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Holdsworth Zephyr

1934 ZephyrThe first Zephyr model was a ladies cycle, offered in 1933/4. It was modelled on a machine used by Mrs Holdsworth, it was no longer in the range in 1938.


Road/Path + Path 1952-1961+

Road/path models have track rear dropouts with mudguard eyelets. They have track ends because they were designed for fixed wheel use, but have mudguard eyelets for outdoor use. This could be the sign of a time-trial frameset, as most time triallists used a fixed wheel until the mid 1960's, and (with mudgaurds added) a top quality winter trainer, as racers often rode a fixie over winter.

A pure path Zephyr was first available in 1954.

1952 Zephyr 1953 Zephyr 1954 Zephyr 1955 Zephyr
1952 Zephyr 1953 Zephyr 1954 Zephyr 1955 Zephyr

c1956 Bob Johnson's lovely Zephyr, believed to be in original finish. The lugs are cut out to the "Coronet" pattern, ornated with windows..

click pics to enlarge

circa 1957 Zephyr Zephyr headlugs Zephyr headtube
Zephyr crown Zephyr seatlug Zephyr bottom bracket Road-Path dropouts
Downtube script decal Reynolds and Rustproofed decal seattube decal  
1957 Zephyr Fluted seatstay top-eyes appear in 1957 & 1958 catalogues 1958 Zephyr
1957 Zephyr  
During 1958 (perhaps for 1959) a new lug set was adopted on the Zephyr, very different to the original "coronet" style. The top-eyes remain fluted. New fancy lugs
1961 The Cyclone and Zephyr were effectively road, time trial or track versions of the same 'top-of-the-range' frame. They had the same tubesets and identical lugs. The Cyclone was the road version, with Agrati or Campag road dropouts and 73o head / 71o seat or 72o parallel angles, while the Zephyr had heavy plate track dropouts, with mudguard eyelets as standard but could be omitted, track fork crown with round fork blades and 73o parallel angles.
1961 Zephyr from catalogue
106K