Memories of Owning a Dawes Kingpin

Memories of Owning a Dawes Kingpin

First published October 2013 

I'm very pleased with the way this bike turned out, I've ridden it a couple of times, it's a strange sensation. I have a lot of memories of the bike, some great and some not so great. I used to go everywhere on it, to school, to my after school job cycling from West Ealing, London to Paddington, London, I played truant using my bike to explore and get lost, and I used to travel from my home in North West London to the edge of Kent during the school holidays to visit my aunt for a holiday.

I was 13/14 and I rode that bike all over and through London, no special equipment or clothes, just got on the bike and went. I even moved home on it once as there was no room in the removal van for the bike, so I had to cycle the 30 miles from my old house to my new home! I kept it until I was nearly 16, for the life of me I can't remember what I did with it! I expect it’s landfill now, at least I saved this one from a similar fate. 

UPDATE. Since this post was first published, I have been on some rides with fellow Dawes Kingpin enthusiasts, Facebook and Facebook groups were not a 'thing' when I started this project. CLICK HERE for the link to the Facebook group.

Dawes Kingpin Finished Restoration 21/10/2013

Dawes Kingpin Finished Restoration 21/10/2013

Here are some photos of the finished bike. Well almost finished, the seat post is jammed at the moment, so I need to get that out because I have better one, but it will have to wait for a bit. 

I also have just realised that I forgot to put on the new old stock white bicycle pump that I bought for the bike when I took the photos. I will up date the pictures again when it stops raining!

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Needs a bag and dynamo

Somehow I managed to get the seat post stuck, I  had to take the Kingpin into my local bike shop, Broadribbs of Bicester to get the stuck seat post out, fortunately they achieved it with out damaging the new paintwork. Broadribbs also trued the wheels for me.  

Weinmann Brakes & Brake Levers

Weinmann Brakes & Brake Levers

As you can see the brake callipers and levers were a bit tatty and corroded, with flaked chrome on the brake lever brackets. The Weinman brake callipers were easy to take apart and clean, one of the easiest jobs to do on the bike, I cleaned the chrome as best I could but it still shows signs of rust but on the underside, so it can not be seen easily. 

The brake blocks were hardened with age, so I purchased some new ones. I did a test ride on the bike before I changed the blocks the difference in stopping was significantly better, but not as good as modern brakes. Probably because of the chrome wheel rims. 

Before Cleaning

After Cleaning

New old stock brake cables and ribbed covers bought on eBay

Kingpin Wheels and White Wall Tyres.

On my original 1970's Dawes Kingpin I specified a Sturmey Archer Dyno-Hub on delivery.  I was hoping to use the Dyno-Hub wheel  that came on one of the two bikes I bought on eBay. When I started to clean up the wheels it became clear that the rims on the DH wheel were not going to clean up very well. I abandoned the idea of using the Dyno-Hub and cleaned up the two best wheels out of the three pairs that I had to choose from.

As you can see they were in a bit of a state but I did manage to get nearly all the rust off with GT85, wire brush, wire wool, Autosol polish and a lot of work. It was so much work I did consider buying modern wheels. In the end I persevered and I am pleased with the results.

Once cleaned I took the wheel to my LBS had them trued, and one spoke replaced. The tyres were perished and cracked, the inner tubes seemed to retain the air but I bought new tyres, tubes and rim tape. 

Handle Bars, Grips, Saddle and Bell

The handle bar on one of the donor bikes was in better condition than the one on the original bike so I have cleaned that up and used that instead.

Handle Bar Post before.

Handle Bar Post after a polish.

The brake levers are the original Weinman and have polished up nicely, these “Red Dot” brake levers are difficult find. 

I tried to clean up the handle bar grips but they looked pants so I bought a pair of NOS white one as well. EDIT: 2022, I found some new old stock Bluemels bar grips in Blue. They are now on the bike. 

The bell is a made in England C.J.Adie & Nephew, with an embossed cycle shop logo on it A.Williams & Co. of Cheltenham, it was on the other purple Kingpin that I bought at the same time as the blue one, it was rusty inside and out, I cleaned it and polished the chrome, and repainted the base, it looks FAB and sounds gorgeous, just like a proper bell is supposed to be.

 

The bike shop is still in business today http://www.williams-cycles.co.uk/

I decided this week, that I wanted a new saddle on the Dawes, the two I have are beyond repair. I found a new old stock one on the eBay.

I drilled out the rivets that were fastening the Dawes Flaming Torch head badge to one of the donor bikes and the glued it to the new frame using a metallic coloured Araldite. 

Dawes Kingpin Bicycle 1968

I bought a Dawes Kingpin 2012 on a bit of a whim, I was browsing eBay and out of curiosity I looked to see if there were any of these old Shopper Bikes for sale.  I had one on the early 1970s, the first bike I ever bought with my own money. I don't know why I decided to go down memory lane like this but it seemed like a good idea at the time. On doing some research I discovered that the bike I bought new in mid 1970, was actually an earlier late 60's model. On further inspection the date on the Sturmey Archer hub is February 1968 so I expect that's about right, my original bike came from a bike shop along the Upper Richmond Road in Sheen, SW London, I can not remember the name of the shop. I do remember how much it cost £38-15s-3d. That included all the extras such as rear Pletscher carrier, Sturmey Archer Dynohub lights, bell, tartan bike bag and a yellow wax waterproof cape! 

Two catalogue pictures of the Dawes Kingpin the top one from the 1960's the bottom on from the early 1970's

I know I wanted dark blue, with the aluminium holed chain guard, a dynohub, lights, three speed, spring rack and embossed Dawes head tube badge. I eventually found one the right colour and year on eBay, they a vary a bit with slight mod changes over the production years, and I think they used to vary within years/models as far as parts were concerned depending on what parts they had on the shelf. Actually the seller was selling two as a job lot a 1967 blue Kingpin with dash -dot -dash chain guard and a later purple bike, I was the highest bidder at £36.00 and collected them from somewhere in Gloucestershire. 

They were both in a bit of a state, the photographs were not a lot of help, but the items were not mis-described. I should have done a bit more research, the blue one I wanted had everything as listed except for the head badge, no matter I'll wait to see if one comes up.

Above: The two bikes I bought on eBay.

I set about taking the blue one apart, leaving the other purple later mid 70's (1975) one as a "donor" bike and also as a pattern just in case I forgot how to put things back in the correct order.  Initially all I wanted to do was to give everything a good clean up, get rid of the rust, polish the frame, change the tyres, it soon became clear that this project was not going to be as easy as I first thought.

I bit of rust on the frame.

A tray of parts.

More research revealed that getting paint off a bike and repainting was going to be quite difficult and I was about to abandon the project when I heard about Mercian cycles, who, as well as manufacture their own brand of bikes restore bikes and frames too. I got a quote, and sent the bike off to Mercian, I also got them to refurbish the bottom bracket and headset too, whilst they were at it, just to save me a bit of work. This cost quite a bit of money, and more than I originally had intended to spend, but it is done now and it they did a truly stunning job of the paintwork.

A few weeks after buying the bikes, whilst doing more research I found another Kingpin on eBay, this was well knackered up old thing with damaged front forks but it had the correct head badge on it, so I bought that too, just for the head badge, I thought it might have some decent wheels on it, but they were worse than the ones I had. Someone else was also selling an aluminium holed chain guard that looked in better condition than the one I had so I bought that too.

The beautiful head badge.

The dented aluminium chain guard.

I have just spent the last few days cleaning up the chrome and aluminium parts and sorting out the brakes, and wheels. The wheels have been a bit of a challenge. I have three sets of wheels from three bikes, and they were all pretty grim with rust and and pitted chrome, damaged spokes, perished tyres, tubes and rim tape. I chose the best two and cleaned them up, then took them to my LBS to get then checked over and spokes replaced. I wanted to use one of the two front wheels that had a dynohub on them but the rims where too far gone, so I've decided not to bother with the dynohub and use the wheel that does not have it. If I recall correctly the dynamo lights were not very good any way even by 1970's standards, and I think I replaced them with Ever-Ready battery lights back then.

Some of the pitted rusty chrome before clean up.

I'm very pleased with the way the chrome and aluminium has come up, it's not perfect but it will do. I could try and have some of the bits re-chromed but I have spent enough time and money on this bike and just want to get it finished.

Examples of the cleaned and polished chrome and chain guard.

The cranks and pedals were pitted with rust, again with wire wool, GT85 and Autosol polished up nicely, took a while though, getting into each tooth. The chain perhaps should have been replaced, but I degreased it with motorcycle degreaser left it for 48 hours , wire brushed it and removed all the dirt, the washed with Flash floor cleaner, then lubricated it, it runs perfectly. I couldn't find or feel anything wrong with Sturmey Archer 3 gear hub (1968) so I put some 3in1 oil in it and left well alone, just cleaned up the outside and polished it. 

EDIT UPDATE: In 2021 after having refurbished a few of these bikes, I did get round to completely dismantling the Sturmey Archer hub, cleaned it, replaced the ball bearings with new ones and regressed and reassembled. The chain is still the original and shows no signs of wear. 

The mudguards were a bit tatty, I was worried that they would not clean up, but with some GT85 fine wire wool they look great, the brake callipers have come up well, too, I cleaned every nut, bolt and washer on them, in fact on the bike.

Mucky mudguards with broken rear reflector.

Smarter Mudguards, cleaned up brake callipers, with new old stock brake cables and white ribbed cable sleeves. Reflector from one of the donor bikes. 

Original Bike Decal 

The Dawes Kingpin was originally supplied by W.V. Fish of Sidmouth in the late 1960's. 

The shop still appears to be in business. 

CLICK HERE for the link to the Dawes Kingpin Facebook group.