the finish
I have at last managed to collect the frame and have eagerly been assembling it. I have given myself some different build options for the reunion ride this sunday....!!!!! (after 18 years for sum...im sure it will be a good laugh, bringing with it even more fading memories and history....lol)
There is a bit i wanna say before i go into overload with pics...(I"ll apologise now in advance im sorry its going to get pic heavy....
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Firstly,...Thank you to Mr Dave LLoyd, for the time you gave me, I know you have a full and busy schedule, and i would like to say publicly "good luck" for the future!!! In my book your achievements in and for the sport are immense. Training pro athletes in cycling, must im sure bring you many rewards.
Id also very much like to thank mark, and the team responsible for all the amazing work on the frame, and carefully taking your time, in the preparation work, to achieve the end result. thankyou "Argos".
http://www.argoscycles.com/
I would just like explain a little futher before i go onto pics, the personal significance of this frame to me....(at least for the benefit of those that didnt live in the deepest realms of the south of england in at the start of the 80s.)
As a boy, from a young cycling age, a bicycles tubing played a large part in how i saw a bicycle and assesed its "quality"....I will explain:-
Reynolds bicycle tubing.....anything with this badge on was regarded as good, the better the number the better the tubing, for example REYNOLDS 501, 531 and later 653, REYNOLDS 531, had dominated the cycles industry for decades, i mean it had to be amazing, reynolds 531 tubing was used on the subframe for the iconic 60"S E-TYPE JAGUAR, or going one better, the Land speed record attempt, reynolds 531 used in thrust 2, in the 1980s.....it was deemed as the best in my world.
(please bear in mind, the mountain bike hadnt yet come along, as say a mainstream seller, and when it did, our local bikes shops frowned upon it as the next craze to pass through....these were hardened road racers/riders, a mountain bike for them was deemed a toy...!!!! I know its hard to believe...but as a road rider in the local club, this is actual fact)
As a young and enthusiastic mountain biker when kona, specialized, cannondale and as i have said later pace came along it was a true revelation....., but as i always rode both disciplines road and mountain bike, the head always new reynolds was good, and the heart followed too...fast forward to the race events, and all the !tinsle and awe!, and then the custom builders, with their top end fillet brazed reynolds 531 and columbus frames, at this point the relatively new reynolds 753 was reserved for elite road race frames, and very expensive, and yet to be seen on a mountain bike..and then 753at arrived, and i saw ROBERTS, AND LLOYD start to use it, my race mountain bike at this point in time used tange prestige concept,, a quality tube, but with my own personal routes from the road, reynolds 753 on a mountain bike was just amazing.......and it left me short of words.....and breath.
"quote"
....The 753 tubeset was the first heat-treated tubeset in the race bicycle industry, based on the same alloy as 531. Used mainly in lugged and fillet-brazed framesets, Reynolds implemented a Certfication procedure for builders who wished to use the tubing, as it helped builders understand the requirement to avoid overheating the thin wall tubes. Most builders used silver-brazing for the fabrication of frames, due to the low melting point, so that 753 tubing was not annealed inadvertantly,
753 is now only available to special order and subject to a high minimum quantity due to raw material constraints. "end quote."
I would quickly like to say thanks too, to all who have contributed to the thread, with thoughts and opinions, on frame colour, allowing the paint to try, and not, detract from displaying the welds, and carefully choosing components to enhance the frame and not detract from it, as well as those thoughts on its originality, and most importantly doing justice to the builders original thoughts.
I took all this on board, and sat back, and thought i raced back then as a junior against some of the best. it had to be reliable, fast, responsive and stand out, so with this in mind, and with the choices dave lloyd had for components way back then.. i built a race bike...
"aptly nicknamed by sum as "CHAOS THEORY"....because amongst the chaos there is sum order to things.....!!!!!...................lol...... :shock:
anyway enough of my dribble, ill try and load sum pics....
A
