Langsett Cycles

[PopT]

Years ago I bought a Sheffield Langsett cycle from their shop on Langsett Road.

 

It was a great bike very light and I enjoyed years of cycling on it

 

The shop had a cporner entrance and above the door was a Penny Farthing bike fastened to the wall.

 

I wondered what happened to the Smith family that owned it and what happened to the penny farthing.

 

The last time I visited the Kelham Island Museum I couldn't find any trace of this Sheffield bike or any reference to the shop.

 

Can anyone out there tell us the story of the Sheffield Bike.

 

Happy Days!

[slh73]

The shops still there, or it was last time I went past...couple of months ago. Didnt notice the penny farthing, but then I wasnt really looking.

[pietro]

Pop T

 

I cant help you with your penny farthing but I do remember there was another one above the window of Tony Butterworth's Abbeydale Road shop.

 

Funnily enough I was in this shop a few weeks ago talking to the staff and the subject was the penny farthing.

 

They were telling me that the penny farthing had been outside, on the wall since the 1940's. It met it's sad demise in the 1990's when it was brought down in a storm. The machine was so badly corroded that when it hit the floor, it broke up. It was literally held together with paint.

[Cycleracer]

According to Langsett Cycle shop they never had one above there shop, certainly in the last 30 years but one did have a Penny Farthing outside Butterworths on Abbeydale road.

[PopT]

Re Cycleracer

 

I was told that one of the Smith family had a large collection of Vintage and antique cycles stored away.

 

I just wonder if the penny farthing is now in that collection.

 

In the fifties I worked with one of the Smiths who was in his sixties.

 

In his younger days he rode the penny farthing around Sheffield advertising the shop.

 

He also raced for the shop in competitions using a racing bike with cane rims.

 

But all this was more than thirty years ago.

 

Does anyone know if any of the Smith family are still into bikes and cycling?

[Timbuck]

My Dad bought a Langsett for my Younger brother in the early 60's and he didn't take to it, I eventually I started using it to ride to work from Shiregreen to Chapletown and back every day...This ride of about 20 miles included several hills (because Sheffield is built that way)..as result I became fitter and fitter and Ive been cycling ever since..I gave up riding that bike when another experienced cyclist pointed out to me that the down tube was too short and my feet were passing both sides of the front wheel (dangerous on tight bends) so I got rid, and bought a hand built "Wilson" bike from JF Wilsons bike shop on City road and I still ride it today 44 years later.

[Harlequinn]

Originally posted by PopT

Re Cycleracer

 

I was told that one of the Smith family had a large collection of Vintage and antique cycles stored away.

 

I just wonder if the penny farthing is now in that collection.

 

In the fifties I worked with one of the Smiths who was in his sixties.

 

In his younger days he rode the penny farthing around Sheffield advertising the shop.

 

He also raced for the shop in competitions using a racing bike with cane rims.

 

But all this was more than thirty years ago.

 

Does anyone know if any of the Smith family are still into bikes and cycling?

 

I am very interested in whatever you can tell me about the

Smith family (Herbert, Annie and kin), these form part of my family genealogy, however I do not know anything about them.

Apart from vague stories from relatives.

[retep]

I worked at Langsett Industries Green Lane for a short time back in the sixties, old Mr Smith was a mild mannered gentleman, a bit eccentric he used to hand out dolly mixtures to the workforce on his way round.

his son was a bit more eccentric he used to drive round in a very old car, cant remember the make but must have been made before 1920s

[Texas]

It's obvious you know a bit about bikes PopT, do you remember Beldon Cycles on Harvest Lane? They made them from a little house window shop, next door to a junk shop owned by a family called Truman. Harvest Lane was the continuation of Woodside Lane but under the railway bridge.

[lazarus]

Originally posted by retep

I worked at Langsett Industries Green Lane for a short time back in the sixties, old Mr Smith was a mild mannered gentleman, a bit eccentric he used to hand out dolly mixtures to the workforce on his way round.

his son was a bit more eccentric he used to drive round in a very old car, cant remember the make but must have been made before 1920s

 

I worked there too in the late sixties/early seventies. I can remember a collection of cycles just inside the firm. I was a polisher there and I polished saw backs, foden lorry emblems and bed pans.