Good to be here!
Hello..
New here, but feel like I’ve been here for years. Its a great site and full of like minded people and pretty amazing rides! Feels like home.
Interestingly a friend introduced me to the site quite inadvertently..
We’ve been cycling together including racing for many years and whilst he still embraces the sport, I’ve not quite kept up with it and current 'trends'. So when he got in touch saying we needed to get
out on the bikes again saying he's upgraded i got curious.
He's got a nice new Santa Cruz full boingy thing and said I need to move with the times.
Basically sell my bike on a retro bike site and get up to date. And that’s when i stumbled on this place. After just a few minutes my smile was wider than the M1 and the thought of selling the bike went right out of the window!!!!
If you want to skip the total history, at least read the last paragraph on how I retired from the sport..
HISTORY
I started cycling early on with a Raleigh Striker that must've lasted me a good 8 years. Eventually outgrowing that, I found a few road riding friends who convinced me to get a Peugeot Aspin road bike. Over the next few years I rode pretty much every night until yet again I sort of outgrew (?!) the sport and got a little bored.. That was when mountain bikes were just starting to get popular and a school friend pointed me in the direction of Stif. He'd already taken the plunge (Kona Cinder Cone) and I soon followed suit with a Purple Lavadome. That, along with my purple and black Etto Hemet i was away.
Only, after a couple of months and heading of to college in the trusty stead, I returned from class to see all my chains and locks on the floor. A sad day!
Now a Stif groupie i was able to convice them to give me a quote for a Basic Orange Prestige LX. Within months i was out riding again.. In a pair of Red Iridium Frogskins too. I loved the whole MTB life.. Bula hats, purple anodising, exotic American parts. My prestige became something unrecognisable, but it still rode like a beast. Oh, and I got my first taste of Pace with the RC35AB forks.. a full 45mm of travel(I think I only got about 15mm).
Then the group of friends started racing, doing the races around Yorkshire: Halifax, Post Hill and Robin Hoods Bay spring to mind. It was a great laugh.
Then one Saturday afternoon i went for a haircut, left the Orange outside, and it 'went'. Nooooooo! I was gutted, but not one to dwell on things i checked my insurance police (which cost me £220 a year) and lo and behold i was covered. I religiously maintained a spreadsheet with my bike parts and weight on so it was easy to put a cost together. It seemed like every penny of pocket money went on the bike and the total racked up to a pretty decent amount. The insurance company dealt directly with Stif and by some miracle I could afford a Pace with Pace suspension and an XT groupset. Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Unfortunately it took a quite a while to get the bike and over the space of 6 months I took up drinking and i started getting the attention of girls.. By the time i got the bike i could barely swing my leg over the frame.
I only competed in one race after that and that was at Robin Hoods Bay. I was soooo bad i was lapped by just about everybody and my friends (for the first time ever) were beating me. Only, at the end of my 3rd lap of 4 they called me in and my race was complete. I came in 6th that day. 1 position off receiving a prize. My friends, they came in the twenties. I decided to retire at the top of the game!! lol (must've been the bike.. no one that bad could have a bike like that!!!)
That evening bike went away...
Its only recently come back out.. That’s where this post starts...
If you’re interested here's a facebook page i created..
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid= ... 518&v=wall
It shows the group (its me with the etto and curly hair).. as well as a decent picture of the Pace.
Thanks for reading.
Chris
