My Bikes

I have literally owned many bikes and built quite a few, too many to remember them all. Up until I was about twenty something they were pretty much run of the mill stuff, cheap and cheerful. 

My first real bike or what I consider serious was after I had started having a go at building my first mountain bike back in the early eighties or late seventies. I bought a red Saracen MTB with a double chain set as triples were still yet to come in for mountain bikes. I used it for a while round town and for local rides, but then sold it for another Saracen but with a triple chain set so I could go proper off road. Sadly that got stolen and I went through a stage of building my first mountain bikes and some road bikes. 

My next big buy was a Dawes Edge mountain bike that cost me £600 back in the late eighties. The main picture on the blog title is of the Dawes Edge. I used this for some off road work longer local rides about twenty miles or so and getting to and from work. I became reasonably fit and on weekends I got a flavour of doing sponsored lengthy bikes around the county. This was the early version of Audax ride we have today and was good fun to be involved in.

I had the Dawes for many years and at the same time I built quite a few racing and touring road bikes which I rode for a short time and then sold on. Below are a few of the bikes I have built over the years.

The Handsomedog MTB!

 

The Sab 4.0 with a 105 groupset

The Orbit Tourer
This was built around the late 80s, I always find it interesting that now in the 21st century the bike marketing companies are advertising the gravel bike, does the Orbit remind you of anything? LOL.

Currently I'm riding my Ribble Audax winter training bike, that I built last year. The frame was bought from Ribble and then I've added the components as I go. It's currently fitted with Shimano a Sora groupset. Pretty standard but ideal for winter training.

I have a large shed that I store and do all my bike building in. I'm very lucky as it's so big and I can keep everything safe and dry, it also acts as my training area for when I'm using the indoor trainer.

You can see my Ribble Audax and my Ribble sportive that I'm in the process of building with my training bike in the foreground. The picture below is of the reverse angle so you can get an idea of the size.

The Sportive is a winter project so I'm taking my time on the build, which is good, as I'm awaiting for all the parts and tools to put it together! 
You have to remember this has taken a while to put together and it comes from been dedicated to cycling. The average keen cyclist can quite happily exist with just one good bike!