.
Many club bicycles were single-speed machines, usually with a reversible hub: single-speed freewheel on one side, fixed-gear on the other. Starting in the late 1950's, derailers began to be used on this type of bicycle as well.
Although primarily intended for fast group rides with clubmates, club bicycles were also commonly used for serious touring, and also for time-trialing.
See also my Article on English 3-speeds.
