Breezerboy's FW Evans

[cherrybomb]

That's stunning and with real attention to detail too.

I love the braced rear cable hanger and the safety studs under the straddle cables. There's some real thought gone into that that puts some of the so called 'classic' designs to shame I reckon.

That rear mech is a work of art as well, I could look at that all day. Beautiful.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

History of the FW Evans ATB
FW EvansATB/Saracen ATB? (Manufactured by Bluemels).
In 1982/3, Richard Ballantine asked London bike shop F.W. Evans Cycles to build up two Ritchey frames he had brought from the U.S. for Tim Gartside's and Peter Murphy's ,February 1983, Saharan expedition.

Evans were curious and later persuaded Bluemels to build some bikes based on what they had seen. The resulting FW Evans ATBs were mostly silver and branded under the shops own marque. The Bluemels’ own Saracens bikes were identical, apart from being painted black.

The first mass-produced British' mountain bike?
In the spring of 84 I hired a rare, black framed, FW Evans ATB from Kingston Cycles. According to the receipt its frame number was 0001. Possibly the first Blumels' produced mountain bike? Or even the first mass-produced British' mountain bike?

Early 1984 F.W. Evans
My first Mountain bike an FW Evans ATB ( i.e. Ritchey copy, with drops, these were fitted from new). Photo taken Summer 1984 (I rode from Liverpool to Southport and the back along the coast and across Liverpool without seeing another mountain bike all day).

The drop bars/stem, stronglight 99 chainset, rear rack and mudguards were all non-standard changes/ additions made by Kingston Cycles before purchase.

 

[Dr S]

Oh I absolutely love that, it's in great shape and a real important milestone in UK MTB history. You must have pee'd your pants when you saw that for a fiver! All I ever find is Halfords tat and Lindisfarne albums up here :roll:

Si

 

[al]

Fantastic!

Al.

 

[dbmtb]

Thanks for sharing...

Great story and interesting followups from other posters.

One of the better threads I've seen in here.

 

[Konaglider]

That is a super bike.I seem to remember voting for it in a BOTM poll year or so back

 

[Tob]

Re: early Saracen/Evans

@legrandefromage

I have an identical frame badged as Evans, but with transfers that are not standard Evans ones.

I got it second hand in 1989.

 

[sinnerman]

Re:

History of the FW Evans ATB
FW EvansATB/Saracen ATB? (Manufactured by Bluemels).
In 1982/3, Richard Ballantine asked London bike shop F.W. Evans Cycles to build up two Ritchey frames he had brought from the U.S. for Tim Gartside's and Peter Murphy's ,February 1983, Saharan expedition.

Evans were curious and later persuaded Bluemels to build some bikes based on what they had seen. The resulting FW Evans ATBs were mostly silver and branded under the shops own marque. The Bluemels’ own Saracens bikes were identical, apart from being painted black.

The first mass-produced British' mountain bike?
In the spring of 84 I hired a rare, black framed, FW Evans ATB from Kingston Cycles. According to the receipt its frame number was 0001. Possibly the first Blumels' produced mountain bike? Or even the first mass-produced British' mountain bike?

Early 1984 F.W. Evans
My first Mountain bike an FW Evans ATB ( i.e. Ritchey copy, with drops, these were fitted from new). Photo taken Summer 1984 (I rode from Liverpool to Southport and the back along the coast and across Liverpool without seeing another mountain bike all day).

The drop bars/stem, stronglight 99 chainset, rear rack and mudguards were all non-standard changes/ additions made by Kingston Cycles before purchase.

What an Amazing picture and story, im glad this thread was brought to the surface..