Incredible Custom touring bicycle! You won't find one like it anywhere. 

As for the hoods ripping,fit the brakes put some electrical tape to keep the clamps in place,remove the brakes do your wrap tight around your clamps and then install the brakes,this way you don't need to peal back the hoods and also no metal shows under the brake levers😊

I have _never_ seen dual rear brakes. they look amazing! What a wonderful find!

Oh,those rear brakes! Adjusting cantilevers is tricky enough, never mind trying to get two to be identical!! And don’t worry John, I too am a big believer that brake cables go in FRONT of the handlebars! 🚴🏼‍♂️

Pretty cool old touring rig... l love old steel rides, l only own one carbon fiber, and two aluminum frames, the rest are steel.1960's to 2000. Great channel, thank you. ✌️❤️😁

that bike was built to be a world tourer. many interesting details. thanks John !

I can attest to this super unique bike. Had the pleasure of seeing it in person and riding along with john during the Classic Bicycles Auburn 2024 event a couple weekends ago. Shoulda asked you to take it for a spin to see how it felt.

Another enjoyable video John! We need to get you to 10k subscribers.

Ray Blum was an aerospace engineer for North American (Rockwell) in Downey CA. He had a mail order bike business mostly wheels. He was an advocate of no-dish rear wheels and wrote a few articles in Bicycling magazine on wheel building. I have his pricelist somewhere. He went out of business around 1993. When he was closing out inventory I bought a couple pair of wheels from him. One set was a no-dish with Phil Wood hubs with Torrington spokes and Rigida 13-20 rims, the other pair had Avocet sealed bearing hubs. I requested DT spokes and he said if I wanted wheels they would be built with Torrington. He was also an Olympic Speed skater. Many skaters took up cycling to train. See the following. Brian Blum also a former aerospace engineer in Southern California. (no close relation) Inducted May 17, 1969 Ray was born April 11, 1919. During his lifetime he became a National and North American Outdoor and Indoor Champion, with his peak year being in 1952. He was inducted in to the National Speedskating Hall of Fame on May 17, 1969 in Anaheim, California. Wikipedia: Raymond Edward “Ray” Blum (April 11, 1919 - May 5, 2010) was an American speed skater who competed at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. He placed 20th in the Men’s 1500 meters competition in a field of 45 and 17th in the Men’s 5000 meters event in a field of 40. He was born in Nutley, New Jersey and was a member of the Paterson Skating Club. He attended the Newark College of Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor’s degree from the institution in 1950, after a stint in the United States Navy during World War II. He spent his later life working as an aerospace engineer for several companies in New England and California. On October 26, 1996, he was inducted into the NJIT Highlanders’ Hall of Fame for his success as both a cyclist and a speed skater, as well as the American National Speedskating Museum and Hall of Fame on May 17, 1969. He died on May 5, 2010 in New Jersey. sports-reference.com Ray Blum competed for the Paterson Skating Club, but excelled in both speed skating and cycling. He began cycling at the Nutley Velodrome, where he trained prior to being drafted and transferred to the Great Lakes Naval Station. After serving in World War II, Blum attended the Newark College of Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), graduating with an engineering degree in 1950. But he continued to compete in both sports, winning the US Cycling Omnium Championship in 1949, and in speed skating, he tied for first at the 1950 North American outdoor championships and 1952 North American indoor championship. He is a member of the NJIT Highlanders’ Hall of Fame and the US Speedskating Hall of Fame. Blum and his wife later settled in Downey, California where he continued to ride bikes and race some into his 70s. He gets honorable mention in the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cycling, where is credited with helping cyclists get into bike racing and built wheels that were prized.

This is my favorite so far, not coz I'm a Brit, but as its so unique and fit for purpose. 72 degrees. If it were me, I would cut the hoods with a razor AFTER they were on!

So many features that I’ve never seen before (or knew existed). Dual rear brakes, index shifters mounted on the head tube. I really loved the drilled out/drillium chainrings, perfect choice for that bike I think.

Your brake lever positioning - front brake on the left side, rear brakes on the right lever - is JUST FINE, John: that;'s how the Brits *usually* run their brakes. (I run mine that way here in CA so I can use my FRONT brake while signaling stops and turns with my left hand.)

Try routing the rear brake cables behind the handlebar, looks like the handlebar/stem junction would support the cable arch weight. It's also easy and free to do.

Nice!!, I think you need to run the hood as is without cutting it to keep the cables tight, try to fit them one by one in the hood hole ,also if you run the cables over the handle bar you won't need the tie wraps , this will prevent any rattling, keep up the good work!!

Regarding Ray Blum wheels. The building could have been a manufacturing building back in the 80’s. The building is an apartment complex now and maybe somebody was doing the wheels on the garage…. Downey was days ride on a bike back in the 80’s. Bring out some of the weird bike stuff. Great channel Sr.

As you said, lots of tandem features on a solo bike: fork, stem-fit, dual rear brakes. I had all those on an actual tandem

I forgot about the headtube angle.lol. lm going to say 68* which would tend to stabilize steering with a full load, as opposed to 72* or steeper geometry which might feel unstable going down hill fully loaded. OBTW If you put the new hood on first, then shave the cover back to the lever housing the cut will be straighter.. Also, silicone dielectric grease will restore the black plastic on your simplex derailleur to like new condition appearance, l use a q tip and put it on sparingly, then 24 hrs later clean off the excess.. You'll be amazed.. Works on most faded plastic's, so far..lol. Thanx again john, great stuff.

The Avocet crank is cool, but had a reputation for breaking. The Stronglight 99 is pretty cool too, and less problematic. How easy is it to find chainrings? The twin cable Modolo lever was new to me. Of course, MAFAC made a twin cable lever, but you had to live with their funky half-hood. Glad that the bike went together with only minor casualties. I wonder if you could use contact cement to hold the torn hood to the lever body? Have fun in Auburn!

Great video as always John. I have a 1968 Jack Taylor Marathon, it is a light tourer but certainly does not have double brakes - yours looks awesome.

Pretty cool bike! This really is unique. Never seen dual rear brakes and 48 spoke wheel other than on a tandem. I have a couple early 90s all campy bikes and some NOS Campy that might interest you. One is 91 Basso Ascot 56cm with Columbus MS tubing. The other is Bob Jackson using Reynolds 653 and Campy Nuovo super record. Let me know if you have interest. It's time to thin the herd.

I saw an old Jack Taylor tourer rolling down the road near University of Kentucky about two weeks ago. Didn't notice if it had head tube shifters or double rear brakes . Full Racks though.

Love Phil Wood. When I rebuilt my Mercian Vigorelli I used a Phil BB. I upgraded from Record Pista (1973) to current (not production) Pista. 42" and 72 head tube.

Very different bike, I'd never heard of a dual rear brake setup. I love seeing triples on the older bikes as they just make so much sense! I used to ride a Shogun Samurai with (off memory) 52-42 at the front and a seven speed 11-21 at the rear... the hills killed me. Triples aren't really required with modern gearing but would have been a god-send back then

Very cool bike. Dual rear cantilevers are a hoot.

I love the bike, but then again, it is a Jack Taylor. I love the the box lining on Jacks. When I saw the dual rear brakes I thought that one was a drag brake. Similar to how some touring tandems have a drag brake, not as a dual pull brake lever. If it were mine, I would be tempted to put a friction lever on the bike somewhere for a drag brake and revert to a single cable brake lever. But then again, I haven't done a heavily loaded tour, maybe dual rear are the way to go. Nice bike regardless. It was built for heavy touring for sure.

Great vid John waay cool touring bike ,unique.

Nicely done!😀, some aspects may have been a PITA, but your efforts paid off well. When you get your replacement hoods do a short video and let us know where you got them😊

Stronglight 99 crankset (later model Stronglight 100 ) Had it on my now past 1981 Peugeot with a buntch of extra rings . A great crankset . Saved it before the bike went to the graveyard. I also saved a copy of that fited on my also late Motobecane Touring , named SR Apex. Very nice looking . They where interchangable with rings so I had a lot of alternatives in gearing. Bearings 35×1 Swiss theading. Still got them.

Hi John - Nice video! I'm more of a race bike fan but the details on the Jack Taylor are amazing (maybe that's why he is no longer in business 😀😀). I imagine it was ordered long distance by an anglophile American! Thanks for showing it. Good luck at Auburn with the Bianchi

Great video John. I don’t know if you have heard, but Merican Cycles have closed their doors after 80 years.

Freakishly cool bike. One quibble: the steerer isn't 1-1/8", it's a skosh smaller at 28 mm. It was spec'd by Singer, Herse and a few other Frenchies going way back, pre-WWII I think. Since it fits a normal 22.0 or 22.2 mm stem, the wall is very thick. It's not lightweight, but it is ungodly strong. I used to buy those steerers, headtubes and "Jack Taylor" OS blades from Reynolds back in the early '80s. Reynolds actually called them Jack Taylor blades in their stocklist. Check the DT diam. too, I bet it's 30 mm (slightly OS).

Grande abraço do Brasil, fã da sua coleção de bike vintages parabéns.

Great videos John. Don't know if it was in this video or another showing your carbon bikes, when you might've mentioned needing them to keep up with your Thursday ride group. You've got a lotta fine lightweight racers in that awesome garage, so maybe for us viewers, take some on your Thursday rides and video some results. Unless these are semi pros, I doubt your modern bikes are giving you much of a boost. I for one would enjoy seeing you prove this point on one of your many Italian stallions.

You are very funny guy.

Sweeeeet ride

Another fun video John! BTW, how’d the dual brakes work? Looking forward to the Volare. 👍👊

very nice!

Maybe too late to help, but what about running the double brake lines behind the bar. That would seem to be an elegant way to force a better angle without tying them up.

Drillium is a race choice, weird to see it on a touring

No idea why you came up on the feed. Enjoyed though. Best regards from Scotland.

If the new hood are not dual ,I would enlarge the hole with a hot poker top down,you can practice on the old ones !

Tell your Thursday night guys I don't care about their carbon fibre bikes because steel is real. I love your workshop as well.

👍👍👍👍 fron L A 🇺🇸

Nice bike. Do you know what year that frame was built? I think those dual cable levers use a similar cable end to the one you used in the front brake hanger. At lest the Mafac Dual lever on my old tandem used those.

OK so a bike is just metal,rubber a bit of leather and grease but these old machines have character, how is that possible? 🤔

Where do you get repop Modolo anatomic hoods? I have never seen them offered...

I had a Doupar on a Raleigh touring bike and it worked good until my dropout broke and the guy had fixed it changed it to index shifting and I never found the Huret again. Boo hoo!

It's a shame that your hood ripped. NOS is still really old. 72 head tube??

Taping bars is my least favorite part of bike maintenance.

that bike was made for a fat guy , I also use stem mounted shifters