Posting number-one to the 30-year Recycle Facebook Page - The Introduction
I am neither an author nor a literary wiz, having failed school level English. I am however, a private guy who is able to convey more in word than I can in speech.
Facebook friends will be aware of the beginnings of this journey, which emerged by accident in late 2013. A journey that begins in 1978.
Why 30-year Recycle? This journey is a story of Recycling. Of putting something back into service some 30-years later. Something that is not just about the object but also the person.
In 1978, through the support of my Father I acquired my first ‘Bryan Warnett’ bike frame. A track frame to be precise, orange in colour. The frame served me well until as a gangly teenager, I quickly outgrew it. In 1980, after making the Great Britain Team, I met Bryan, who made me an offer I could not refuse. Dad had commissioned a new hand-built track frame for me, a super lightweight job and Bryan matched this with the ‘lease’ of an everyday track frame and a road frame, for the annual lease fee of one-pound.
Then, the draconian rules meant I had to pay the lease-fee or else, I would be declared a professional by Cycling’s governing body, the BCF. Not something for a 16-year old boy back then.
The bike frames were top-class pieces of engineering, turning heads wherever I rode. Decked out in a deep red colour bearing the Welsh Dragon proudly on the front, a symbol of National pride. Top class competition at home and abroad beckoned and I had the kit to look the part and everyone noticed this kid from Wales.
In 1984, disillusioned and hurt by some ‘seedy’ events in my sport, I’d fully lost my way and had largely retired from racing, subjecting my bikes to only some occasional use thereon. For 16-years, these bikes gathered nothing but dust in the garage at home until, in 2000, upon emigrating to New Zealand, I found a new life for them at the Maindy Stadium beginners cycling club, the Maindy flyers. Bikes, wheels and other kit was donated in the hope that perhaps, there was a youngster out there who couldn’t afford the sport, would benefit from some of my old equipment.
For me, that was my last association with my sport and my bikes until a random Internet search in late 2013 unearthed a bizarre twist that has sparked this journey.
Having already decided to return to cycle racing some 30-years after I left, reminiscing of the good old days I found a photograph of one of my old bikes. The same bike that I had donated to help youngsters, which was now in the hands of a collector. How? Lots of discussions and debates about how it was acquired by him and a further bizarre twist arose. My road bike frame had turned up on a roadside rubbish pile in Cardiff, was rescued by a passer by, who ran a Google search and found my story.
The unfolding story about my bikes sparked many to get in touch. Many are enthusiasts for quality craftsmanship, many knew me as a competitor and one is a long-lost relation of Bryan, the frame builder.
The decision was made. I had to recover my former road bike and recycle it from rusting metal into the quality that it once was.
This will be a long journey and it will not be cheap or easy, with tough decisions along the way.
Behind the journey of the bike lies layers of very personal stories, not one but many, that will unfold as the journey proceeds. Some are very deep, involving Bryan’s family and may not be told, these will depend on the individuals. For me, there is a deep connection to these bikes having lost my Father earlier this year.
Once complete, the journey will end by returning to Wales with my recycled legs and my recycled bike and once again compete in a cycle race on my ‘Bryan Warnett’ in memory of both Bryan and Dad.
Only then will the journey end. #30yearRecycle
