silverclaws
Senior Retro Guru
The bikes I had as a youngster were largely road bikes, mostly Raleighs, and the occaisional Dawes, racing bike design, with Sachs Huret transmission, they were just bikes, great on road, big wheels and gears, but we always took them off road. Tracks through the woods, trails and even, what we used to call bomb sites, an area with loads of holes and tracks around the holes, ramps and stuff. In fact, places where BMX'ers went and them with none road legal motorbikes. Now, I was tall at age 12, no way would a Bmx be of use to me, I needed the road capabilities, as was then, as it is now, most of the time, it is road conditions.
I broke forksets and frames, wheels, well, I learned how to pull a twisted wheel true quickly, well, enough so it did not rub too much on the centre pull brakes. Now, if others were doing the same as me, perhaps we all yearned for something better, a cross between a BMX and a road bike, something the MTB is
The weirdest road bike I ever had, was something that had simplex gearing, and a key lockable front fork, what it was, I have no idea, but I wrecked it as fast as the others, if I remember rightly, the frame broke behind the steerer tube, an impact with a tree stump I think. All my bikes were painted black, like my MTB's. The road bikes wer wrecked from 1977 onwards,up till about 1988.
Oh, I also had old Raleigh bits pulled off wrecks, things like chainsets with the Raleigh badge cut out of the chainset steel in three places. Raleigh always reminded me of the film; '' Quatermass and the pit ''.
I broke forksets and frames, wheels, well, I learned how to pull a twisted wheel true quickly, well, enough so it did not rub too much on the centre pull brakes. Now, if others were doing the same as me, perhaps we all yearned for something better, a cross between a BMX and a road bike, something the MTB is
The weirdest road bike I ever had, was something that had simplex gearing, and a key lockable front fork, what it was, I have no idea, but I wrecked it as fast as the others, if I remember rightly, the frame broke behind the steerer tube, an impact with a tree stump I think. All my bikes were painted black, like my MTB's. The road bikes wer wrecked from 1977 onwards,up till about 1988.
Oh, I also had old Raleigh bits pulled off wrecks, things like chainsets with the Raleigh badge cut out of the chainset steel in three places. Raleigh always reminded me of the film; '' Quatermass and the pit ''.
