Recent content by Old Ned

Yep, all a bit weird eh!

My 105's always seemed to jam over winter in the shed. WD40 always worked!

Not many Donovans around I expect. Mick did sell some own brand frames locally but not many. I haven't seen one for years. Hargreaves are more common but Bill got frames from several sources so not all of them will be Woodrups. I believe mine to be a Macklam. I'm still not sure what has...

Kevin Sayles was the Woodrup builder for many years and he would know! Lost touch with him recently as he has retired and may have moved away. However, one tale he tells is that he built the team frames for the Bantel pro team BITD, especially the ones branded 'Hugh Porter'. Around 10 - 12...

Phone Deeside/Graham Weigh Cycles in Queensferry (the North Wales one!) and ask to speak to Keith, he may be able to help.

Pete had a shop in Cottingham near Hull but he closed it about 5-6 years ago (?). He was a mechanic for race teams at one time as well. Organises a jumble in Cottingham some years.

The quality of the brazing makes me wonder if it may have been built by Bill Grey who specialised in this form of frame building. He was building for shops in the 'London Area' including Dave Russell in Slough. This was my lugless Bill Grey . built in '73 but 'worked on' in the mid 80's by...

Coming down a very long and steep hill on our tandem, on an old version of our local 10 course back in the late '80's, we were pedalling out on 64 x 13 with 8oz tubs at well over 120psi when I became aware of my own mortality should the front tyre blow out. The road is treelined with woods...

My first 'proper' bike was a Raleigh - or at least the frame was! No idea of the model but it was probably a late 50's model in a silver main finish and yellow head etc.. Plain gauge 531 and I fitted it with an 'eclectic' mix of parts that I had, begged or found. I bought it from a member of...

Dave Marsh used that paint style in the 80's on a lot of his 'stock' frames..

Barber's Pole seat tube paint. Very '60's I recall. Mercian used the design a lot I think, never seen a Grubb with it before.

Bernard had a couple of shops in the Crossgates area when he started on his own after MKM. He built quite a lot of frames for local riders (and local shops for rebranding) over the years - including me - and he also performed a 'makeover' on my '72 Dave Russell. His 'brand' name was 'Sergio'...

Wow, what a selection of the weird and wonderful! Not seen most of them before, thanks for posting. Interesting to see how many of the earlier designs had brackets behind the front stirrup to attach to the forks. To prevent 'judder' - or just to make sure they didn't come off in use?

Some images from the Le Cycle magazine mentioned in the Daniel Rebour thread. - The photos tie in with the Rebour bike drawings posted. 'Champions du Tour de France at leur bicyclettes'. I wonder why the term 'velo' wasn't used?

Had my best season on a Green bike. I changed frames to a White one toward the end of it and went much slower. My Mum hated Yellow. I had a frame resprayed Yellow when I was a lad and the first TT I rode on it I crashed.