Educating Peachy!

[Peachy!]

Evening all, I’ve just been looking back through this months entries for BotM. Lots of cool bikes, a real pleasure to see, but.....

It got me thinking, why don’t I remember most of these? Admittedly the 10 year span from 16 in 1984 to 26 in 1994 was at times a little hazy, but growing up in North London there were four local bike shops (not including Halfords) within walking distance, and I can distinctly remember that the “shop angels” or “window stars” always seemed to be either top end Raleigh or Claud Butler. Inside the shop would be lower end offerings from these two along with Falcons or Holdsworth’s and later Cannondales & Giants...

So my question is; where was all this other stuff? The only time I ever saw a Marin or anything from the states in these shops, they were on posters or magazine front covers.... was it different in the provinces?
Maybe the shops nearer hills/country side had more ATB/MTBs? Certainly in the London shops I frequented there were more road/TT/touring/commuting bikes.

 

[Trialsmeister]

We were lucky up in Edinburgh in comparison Peachy.

I remember seeing Marin in a couple of shops in 1992 and City Cycles had GT. Along with the long established MacDonalds Raleigh, they also did Giant.

You could get Specialized, Kona and Hope, Middleburn and Magura at Edinburgh Bicycle, in the early days. Can't remember where, but you could get Pace, Fat, Roberts and Yates through one or the other and Alpinestars were displayed in a few choice motorcycle stores.

You went to Bain's Bikes, for your wheel building needs, if you could find him, snowflakes were optional. Then you got chased by walkers, in the Pentlands on a Sunday. We had a good scene back then.

As long as your bike didn't get nicked!

 

[k-rod]

Re:

Ha ha ... we kept all the good ones in Canada, until the local market over here was totally saturated, and only then started letting you (over-seas) riders get yer hooks on a few ...

 

[legrandefromage]

In the late 1980's budget constraints meant it was Bickerton then Claud Butler from the local bike shop and 2nd hand from a well known chap whose parents bought him everything and anything on a rolling 3 month basis (my first Marin Mt. Vision a few years on)

The large American airbases nearby gave me names that I would only have seen in magazines such as Off Road Toad, early model Cannondales, Nishiki, Proflex and so-on

Cambridge being just a bus ride away gave me access to Zinn, Pace, Cannondale, Orange and many many more. I managed to get a whole Zaskar when I could have spent the same money on a red Team Pace frame only.

I settled on the Zaskar which has been with me on and off ever since

Mind you budgets were competing heavily with my hifi habit at the time - I had a DAT Walkman

 

[sinnerman]

Evening all, I’ve just been looking back through this months entries for BotM. Lots of cool bikes, a real pleasure to see, but.....

It got me thinking, why don’t I remember most of these? Admittedly the 10 year span from 16 in 1984 to 26 in 1994 was at times a little hazy, but growing up in North London there were four local bike shops (not including Halfords) within walking distance, and I can distinctly remember that the “shop angels” or “window stars” always seemed to be either top end Raleigh or Claud Butler. Inside the shop would be lower end offerings from these two along with Falcons or Holdsworth’s and later Cannondales & Giants...

So my question is; where was all this other stuff? The only time I ever saw a Marin or anything from the states in these shops, they were on posters or magazine front covers.... was it different in the provinces?
Maybe the shops nearer hills/country side had more ATB/MTBs? Certainly in the London shops I frequented there were more road/TT/touring/commuting bikes.

London is a huge place, my mum wouldnt have allowed me to venture too far even at 16, the bike gave me freedom, she never knew where i was when on the bike....

 

[retrobikeguy]

Re:

Was very lucky in York, we had 3 raleigh dealerships, riverside cycles who did kona's, was a small shop down walmgate that had some really cool bikes in like serotta, Halfords for carrera's then we had York cycleworks who did most stuff, Cannondale, trek, marin, proflex plus some of the staff had cool bikes like independant fabrications and WTB.

strangely the Claud butler werent in any local stores, just in the back of Nanas catalogue with all the variations of the raleigh burners.

 

[sinnerman]

Re: Re:

Was very lucky in York, we had 3 raleigh dealerships, riverside cycles who did kona's, was a small shop down walmgate that had some really cool bikes in like serotta, Halfords for carrera's then we had York cycleworks who did most stuff, Cannondale, trek, marin, proflex plus some of the staff had cool bikes like independant fabrications and WTB.

strangely the Claud butler werent in any local stores, just in the back of Nanas catalogue with all the variations of the raleigh burners.

To be Fair, i think thats part of the reason as a mountian bike brand they werent seen as the Cool bike to Own, Certainly Claud Butler would turn in his grave given how far down his name became. Falcon and Townsend didn't help, and allowing your products to be sold in home catalogues like Gratten and Littlewoods, certainly didnt help.

The mountain bikes were a far cry from those Iconic early road bikes.

 

[jimo746]

Re:

You were looking in the wrong bike shops!
To be fair, most bike shops started out as "roadie" bike shops and then began stocking mtbs when they became more popular, I think as a result quite a few of them stuck with mtbs from brands they "knew" eg Raleigh etc...
I know one of my local bike shops was a bit like that, they built brilliant wheels though!
There were a couple of bike shops local to me which sold mtbs from Giant, Specialized, Trek etc. But more often than not I'd make the short trip to Leeds to the Mecca that was Stif, also had Two Wheels Good, Freewheel, and I even ventured to Chevin Cycles north of Leeds.
But by far my "favourite" was Stif when they occupied the "Loft" in a small backstreet in Headingly, so much stuff in there that I'd drooled over in the magazines

Funnily enough, prior to all this I actually got my first half decent mtb from my mums Grattan/Marshall Ward/Littlewoods catalogue, a Claud Butler! So I guess that's where my opinion of those bikes was formed...

 

[The History Man]

Trying to remember the name of the shop in finchley where I got my 87 raleigh magnum (phwoar) passing by the red? Marin Pine mountain (i think) as it was way out of my league?

would that be right?


before then it was all middle of the range road and lust for the red team raleigh bikes.

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

You were looking in the wrong bike shops!
To be fair, most bike shops started out as "roadie" bike shops and then began stocking mtbs when they became more popular, I think as a result quite a few of them stuck with mtbs from brands they "knew" eg Raleigh etc.....

I think you’ve nailed it on the head there, I guess I was just looking the wrong way... by 1985 I’d raced my last grass track race, bought my first “money pit” VW “Cal look” Fastback & started chasing girls.....