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How's that for a banana seat tube!

It's from the French 'Garde-boue', which literally means guard against mud

Here's another bike buying story (not mine, but a mate who owns a bike recycling outfit). He'd been after an SBDU of the 753 variety for a few years and out of the blue 'I know a guy who knows this guy, who knows a guy...'. But it's way out of the city, a good 3hrs drive and the bloke wants...

Sun or a Falcon I reckon, the Nervex lugs are too up market for BSA or Raleigh. Nice!

Original advert: December 16th 2019... Pre COVID haha! Are you The Doctor, where did you park yer TARDIS 😄

I can't stand anyone who uses the word 'Fenders' for mudguards. I was a student in Paris in '98 for three quarters of a year, there was an American kid there going round all the bike shops hoovering up anything with any vintage to it. Could've been Pro Closet related, I know they had a...

Pretty much. They're not as bad as Mafac centre pulls or Deltas and they squeak a fair bit on descending, but 178gr.... Incredible for the era.

I've always been a big fan of this Japanese manufacturer, to my mind they were producing some of the most innovative and reliable kit in their era. Suntour Power shift levers with the ratchet! Bliss. I often wonder what happened to them, and why they disappeared from the market. Their road...

The French are masters at innovation and weight saving. I picked up these CLB Professional brakes, every single but and bolt is aluminium right down to the all aluminium brake block holders. They even trimmed the size of the brake blocks. I'm not saying they're the best brakes available, but...

Price drop - £120

A little thread for funny/horrific buying experiences. My most hilarious experience was about twenty years ago. I got a tip off there was a guy in Dundee selling up a tremendous amount of collectable British and European frames on account of a brutal divorce settlement (not in his favour!) I...

Rapid Titan (Russia) Word for word from the actual website, would you buy a Ti brake bolt off these guys....! 🤔 😂😂😂 'In 2004 we made a separate devision for a circus accessories production, which is very actual nowdays'. Very nice! How much you sell 501 denims? I give you Titanic frame, and...

I don't know what happened to Carlton, I suppose when Raleigh got them they knocked the QC on the head. I had a nice 12 speed 531, rusted to buggery in under two years, and then a nice brazing gap at the head tube lug. And to think they were probably the best frames being made in Britain in the...

This is quite a common complaint on Alan Super Record frames, again, absolutely no problem riding it. Just one of dem tings you learn to forget about! 😂

My mate had an nice electric blue anodised Alan which came with the usual hairline crack at the headtube from someone forcing in a fixed cup. Full Campagnolo Super Record, he bought it from an estate of a well known cyclist who's wife was knocking out all his cherished bikes for cheap. This was...

I did hear an apocryphal story once from a well known importer that they got batch of Russian Ti frames on the cheap because they'd been 'recycled' from a load of Mig 31's which had recently been decommissioned. This was in the early 90's and they were putting them out to the public at 300 quid...

Maybe he's American - 'Its Aloominum'!

Not broken, not really but testament to the sheer quality build of Vitus 979 aluminium frames. I tore the absolute ar#e out of mine for two winters solid in 1999. No mudguards, no cleaning, lots of salt on the roads to chew away at it. If I'd treated a woman that way, I'd be in court 🤣...

Considering this for a solution

I know where you're coming from! But this would be a runaround for me. Not a pub bike (I've got a Dawes Kingpin for pub duty) but something to bomb about the lanes and tracks on. Discs would be a challenge, but I do like the stopping power...