Purple Haze & Teenage Dreams

Having agreed the graphics, title, marketing strategy and other definitive stuff, our collaboration is hurtling ever closer to fruition. Self-belief, realistic deadlines, effective time management and the ability to juggle competing priorities are fundamental to the success of any venture. Rest and play must also be factored into this equation if one is to avoid flying over the cuckoos’ nest or becoming the proverbial dull boy/girl. 

Sunny skies have roused the Teenage dream from its long winter hibernation for some seriously spirited back road fun. Little remains of its original incarnation but while there are firm, sentimental attachments to its 1982 Campagnolo Victory derailleurs, other components held more negative personal connotations, so were easily upgraded and sold on without remorse.

Once a benchmark, Reynolds 531 has long been superseded in competition terms by more exotic blends, though this was largely influenced by modern volume production methods, which favours fusion welding’s speed over fillet brazing-enter 525 and 631. 

However, not all flavours were resounding successes. The thin wall competition variant still delivers considerable grin inducing zing within those formative pedal strokes. Just resist any seat tube reaming or electroplating urges and have a little corrosion inhibiting preserve sloshing around inside-there’s a reason why it’s 27.0, not 27.2!

Once the Teenage Dream’s Regina screw on freewheel rumbles on up to the great bike shop in the sky, I’ll commence wholesale modernisation with this here Sun Race NRX group. Its OEM external cup bottom bracket will be substituted for something stiffer to compensate for the lugged and brazed frameset’s greater lateral flex but this is my only intentional deviation.     

Obviously such updating will necessitate professional resetting of its rear triangle to130mm-Lee Cooper (http://leecoopercycles.webs.com/) has very kindly offered his services and hence, said evolution will hopefully coincide with mid-winter’s wrath.

Deeply intrigued by and attracted to older framesets, component groups, cameras, motorcycles and even some cars, I’m no purist. Those actively living within a romanticised, rose-tinted view of the past will never move forward. I have comparatively contact with anyone I studied at polytechnic with-there are a few carried forward and held dear, obviously. The same applies to others within my previous professional “lives” but from a strictly personal perspective, yesterday is only significant in terms of what we’ve learned from it since.

Conversely there’s memorabilia retained from this era-a Motorola team jersey bought for my eighteenth birthday-something that immediately spirits me to Plaistow and E.G Bates cycles on the Barking Road. (long gone along with any East End connections). 

Raised in a rural parish, I marvelled at West Ham E15- an area characterised by abandoned and often derelict factories, depots and cars in 1992, its grey, grimy patina captured perfectly in Kodak’s Tri-X black n’ white 35mm film. One afternoon in 1994, I snuck past a loose section of corrugated iron and into the rotting hulk of Lesney’s former toy factory having visited a friend at Homerton’s decidedly foreboding RN RU.

Abandoned since 1983, the main track and apparatus were still evident with little evidence of metal theft or mindless vandalism. Extensive redevelopment and gentrification means these areas are almost unrecognisable and therefore unprepossessing.     

I ran an Indian built Enfield Bullet for a short spell towards the decade’s end. Beautiful lines, delightful to polish, sipped petrol but even blessed with upgraded 12 volt electrics and a single front disc brake, contemporary urban traffic conditions proved a test of our resolve, let alone an earlier “genuine” Royal Enfield.

This is entirely different phenomenon from the recent and in my view, very welcome reintroduction of some older concepts-merino jerseys, dyno lighting, internal gears, properly sealed and moderately priced fixed hubs, child/utility trailers to name but a few examples that have been resurrected using modern materials.  

Concrete jungle aside, riding is fertile ground for contemplation. With the benefit of hindsight, there are situations and events and indeed some people I would’ve approached very differently but regrets and “what ifs” are futile.

Good, bad or plain indifferent, these experiences have shaped my identity, world view. Lessons learned form the basis for better decision making and relationships, whether these are business or of a more intimate nature.