Roasted
Kona Fan
I've always wanted a Curtis, well, since about 1998 when I first heard of them. The burly T45 tubes, handmade in Britain and fillet brazed made them pretty unique in the dirt jumping world.
In 2001 I was at the Bike Show and picked up the order form from the Curtis stand, went and had a burger while I filled it in, went back to hand it in and then got cold feet. I couldn't make my mind up on the spec. Did I want the SX24, SuperX, RaceLite, what length TT, horizontal dropouts, disc mount, cantis bosses or both and what colour, the clear coat is lush but was about £20 extra. But I think the real reason I didn't pull the trigger was I couldn't actually afford it anyway.
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to aquire a Curtis SuperX at a good price. It wasn't till I got it home that I discovered that it was actually cracked. A bit devistated but as it wasn't expensive it could be some nice wall art if the wife would let me put it above the fireplace.
Anyway, fast forward to last Friday and I was travelling to bath for some drinks with friends. The Curtis workshop isn't too far from bath so made the detour to drop the frame off for repair. I met Gary Woodhouse and he thinks that my frame is repairable, which is very good news.
At his workshop I was like a kid in a canyshop. They had a few old frames on the wall from back in the day and we had a good chat about bikes. Then a tall chap walked in who was very enthusiastic about the framed and knew his stuff. Turns out it was Jim Davage, curtis team rider from BITD, if I was younger I would've got his autograph! Jim showed me his bike collection which included a couple of Brooklyn Machine Works dirt jumpers. I spent about an hour there and also walked away with a Curtis jumper and keyring.
Good news today, had a phone call to say frame has been repaired and being shipped off to be stripped and painted. I just need to decide on a colour, due to the repair I didn't pick the clear coat.
Next stage will be the build, which may take a while as I need to get the parts together. But I'm looking forward to this one.
In 2001 I was at the Bike Show and picked up the order form from the Curtis stand, went and had a burger while I filled it in, went back to hand it in and then got cold feet. I couldn't make my mind up on the spec. Did I want the SX24, SuperX, RaceLite, what length TT, horizontal dropouts, disc mount, cantis bosses or both and what colour, the clear coat is lush but was about £20 extra. But I think the real reason I didn't pull the trigger was I couldn't actually afford it anyway.
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to aquire a Curtis SuperX at a good price. It wasn't till I got it home that I discovered that it was actually cracked. A bit devistated but as it wasn't expensive it could be some nice wall art if the wife would let me put it above the fireplace.
Anyway, fast forward to last Friday and I was travelling to bath for some drinks with friends. The Curtis workshop isn't too far from bath so made the detour to drop the frame off for repair. I met Gary Woodhouse and he thinks that my frame is repairable, which is very good news.
At his workshop I was like a kid in a canyshop. They had a few old frames on the wall from back in the day and we had a good chat about bikes. Then a tall chap walked in who was very enthusiastic about the framed and knew his stuff. Turns out it was Jim Davage, curtis team rider from BITD, if I was younger I would've got his autograph! Jim showed me his bike collection which included a couple of Brooklyn Machine Works dirt jumpers. I spent about an hour there and also walked away with a Curtis jumper and keyring.
Good news today, had a phone call to say frame has been repaired and being shipped off to be stripped and painted. I just need to decide on a colour, due to the repair I didn't pick the clear coat.
Next stage will be the build, which may take a while as I need to get the parts together. But I'm looking forward to this one.
