London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

1st May 2008, 7pm-9pm. Project presentation at 7.30pm

Right, for your South dwelling types (Teenslain and Cornelius have already chatted about this), or simply interested in the genealogy of your Jamaican track frame / wheel building / Pentecostal / Brixton history, this might be of interest to you

http://www.samthewheels.co.uk/

Sam The Wheels has been living on Railton Road, Brixton for more years than I’ve been alive. He worked for Holdsworth after coming to England (and I think specialised as a wheel builder) I think the story goes that he got made redundant, took his massive steel wheel stand and set up shop from his home. He still does a little more than tinkering from there, and its a treasure trove of random bicycle weirdness.


At the moment, lots of the project is about digitising Sam’s super 8 footage of Brixton from the 50s onwards: http://www.samthewheels.co.uk/videos

but there’s several more commissions which I think are still open…

So, after you’ve voted on Thursday, there’s the launch of the project in the 198 Gallery (top end of Railton, by Herne Hill station). See you there.

(Oh and no, its not my project)

I'll be there Chris, sounds fa-sci-na-ting! :)

I have always wanted to go inside and see him.

He's a pretty cool dude, but I have to say that his actual wheel skills aren't the best based on my experience of a wheel true. He was really nice and chatty though and had some good stories.

I will participate pending the demise of Man flu.
Its 8.43 in bed with...
Hot water,lemon,cloves,honey and big measure of whisky
does it get any better?

there is that... I quite like his cantakerous erratic ways, and a pricing system which seems to be based on what repair work his car needs this week.

And GrowUp - HTFU! With all that cold remedy goodness inside you, you should be there, red nose and all!

Mini Bump for South Londoners

And another bump again, as lots of the film stock has been digitised and there's a preview on Thursday:

http://www.samthewheels.co.uk/3

Has anyone actually had any wheels built by Sam? I live round the corner in HH and am going to need a replacement back wheel sooner rather than later...

Sounds an an interesting project about an awesome guy.

My local bike shop had a similar old dude that ran it for 40years I think, he got in debt toward the end so went a little loopy in a bitter way.

But apart from that he was a very helpful guy, who worked high up in halfords in his younger years but left because of their wicked ways.

He had a 50year collection of bikes & parts in a heap at the back of his shop. And he was also a keen stereo photographer.

I havent seen him in a while as he recently retired (think he was 80) but Im thinking it might be a good idea for me to archive some of his stuff, get some stories for him etc.. as he holds a lot of history about my area.

Also, did you noticed the big typo in that video footage you posted? it says "jamacian"