‘Ex sudore et sanguine et igni’ says the logo under the Scott crest on the seat tube. Google it and you’ll find it translates as ‘from blood and sweat and fire’.
According to Gefsco, there’s only three bikes that have ever carried this crest and logo; a white bike is in Gefsco’s collection, a red version is in Greg Softley’s collection and this bike is the third. It’s nice to be a member of such a small group and I’m not sure if I’m worthy – but this bike is.
The frame arrived in my workshop – as a Clamont – in a bit of a state. The paint had aged significantly and was covered in surface rust. The previous owner had converted it to a fixie and many years later there was a storage incident that damaged the forks. On a shed-clearing day it came to me as a donation, hoping that I might give it a new life.
The first job was to confirm that the frame was a Geoff Scott build. I stripped it back to a frameset and snapped couple of pics which Michael shared to a Gefsco group. Confirmation rolled in shortly after, with Gefsco himself confirming it was a frame that he had built in the 80s. He recalled the ‘snakeskin’ paint job and the mono seat stay. Tick!!
Months before this frame arrived I had a conversation with Cyclomondo’s Greg Softley about some new decal kits he was working on. These ‘lining kits’ recall the lost art of hand-lining on bicycles and Greg was keen to see some Australian-made frames restored to trial the decals, and he asked me if I would find a frame for restoration. With this Clamont frame in my hands it felt like the planets had lined up!
Geoff and Greg had been collaborating on the decals so I dropped the frame off to Geoff with no instructions on colours or styles. With Gefsco’s approval we added a carbon Tifosi fork to the frame and I left all the styling choices to the experts.
I can honestly say that the result was exactly what I would have asked for!
You can find Greg’s new decals on the Cyclomondo site here.
The frame is painted in a metallic British Racing Green, with decals in gold. I’m immensely proud that Greg and Geoff chose to add these incredibly rare logos and crests to the head and seat tubes, and I hope they are happy with the result.
I’ve had the brown suede Turbo saddle in a box for a few years, waiting for the right build. This was certainly it!
We tried a few different bar tapes before we found the right one.
The groupset is Ultegra 2×11 with Fulcrum wheels and 28 tyres for riding the country roads.
Sadly, Geoff is no longer building bikes and this bike will remain one of the last bikes to have come from his paintshop.
The box lining decal kits can be purchased from Cyclomondo’s website here.
In April ’24 we entered the bike into the #1 bike show in Sydney – Retro Day at Heffron. In the ‘Neo-Retro’ class it was up against some serious competition and so we were over the moon at receiving a Highly Commended ribbon.
Geoff Scott was on-hand for a photo.
The bike is now for sale, you can find it on our webstore here: