Alf Goullet’s 1923 Spencer Special

Alf Goulett’s 1923 Spencer Special

This Spencer track bike was built for the greatest six-day track racer of all time, Alf Goullet.

The bike was constructed with an extremely high bottom bracket, which was meant to keep the pedals from striking the steeply banked velodromes of the day.  The fork tubes and seat stays were made with stout oval tubing, all to resist the twisting forces that Alf could generate.  Pop Brennan made custom handlebars in a shape that Goullet prefered, and springy wooden rims spun everything up to speed.

The bicycle builder was Canadian expat Willie Spencer. Obviously Willie Spencer was quite handy with a welding torch, but he was also an accomplished bicycle racer himself.  Mr. Spencer was a world record holder for the quarter mile and he also won the National Sprint Championship three times in the teens and twenties. Along with Alf, Willie Spencer is an inductee in the U.S. Cycling Hall of Fame.

Spencer head tube detail

Custom Brennan handlebars

Just one speed for Alf Goullet. Fast.

Alf at 100

Alf at 30

Pop Brennan and Alf

Alf Goullet, the owner of this bike, was an Australian-American cyclist who won more than 400 races on three continents, including fifteen six-day races. He set multiple world records racing various distances, and still holds the record for the furthest distance ridden in a six-day race.  Alf was a superstar.  At a time when the average factory worker brought home $5 a day, he earned six figures a year racing his bike (dwarfing the salary paid to Babe Ruth). 

A real winner off the bike as well, Alf retired from cycling in 1925 and lived in good health and prosperity to the ripe old age of 103.