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1935 George Elrick chrome frame

George Elrick 

Lower Bridge Street, Stirling

George Elrick was born in Castleford, Yorkshire, in 1908 but moved to Stirling at the age of 27 to open his own bike sales shop. The premises he chose, near the junction with the oddly-named Drip Road, had little more than a glorified shed attached to the rear but this was to become George's workshop for the next 40 years.

Although what he did before moving to Stirling isn't too clear, it would appear from the quality of his early Scottish frames that he must have served an apprenticeship with an English builder or gained considerable experience building frames before moving north to Scotland.

The chromed bike in the photographs, dating from 1935 and only the fifth he made in Stirling, exhibits a high level of workmanship. He used the best components at that time, such as Chater Lea lugs and bottom bracket and many Chater Lea fittings, then the finest available.

The lugs on the frame on this page were filed to a very fine degree, blending almost seamlessly into the frame tubes. Although not in itself an indicator of quality, it does reveal that George was prepared to take a considerable amount of time over his frames and went the extra mile to produce the finest work he could.

George's widow told me that he built thousands of frames, starting early in the morning and carrying on into the evening. Many of these were sold through cycle shops around the country with which George had contracts. He sometimes received overseas requests for frames, such was their reputation, but Mrs Elrick said all his frames were adorned with his own transfers.

His framebuilding career came to an end around 1975 when his shop was the subject of a compulsory purchase order. Mrs Elrick said the local council had informed George well in advance that his shop would have to go to make way for urban renewal. As a result, he started winding down his operation over the period of more than a year, canceling his shop contracts in the process.

When it came to paying him compensation, the council, instead of using a normal year's accounts as a reference, based their figure on his last year's accounts when the business was being wound up. Not surprisingly, this meant that George received little compensation and the council saved itself some money. George was left embittered by this sharp practice.

His frames were popular with many racers in Stirlingshire and beyond with some owners paying visits to his family home right up to his death to request Elrick transfers for renovation projects.

The above information is published in good faith and any corrections would be welcomed, as would additional information or anecdotes about George or his bikes.

LEFT: This  frame was bought by a keen club cyclist who told me he last raced it on the final Sunday before the outbreak of World War Two. He was stationed in England and used the bike mainly for transport to and from his barracks. When hostilities ended, he rode it a little while before putting it away in his loft where it remained until it was passed to me in 2003.