Chris Law, the owner of this beautiful Cliff Shrubb bicycle, is a lucky man. Not only did he know Shrubb as a friend, but he was able to have this frame custom made by the master framebuilder too.
Chris used to ride with Cliff in an informal group known as the ‘Over The Hill Gang’ based in Surrey. When Chris was unfortunately hit by a driver in the early 2000s, he received a payout for his damaged bike. A subsequent conversation on a ride between the two friends led to an offer for Cliff to build Chris a bike, if he wanted…
Chris was not going to pass this offer up, but he could only justify having one winter bike. So he decided to sell his Pearson/Ron Cooper bike to make space.
Chris asked whether he could have Nervex Pro dropouts and Reynolds tubing as part of the build specification. Cliff said that you can’t get Nervex Pro any more, but he’d find something suitable. When the time came for Chris to collect the frameset he noticed that it had been built with the desired dropouts after all. Cliff had decided to use his last remaining set. He had been keeping them for his own personal bike project, but had decided to use them on Chris’s bike instead. Chris was really touched by his friend’s kindness.
Cliff decided that Columbus SL (Super Leggera) tubing was better suited to this build than Reynolds tubing. So that’s what he used!
“Cliff was his own man”, said Chris, and on reflection Chris felt that he’d been right with his choice. In much the same way that a wheel builder will look at you, your weight, your chosen discipline and build the right wheel for you and your circumstances, so will an expert framebuilder. Talking of wheels, this bike has Ambrosio Rims laced to Campagnolo hubs, and they were built by Harry Rowland, based in Kent.
Once the frameset had arrived Chris sent it off to Atlantic Boulevard, in Bury, to be chromed and painted. It looks great in candy apple red paint, offset with white banding and chrome lugwork and rear stays. A really classic look, but not ‘old fashioned’, at least to my eye. Cliff disapproved of chroming frames, Chris told me, as it can make the tubing brittle. However when seeing the frame finished and built up Cliff loved the result and thought that the chrome looked great.
This bike is built up with a Campagnolo 10-speed Centaur groupset paired with Athena brake callipers. The Compact 50/34 crankset and 13-28 cassette allow decent gearing for hilly Surrey rides, and the bike is still used regularly for its intended purpose, which is winter riding. Mudguards definitely make a difference too, particularly if you’re the rider following Chris!
It’s now over twelve years since Cliff sadly passed away, but Chris fondly remembers his friend whenever this bike is ridden. “Such a lovely chap”, Chris said to me when we met to photograph this bike. Richard Hallett’s obituary also echo these sentiments.
If you’d like to see another example of Cliffs work then this earlier bike, the “Twin Tube Special” was built in the 1990s as a time trial bike.
