Thanet Silverlight Vintage Classic

Thanet Silverlight; discovering a Vintage Classic

Discovered in the dark dusty depths of my parent’s attic in Southsea was my Grandad’s old bicycle frame. Although missing the wheels it still had most other parts, and looking beyond the unpolished frame it looked very interesting indeed. An unusual frame design, with beautifully intricate lugged tubes, we could just about make out the name; Thanet Silverlight.

As neither of us are purveyors of the vintage frame this didn’t really mean a lot to us at the time. The frame came back on the train with us to Bristol, and it was not until doing a bit of internet research later that I discovered the Thanet Silverlight was in fact designed in Bristol, and many of them had been built here too. It felt as though we had brought the Silverlight home.

This set our minds wondering, eager to find out more and as I delved further into the depths of internet research, Christina asked around at her club (Bristol South).

History of the Thanet Silverlight

I became increasingly enthralled by the bike’s history and discovered the frame which we thought looked somewhat unusual was in fact quite an unorthodox and some say revolutionary design.

The frame, designed in Bristol by Les Cassell, has an unusual cradled bottom bracket, which is set inside the bottom rear triangle, purportedly based on aircraft design. An extra rear triangle is created by the seat stays crossing over the seat tube to join the top tube (see pic).

This feature has been (re)-invented twice since, with the Specialized ZR road frames and Giants “New Patented Revolutionary Triple Triangle design” - not really that new considering it was developed by Les Cassell of Thanet in 1946!

The Bristol Connection

Whilst I was immersing myself in the world of Vintage Classics websites, Christina was discovering another fascinating connection. When the frames were built in Bristol the frame builder was Ernie Janes, a long standing member of Bristol South CC. He built the main frame build until 1949, and his son currently rides with Bristol South today.

A member of Christina’s club advised us to keep all of the parts as this was somewhat of a rare and needless to say unusual frame, with only 400(ish) ever having been made. We really wanted to discover more about my Grandad’s bikes history, so I tracked down a Bristol based expert, Hilary Stone, who could tell me from the frame number (SL 1983) that this specific frame was built in 1953, making it nearly 60 years old! The frame was in fact built in Ramsgate rather than Bristol, by the nephew of the frame designer and sold on 1st October to someone in West London.

We’re unsure on when my Grandad acquired the bicycle, although West London was his stomping ground so he may have acquired it second-hand there at some point. We are very excited to now get the frame restored and in a ride-able condition again, which I’m sure is what he would have wanted.

Restoring our Silverlight

Having been captivated by the Silverlight’s history, it was certainly time to get it in a ride-able condition again. We took the frame to Bike Workshop on Colston Street, Bristol, to be greeted by the very knowledgeable and rather enthusiastic bike mechanic Tom. Luckily he knew a lot more about bikes than either of us, and recognised the beauty of this old frame, so was invaluable in discussing the options for restoration with us.

Having spent about an hour in the workshop, discussing various different options we concluded on using as many of the original parts as possible, with Tom building us new wheels, which would be of a similar style to the original, and with a fixed hub, making it a great winter training bike. We are collecting the bike shortly so see the next post for details of its restoration.

Pictures also of the Thanet Silverlight in all its glory to follow... whilst for now, here are the pictures of the stripped frame, prior to its re-build and new wheels.