Home

Bigger and better Bespoked Bristol rides back into town! Bespoked Bristol, The UK Handmade Bicycle Show, returns from March 23rd to 25th 2012. With over 70 leading independent makers from the UK, Italy, France, USA and Germany coming to Brunel’s Old Station to showcase some of the most beautiful and desirable cycles on earth. Now in its second year, the event provides a platform for the public, industry and press to meet artisan bicycle makers and share ideas. Organisers Phil and Tessa Taylor are promising a bigger and better show for 2012: exhibitor numbers have doubled since last June's inaugural event at Paintworks, Bristol, requiring a move to a larger venue. This will allow space for more stands, a dedicated area highlighting...

Following on from his previous articles Paul Brodie kindly sent us a further article detailing the rebuild of the 1888 Whippet at Flashback Fabrications. Enjoy :D Hi. Paul Brodie here. NAHBS is coming up FAST, and I still have a LOT to do on the Whippet! I have never made so many parts for just one bike. In this tour of my shop, I'll show you how the brake lever was created by copying the original in the photo below. In all, it took about 2 days > I wanted to carve it from solid, with no welding. I should have used a 1X3" steel flatbar, but only had 1X2" on my shelf. So, I cut a notch > This is my big torch, with a "rose-bud" tip... it generates a lot of heat > The bar is supported in the arbor press and heated > It gets...

Saturday saw round one of the Retrobike National Event Series 2012 with support from Bikefood take place in the Lake District. Thirty five hardy retrobikers on almost all retro machines completed a 20(ish) mile loop around some of the Lakes best and most scenic trails. The weather was positively balmy for February in the Lakes and the drizzle almost warming. Full Lakes ride aftermath up here. Next National Event is the Thetford ride on 24th March.

New Mavic content added to the retrobike archive. Mavic 1992 catalog. Mavic instructions includes Mavic 840 841 845 VTT rear mech manual, Mavic 610 / 616 Bottom Bracket Installation Guide & mavic 571 hubs manual.

Don't forget tomorrow is the first round of the Retrobike National Series with support from Bikefood. Full details of the Retrobike National Series Rd 1: Lake District.

Just taken delivery of Retrobike Socks which are available to purchase from the retrobike shop > Retrobike Socks. The socks are made in the USA by the Sock Guys and are available in black with white logos or white with black logos. Get 'em while you can :)

Following on from his previous article Paul Brodie kindly sent us a second article further detailing the rebuild of the 1888 Whippet at Flashback Fabrications. Enjoy :D Hi. Paul Brodie here. This is the 2nd installment in a series detailing how the 1888 Whippet came together. This bike will be shown at NAHBS March 2-4, 2012. It falls a bit outside of "regular framebuilding" because so many of the components have to be created from basically nothing. My lathe, milling machine, digital readout, and rotary table got used a lot! What I'm making here is the Scissor Linkage, pictured below > I've taken some 5/8" flat cold rolled steel, marked out the shape, rough cut it in the bandsaw, drilled (2) holes, and now the ends are having a...

Thanks to Rally_Cat who has supplied a copy of the 1994 Kona Catalog for North America for the Retrobike archive. This compliments the 1994 UK Kona Catalogue and other Kona scans, catalogs, reviews, manuals and technical information already stored in the archive.

Privateer Issue 7 is on sale now, if you haven't subscribed already be sure to check out the special Retrobike subscription offer. Once again the magazine has a healthy dose of retro content which includes *Steve Behr reminisces over the Winter road trip features which graced many a mid 90s mountain bike magazine. The trips generally featured some riding, a car crash and Rob Warner, not always in that order. *Mike Davis (aka forum member MikeD) concludes his excellent piece on the evolution of frame geometry. *Tym Manley visits Conti in Deutschland. ..and of course loads more. Click here to find Privateer stockists.

:: Date: Saturday 25th February 2012 :: Distance/time: 18 - 22 miles / 5-6 hours riding (depending on pace and various route options) :: Meeting at: The Bluebird Cafe. Car park on Lake Road just to the south of Coniston at 10:00am for 10:30am start. :: Directions: Grid Ref: SD308970 ~ Postcode: Cumbria LA21 8AN :: Terrain: Rocky and natural Lake District singletrack and trails with some climbs and great descents. It also uses sections of the North Face Trail in Grizedale Forest. This route avoids the really big lakeland mountains and, while challenging in places, is very suitable for riding on an a retro machine. Be prepared for the usual changeable Lake District weather. There are some short road sections but the route is mostly...

The The January 2012 road Bike of The Month contest was taken by nick1968's Raleigh Team Banana 753 - another diverse month. Second was taken by Ianus' 1991 Kuwahara Pacer CX and third by nevadasmith's Ritchey Road Logic. Bring on the rest of 2012 :D The full result is as follows 1. nick1968's Raleigh Team Banana 753 2. Ianus' 1991 Kuwahara Pacer CX 3. nevadasmith's 1996 Ritchey Road Logic Now taking nominations for the February 2012 rBoTM contest. Click here for more details and full results The January 2012 road Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. nick1968's Raleigh Team Banana 753 Click here for full nick1968's Raleigh Team Banana 753 build thread. 2. Ianus' 1991 Kuwahara Pacer CX Click here for full...

The January 2012 Photo of The Month (PoTM) contest was won by Hollister's 'Mudwinter' Now taking nominations for the February 2012 PoTM contest entitled 'It's Not About The Bike' :D Click here to see Hollister's shot in all it's glory 1. Hollister's 'Mudwinter'

The The January 2012 Bike of The Month contest was taken by Bushpig's Gecko Y-File. The Gecko will be featured in next month's mbr magazine and Bushpig will receive a year’s subscription to the magazine. The full results is as follows 1. Bushpig's Gecko Y-File 2. theredchili's 1991 Monster Fat 3. videojetman's Pace RC100 Click here for more details and full results The January 2012 Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1st Bushpig's Gecko Y-File 2nd theredchili's 1991 Monster Fat Click here for full build thread. 3rd videojetman's Pace RC100 Click here for full build thread.

Paul Brodie (of Brodie bicycle fame) is running a frame building course in conjunction with the University of Fraser Valley (UFV) in Abbotsford, BC, Canada. The course is titled "Brodie Frame Building School 101" and includes a brief MTB history, frame design/geometry, tube selection, full-scale drawing, shop safety, tube-mitreing, jigs and fixtures, welding/brazing, frame alignment, and finish work. Full details of timing and how to sign up on the UFV website > http://www.ufv.ca/bicycleframe.

For those who haven't seen the retrobike manufacturer archive we have made a few changes which will make items easier to find. The retrobike archive contains catalogs, reviews, articles and adverts all categorized by manufacturer, both road and MTB. We have recently added catalogs to our retro Specialized catalog archive and retro Raleigh catalogue archive. Don't forget the ever popular Fat Chance catalog archive, Klein catalog archive and Kona catalog archive. If you wish to request or submit something for the archive please do so in our retro mtb scans forum.

The 2011 road Bike of The Year (rBoTY) contest saw yo-Nate-y's outstanding 1981 Chris Chance Criterium take the win from some stiff competition. Second spot was taken by DancingJack’s Klein Quantum Pro and third place shared by Mark34's Battaglin and Retroian's 1974 Holdsworth Pro. The top three are as follows 1st - yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium 2nd - DancingJack’s Klein Quantum Pro 3rd equal - Mark34's Battaglin 3rd equal - Retroian's 1974 Holdsworth Pro Click here for more details road Bike of The Year 2011 top three are as follows 1st. yo-Nate-y's Chris Chance Criterium Click here for full 1981 Chris Chance Criterium build thread. 2nd. DancingJack’s Klein Quantum Pro Click here for full build thread. 3rd...

The 2011 Bike of The Year (BoTY) contest saw Sinnerman’s box fresh 1990 Zinn Z-753 take a well earned victory from some top notch competition. Second spot was shared between hollister's Ritchey Team Comp and mr_ship’s 1994 Yeti ARC. The top three are as follows 1st - Sinnerman’s 1990 Zinn Z-753 2nd equal - hollister's Ritchey Team Comp 2nd equal - mr_ship’s 1994 Yeti ARC Click here for more details Bike of The Year 2011 top three are as follows 1st. Sinnerman's 1990 Zinn Z-753 Click here for full Zinn Z-753 build thread. 2nd equal. hollister's Ritchey Team Comp Click here for full build thread. 2nd equal. mr_ship's 1994 Yeti ARC Click here for full build thread. Click here for poll thread.