Sunday, 30 October 2016

30 Years in Review...















It is literally 30 years to the day since an Austrian AuPair presented me with THAT book and my father relented to months of not so subtle hinting and THAT Holdsworthy built Claud Butler marked my thirteenth birthday.  Both Butler and Buxom woman have long since moved on...

These days Semi/compact geometry frames mean oddly proportioned riders, such as yours truly needn’t go the custom route and in real terms, prices have also fallen quite considerably.

Having Lee Cooper cold set the Teenage Dream’s rear triangle and replacing its pretty patchwork parts for a more contemporary groupset has often crossed my mind. Something along the lines of Shimano’s Tiagra, maybe Microshift...I have a Sun Race equivalent tucked away somewhere. A new rear hub and wheel build would complete the transformation. Calling in a favour or two, the cost implication is a very tempting £150...  

These thoughts call particularly loud when I’m out of the saddle. Powering along the climbs and dancing on the pedals, there’s some definite whip felt around the bottom bracket shell. Outclassed is sporting terms, these thin walled tubes still deliver a lively ride that has my soul singing and a massive grin engulfing my face.  

Ride quality is also determined by builder skill. The Holdsworth was built to a standard, rather than a price, which is very telling when hammering along at 35mph plus. By contrast and though technically made from a “better” tubing, the Teenage Dream’s build quality was decidedly “British Leyland” in places.

This was common to a lot of small manufacturers who were trying to compete with both the established masters and higher end volume producers during this era. That said; I recall a big French marque being plagued by similar woes. They too were offering complete machines for little more than the groupset, so even with their purchasing power; corners had to be cut somewhere.

Runny brazing, poorly reamed seat tubes and faced head tubes were commonplace. I even recall several customers getting the wrong paint job! Runny brazing, reasonable reaming and treat-like eggshells enamel demons were exorcised from my frameset in 2009.  


With this and the ill fated British motoring conglomerate in mind, it should come as little surprise to learn I also remain fascinated with the Kirk magnesium frames from this period.

Though these were flawed in many ways, I’d like one hanging on my wall. Frank Kirk came from an automotive background and sought to apply the same mass production techniques to lightweight bicycle frames. Seems they were also finished in house-powder coating, of course.
Simon Haydn http://www.kirk-bicycles.co.uk/Kirk.htm is particularly passionate about them. 

Under the metaphorical tutelage of Richard Ballantine, I love most genres of machine and also have a soft spot for rigid cross country mountain bikes. I spent many years thundering along the forest trails and getting seriously filthy on steel-tubed, fat-tired Kona and later Univega based builds.

Lights from this era fell into three basic types and in my view, grossly inferior to that available to us now. It basically boiled down to dynamos, home brewed Lead Acid masters blasters, or truly cheap and extremely nasty “Halogen” units, which were of the glimmer variety. These days, even a very basic LED blinkey is light years ahead, in every sense.

Some, such as this See Sense unit can even collect data about that potholed lane you would’ve only known about, having trashed a rim with those glimmer types. Once the preserve of suburban commuters, there are plenty of compact torch types packing 600 lumens plus.

Sure, there are still some minor limitations, usually in terms of run times in the highest settings. Here’s a few we’ve recently tested at Seven Day Cyclist www.sevendaycyclist.com     http://www.sevendaycyclist.com/moon-lx760-front-light  http://www.sevendaycyclist.com/moon-meteor-storm-pro-front-light

Elsewhere, having heard of my recent puncture plague, the good people at the inner tube shop www.innertubeshop.com sent me a batch of five. I have since discovered my not so friendly farm feline has, for reasons known only to himself, been biting the tyre sidewalls! 

He’s not been able to reach the Univega, or Teenage Dream, hence no flatting there.  

If recent commentators are to be believed, we’re due for a serious cold snap, involving a healthy carpeting of snow. Perhaps I should be dusting down these 700x42 42mm Continental and my Univega's Schwalbe winter spiked rubber...


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