The Recession, when more Bicycles were sold than Cars....!

[legrandefromage]

Nice one Carl. I’ve not seen a Sirius for years now

Thats because he has stockpiled bicycles instead of bogrolls like every sensible person should.

 

[retrobikeguy]

Thats because he has stockpiled bicycles instead of bogrolls like every sensible person should.

 

[sinnerman]

Nice one Carl. I’ve not seen a Sirius for years now

Seen a few road, and Low profiles Adrian, but seen very few mountain bikes, this is the first frame I have had with the early mtb specific All Terrain 653 tube set too.

 

[sinnerman]

Nice one Carl. I’ve not seen a Sirius for years now

Thats because he has stockpiled bicycles instead of bogrolls like every sensible person should.

Ive always been More of a Bicycles and Baby oil kinda of guy...

 

[tintin40]

Lovely looking mtb

 

[sinnerman]

Lovely looking mtb

Cheers, its one or two on from the one in the Newspaper article, only two small changes, seat binder moved to the front, and much improved fork, with a far more stable design due to taper and wall thickness not to mention the far more substantial dropout design.

 

[sinnerman]

Nice one Carl. I’ve not seen a Sirius for years now

Thats because he has stockpiled bicycles instead of bogrolls like every sensible person should.

All joking aside, it does feel like it sometimes, this one has been kicking around me since the late 90s, boxed and shelved, and never assembled.
It was part of a package that was offered to me by the local Saracen rep, doing a favour for a lovely old chap in the midlands who was retiring and closing up shop, I got half a story and little more detail.

To be fair its taken a long time to get to the bottom of it too, All I knew was it was hand built locally and always destined to be assembled with Campagnolo. Its all the information I was told, showing it around back in those early days, some presumed it was an Overburys others a Bromwich, both were similar but neither had all the bits quite right. Orbit was the closest Frame builder to the old boys shop, and yet unlike the Orbit range this was Hand filed where as the Orbits were left un filed to reduce the labour time, all in an attempt to hand build a frame here in the U.K, but to be able to hit a price point and compete with Imports.

With a bit of a push from a member here to pull my socks up, and a little detective work, with the help of Andy Thompson (Zinn, Ex-Orbit Owner.), and Lee Cooper I was eventually able to pin point the brand, given I was never given the original decals with the unbuilt frame, fork bar and stem.

With help from Lee and Gil (retrodecals), original decals were able to be replicated, Along the way the Campag came slowly but surely too. The wheels weren't in great shape, so replacement spokes, full strip and true and they were good to go again.

Tyres are thanks to Adrian, bought some time ago and shelved until needed.

Being honest, its probably an inch on the large side, but I have an old generic black seatpost I can use to ride with, rather than wrecking the black Stong seatpost pictured.

As a kid I grew up fascinated by tubing decals, the numbers/names and differences, always keen to read as much as I can. With so many builders bitd forced to use road tubing for mountain bike fabrication due to the lack of dedicated tubing, my first love was seeing the New Reynolds 753 All terrain tube set used for the Zinn Z-753, the Reynolds 653 All terrain tube set became avaliable shortly after, over the years ive been lucky enough to find frames using Reynolds 653 but always a road tube set like the Dave Yates Vulcan. I guess this might be the reason why I kept it to one side for so long, an itch to scratch and the annoying need to get to the bottom of the story.

 

[sinnerman]

Re:

You will have to forgive the over load of pictures, but I think there is no better place to show them than here.

 

[sinnerman]

Re:

Lee Cooper, the mans history and who he has built for left me a little speechless if im honest.

Tom Bromwich
Orbit
Sirius
L.A Cycles.
Thorn
Locks Tandems
14 Bike Co.
ColourBolt.
Hobo.
Stanforth.
Pashley.

And Many others who would like it kept quiet...……!

 

[sinnerman]

Re:

Some of the work that's come out of the workshop over the years is awe inspiring to me, I love the Leather Saddle too.

And even the retired Jedi has Taste....LOL.