What bikes have you owned....

RobFowl

Saw the Raleigh Equipe on the images of beauty thread and thought what bikes i've owned...
Here's my list

1973 Raleigh Tricycle (no idea what happened to it but loved it)
1976 Raleight 18 (Pink with white tyres :eek: hated it but learned how to cycle on it. Was sold I think)
1979 Raleigh Grifter.. (Savage bike loved it to bits. Blue with twist shift gears. Did my first longish spins on it (to Howth hill and the airport mainly) Was nicked in about 1985
1985 Charlemont heavy steel racer (Sachs gears though) wrote it off doing ramp jumps in St Ann's Park in 1986
1986 Raleigh Winner . Did a school tour in France on this in 1987 and added 700c wheels and an "Golden arrow" 105 chainset among other upgrades.
Rode my first races on it too (With LesJeunes who I stayed with until 1994)
1988 Raleigh 501 frame with cobbled together groupset (mainly second hand shimano 105, and a set of 1970's alloy wheels) Was second hand and broken when was knocked off by a car commuting to UCD in 1989. Did my first W200 on it in 1989 (in 6 hours 50 mins although was skinny then)
1989 Raleigh Pursuit with Shimano 600 groupset (Second hand) Won a club race on it in 1989
1990 Swapped it with a mate for another Raleigh 531 frame and traded it in in 1993
1991 Raleigh Delux 531c bought Second hand . Fabulous frame and a mate still rides it
1992 Giant Escaper MTB no suspension but aluminium frame with Shimano LX gear. Rode it a lot and toured around Nice on it (bought it with a bank loan supposedly for college expenses) Was nicked by a scumbag outside a shop in Coolock :mad:
1993 Raleigh Dynatech 700 an Bonded aluminium frame with shimano 600. Finished 19th from 166 in the Irish Duathalon champs on this and finsihed 3rd in the "Atlantic duathalon" in Dundalk on it as well. Also used it for my first and on triathlon... Eventually the rear chainstay snapped in about 1998
1993 British Eagle MTB with heavy suspension forks and a 531 steel frame. Bough it second hand after trading in the Raleigh pursuit from Raphael Kimmages bike shop (Got the giant escaper there too). Bit of a dog of a bike, sold it to a mate later that year.
1994-1996 did pretty much no cycling as graduated and started working mad hours...)
1997 Cannondale Caad 2 with campag athena 8 speed (My first STI style geared bike). It was a Saeco replica and Mario inspired (Mario was and is one of my cycling icons). Started riding with a club again (Toyota North Down) on club spins. A swords rider still uses it AFAIK
1999 Cannondale CAAD 4 with Ultegra (Bought both Cannondales from Dave Kanes in Belfast., great shop and family are legends in Irish cycling (Dave himself rode the worlds with Shay Elliot, Mark was a bit special, Paul was and still is a great tt rider and Debbie was an Irish international and pioneered womens racing in Ireland)
Great bike and sold it in 2004 I think. Started open racing again on it in 2002 and scored my only open racing points on it :rolleyes:
1999 Diamond back MTB used to ride it around the quarry in Conlig, Co Down where I lived. Was nicked from the garage though :mad:
2000 DMB zetec 4.0 MTB bought online and loved it was nicked from the back of the car on hols in France (Carhaix in Brittany) though in 2007.
2004 Ridley Excalibur with Dura-ace bought it from Ritchies in swards. Absolutely fab bike. My first carbon one and won the Swords league on it. Sold it via Boards 2 years ago
2007 Decathalon MTB bought it after other MTB was nicked (next day ..) Still have it and use it regularly
2008 Ridley Noah with Dura ace .. Still have it and after wife and kids is the love of my life
2009 Flanders Xcross which I still have. Great fun and solid as a rock
2009 Fixie .. Giant Bowery which I used for about 12 months then got very bored of it and sold it on
2010 Look 565 with dura ace 7800 which I canged to the new Ultegra. (Bought it via Adverts) Always wanted a look after lusting after them from the TDF in the 80's. Use it daily and was on it this am on a lovely spin with bcmf.
So there you go...
4 bike in the stable as we speak, still have the Noah, Look, Decathalon and Flanders (along with the wifes Carerra hybrid and kids 2 bikes)
A life time from 3 through 40 and counting and have with the exception of 94-96 been cycling 2-7 times a week commuting, racing on the road, mtb, cross, duathalon's (cough cough one tri) and so many spoftifs cannot recall them all. Have ridden about 100 open races, 400 club races maybe 20 cross/mtb ones and 60 or so duathalons. Off the top of my head probably 6000 commutes at least and 18 W200's. (All with no real sign of any talent :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:)
As recently as today was ogling various bike's in a LBS.
At some stage will have to grow up I suppose but reckon that's maybe another 40 years off....

snollup

Great post RobFowl,

Also had a Raleigh Grifter, class bikes. Really thought I was the business on it.

ednwireland

slightly lower down the bike ladder for me

3 bikes built from bits off the tip by my dad

raleigh javelin

another steel raleigh broke when commuting (raleigh equipe)

replace by a steel diamani training frame

bought a columbus sl cbt italia frame off a guy in college

gt avalanche mtb

traded for an orange aluminium o (raced that most unsuccesfully) still have it

focus cayo

diamani frame broke replaced by a planet x kaffenback

Beasty

RobFowl wrote: »

1973 Raleigh Tricycle (no idea what happened to it but loved it)

And here is Rob modelling that very first trike ....

RobFowl

ednwireland wrote: »

gt zaskar mtb

Actually ordered one of these when I bought the Diamondback but they were out of stock....:)

tawfeeredux

Earliest bike I can remember having was a BMX (c. 1985). Don't know what model, it was white with red tyres & yellow trim. Loved it. I was still bombing round the place on it up til a few years ago whenever I was back on my parent's farm, but it got thrown out a few years ago. Shudda brought it to the big shmoke with me:(.

Late 80s, used an old High Nellie I got from a neighbour for a while, before getting a second hand Eska (made in Czechoslovakia) which I hated. Can't remember what was so bad about it, just that one day I left it on the side of the road with a 'for sale' sign on it.

Dad made me take it back, but when i started secondary school (1990), I bought a brand new cro-mo Peugeot racer. Lbs had only one in stock & the frame was about 3 inches too big for me, but the idea was that i would grow into it. Never did get much taller, but cycled maybe 60km a week for 5 years while at school, probably contributing to numerous knee & back problems since. It was robbed off me on Pearse Street in 1998 when I was wheeling it home with a punctured rear wheel after working a night shift.

1998, bought a lovely Techno 531c frame in the Bike Rack in Cabinteely then which I still have. Absolutely love this bike. Commuted on it, discovered the Wicklow hills on it, did my first W200 in 2000, raced my first race last year on it & won. Started off with non-Sti Shimano groupset & Mavic Open Sport wheels. Moved through Sora & Open Pro to Campag Chorus & Easton Ascent wheels. Currently out of action while I decide what it's next re-incarnation is going to be.

In 2006, bought a Hewitt Cheviot touring bike from Paul Hewitt in the UK. Went over to get fitted & haven't had to change the set up since. Veloce Ergo levers with Shimao XT groupset, going to switch to 105 levers soon. Use it to commute, but it really comes into it's own when fully laden. Toured France in summers of 08, & 09 & hoping to get over again this year for a week or 2.

2009, bought a Planet X Ti Sportive frame. Removed the Campag groupset from the Techno & built this up last year. Promptly removed the Campag & replaced it with Sram Rival. Now used as training/early season racing/sportive machine.

2010, bought a Giant TCR frameset in Cyclesuperstore which I finished building during the week & which had it's debut proper spin today in glorious weather. This will be the race bike.

Beasty

First bike - I inherited a red metal 3 wheeler from my sister - it even had a boot!

I've no idea what I had between around 1965 and the early 1970s - then I got my first "racer" - it had 5 gears! A cheap mail-order "special". My next bike would have been another cheap one that saw me through my student days, and a few years after that. I then got a Dawes "hybrid" - they were all the rage in 1994, and only recently disposed of it. Then I moved to Ireland, and acquired the following (all of which I still own):

October 2007 - Trek 7.5FX hybrid
April 2009 - Scott CR1 Pro
July 2009 - Focus Cayo
December 2009 - Bianchi Pista Via Condotti Fixie
July 2010 - Dolan Track Champion track bike
August 2010 - Giant Trinity Alliance TT Bike

I therefore now own 6 bikes, all acquired in the last 4 years, which is the same number of bikes I owned over the whole of the previous 40 years.

Still need a track TT/pursuit bike though;)

Tonyandthewhale

1993/4 - Started off with something blue with stablisers, never really used it that much since it was a piece of crap.
1997 - My sister got a bike for christmas, think it was a raleigh. More importantly it wasn't a mountain bike so it had slick tyres and a relatively light frame so I was the fastest kid on my street.
1999 - Sarecen mountain bike (I think). Steel frame and rigid forks but quiet a nice ride, dumped a when I grew out of it.
2001 - Finally grew into my Dad's raleigh road bike, can't remember the exact model but it was a 501 frame and a nice departure from my crappy kids mountain bike. Sadly my mother brought it into the local bike shop a few years later for a service after it lying idle for a winter. He told her it wasn't worth doing up so she dumped it, I was gutted to say the least.
2004 - Giant Rock, pretty basic mountain bike but solid enough all the same. Did my did my first 100mile plus ride on this and I still use it as a commuter, based solely on the fact that it's unlikely to be stolen.
2006 - Giant SCR 4.0, 6061 alluminium frame, 2200 groupset and alex rims. Put a few tens of thousand kilometres on this bike and really fell in love with riding. Sold it to a friend last summer.
2009 - Raleigh Royal touring bike, piece of crap, very heavy and not very well made but I got it cheap and it's very comfortable fully loaded. Have dragged this all over Europe and it's still my touring bike/winter bike. It's a love-hate relationship.
2010 - Pulled a raleigh burner 20 out of a skip (not the 80's ones that are worth money but a modern rip-off sadly). Pub bike, has pegs ergo passenger capacity.
2010 - (September) - Time Edge Racer (second-hand), my carbon fibre baby.
2010 - (November) - Giant XTC (secomd-hand), my first proper mountain bike, hydraullic discs, deore drive-train. Equipped this with studded tyres and it proved very handy this winter.
2011 - Peugeuot road bike, in the process of converting this into a fixie to replace the Giant Rock as my commuter.

michael196

oh gosh, this is going to be hard.....

i remember seeing a blue and red bike in a bike shop window , near my birthday time , and getting all excited,

bike turned up at home in time for my birthday, but my younger sister had eyes on it also....

moved onto an older sisters hand me down, with crappy brakes, turning up in the primary school yard with shuddering brakes for a cycling safety lesson thing, , driving the cranky teacher nuts as the brakes and wheels shuddered everytime. friends had ralaigh triumphs...

My first and only ever serious crash was on that bike, a hill down one side of a small vally, turn at the bottom and straight back up other side, I froze with shaking and crashed at the bottom into the ditch.

so far these were non branded frames put together and painted over.

I remember my da, would take out his paint over the winter and paint over his older military bike, a fresh coat of green !! A frequent occurrance in our house , was bike painting.

then, twas a high nelly period, of very old bikes . did my first distance Clonmel to Dungarvan and back , on a massive 28 inch (??) high nelly. twas huge, but once rolling , it was like a tank, unstoppable.....3 gears even !! no speedos back then !!

da's green raleigh with a lockable fork, is still around. Uncle had an old nelly about a modern 54 frame, just a light and fast bike. A few BSA's in the stable also.

I am not of the nelly vintage, its just what was available to me !!

then another sister arrived from dublin with a new red Raleigh 3 speed bike, so i had a go.

then a racer turned up and these new levered gears were somthing else for speed.

not much cycling during college, then i bought my first new raleigh atomic or something circa 1988, stolen in dublin 1988,!!!

another new raleigh then followed , traded for a Tomassini in 1990 ish, ( that I still have ), chrome bits all over it.

then MTB's Giant Boulder, followed by a Kelly Mobster, then onto a Scott CR1 Team ( current bike).

so not many bikes and few enough new bikes. time to add a few to the stable !!

Captain Havoc

After jumping up on my older brothers bike and leaving it around the garden, my parents bought me a blue bicycle. The ones I remember after that were Raleighs, Boxer, Grifter, Mirauder, Activator and Max II. I can't remember which type of bike after that but it got knicked, as did the Max II I left in Ireland, so I had two bikes knicked in the space of a few months, didn't have a bike in third year in college. Bought two BSOs after that. When I moved back here in 2007 I bought a Cross credo, Carrera (vanquish, I think) in 2008 (my first road bike), LIDLs finest in 2009, Look 595 and an Azonic AZ-7 in 2010. This year I bought an SE lager.

G rock

Captain Havoc wrote: »

After jumping up on my older brothers bike and leaving it around the garden, my parents bought me a blue bicycle. The ones I remember after that were Raleighs, Boxer, Grifter, Mirauder, Activator and Max II. I can't remember which type of bike after that but it got knicked, as did the Max II I left in Ireland, so I had two bikes knicked in the space of a few months, didn't have a bike in third year in college. Bought two BSOs after that. When I moved back here in 2007 I bought a Cross credo, Carrera (vanquish, I think) in 2008 (my first road bike), LIDLs finest in 2009, Look 595 and an Azonic AZ-7 in 2010. This year I bought an SE lager.

These were the ones with the front suspension right? i remember that those were the envy of nearly everyone i knew when they came out first

Captain Havoc

G rock wrote: »

These were the ones with the front suspension right? i remember that those were the envy of nearly everyone i knew when they came out first

That's the one.

ednwireland

RobFowl wrote: »

Actually ordered one of these when I bought the Diamondback but they were out of stock....:)

actually just realised it was an avalanche always wanted a zaskar though

100Suns

Great post RobFowl. I too had a grifter. And a chopper and a bomber. Great bikes all. It's a miracle and a mystery how I didn't succumb to multiple fatalities on all 3. To say nothing of arrests for being a nuisance and danger to traffic and pedestrians.

First racer was a Raleigh too. 9 speed. We used to evaluate bikes in those days based on the sole criteria of the number of gears.

At the moment I have a Cannondale Super Six, Cervelo Soloist, GT mtb, and a fixie I built up with an old Principia frame.

feck sake lads

brilliand thread robfowl,
god my memory wont go back that far, in the last few years i have bought more modern bikes look kx light full carbon excellent bike dream machine,
few years back i bought a Thorn sherpa touring bike ,different kind of beast but fantastic tourer,i still have my 28 year old Raleigh 753 road bike probable the best bike ever made as good as the day it was made. at present i'm trying to turn it into a light tourer .
oh yeah i also had a Bianchi alu road bike sold it couple years back very nice bike.
thats it next few bob i get i will but a ti bike custom.;)

seve65

silver tricycle

70s raleigh chopper, purple and 5 gears and speedoand milo whoah !

late 70s/80s - raleigh 5 speed racer, reddish burgundy, carlton maybe not sure, was my dad's bike, remember it had campagnolo gears which i always thought was such an exotic thing, swapped racing handle bars for cow horns as was the vogue.....and then nicked

83,84 - raleigh shopper - borrowed off my mum whilst at uni..nicked (they used to come along in a van and take about 10 to 20 bikes at a time)

85 - switched to a moped, yeah i know not a bike

cars and a big gap

2005 - raleigh incognito - 40th birthday present off you guessed it, the old folks

2010 - scott cx comp 2010.

seve65

seve65 wrote: »

silver tricycle

70s raleigh chopper, purple and 5 gears and speedoand milo whoah !

brings back memories, my nain (grandma) bought me that, apparently she flogged some of her belongings in the pawn shop so i could have it. Little did I know.

gman2k

The first bike I had was a handmedown from my sister, who in turn had been given it from some cousins (1970s single speed with coaster brake)
Next bike was a flat bar three speed internal geared machine, bought SH by my parents for me when I was starting out in secondary school IIRC.
Next came a ‘sports’ racer, 10 speed steel bike that was bought for me again by my parents when I received my inter cert results.
That lasted about three months and I traded it against a Dawes Cr-Mo racer in about Jan 88. This was when I started cycling proper!
That was then traded in about August/ Sept 88 for my Peugeot Triathlon Reynolds 501 framed bike – which I still own – see thread elsewhere!
The steel flat bar bike then was used as a stripped down single speed – one front brake, nothing else! And was used for commuting whilst studying in Carlow and Cork.
This bike became well battered – pedals were reduced to just spindles, and was used as a communal bike for lots of my house mate!
So in the summer of 92, I was in the market for something better, and my Dad sourced a nearly new ‘MTB’ from someone he knew in work. Cost about £60. It was a really heavy clunker, but took some crazy abuse whilst in my final year in college!
Also in my final year in college, I bought a second hand Diamond Back Apex cr-mo steel MTB frame from a housemate.
I then got this bike built up with Deore parts in late 93. (I still have this frame and forks, and it has been stripped back to bare metal for a rebuild project. I still have the Deore parts also!) (I have a thread elsewhere showing this Diamond Back)
Next on the list was 1995 – a Trek 8500 SHX bonded aluminium MTB frame, and soon after came a set of Rock Shox Indy XCs.
This bike was considerably upgraded in 1999 to 8spd Deore XT and new handbuilt wheels! (I still have this bike – threatened to sell it, but probably never will now).
The Peugeot was awakened from it’s slumber for a while in 2001, and I caught the bug again! I decided to ‘upgrade’ the frame, and bought a Sintesi ‘Spy’ Columbus Altec2 frame from Jimmy Stagg.
After a while I decided to upgrade the parts on the Sintesi to Campag Chorus 10 Spd, and some really lovely wheels – Record Hubs, Revolution spokes to Open Pro Rims.
A full carbon fork completed this build! (Still have this machine!)
Next, I decided to upgrade the Sintesi frame, so bought a Battaglin ‘Vortex’ Dedacci U2 with carbon rear end, full carbon fork.
At the same time I had a full carbon MTB project on the go, a Massi frame. Mainly SH XTR parts were sourced for this, but the frame was a little small for me.
An abandoned Raleigh ‘racer’ steel bike outside my fathers house was requisitioned by me and is a long term fixie project.
Then I decided to upgrade the Battaglin to my Scott Addict SL when I spotted this frame as a bargain, and bought the rest of the groupset as Campag Record 10spd. Zipp 303s finished off this bike!
After stripping down the Battaglin I found a nice crack along the head tube area, and I’m going to see if Battaglin will do anything for me – it’s practically an unused frame.
The Sintesi was then rebuilt with the Chorus 10speed with some XeroLite wheels, and is a really nice bike tbh, and I may sell it on soon.
A Kona Cowan full suspension frame was bought new for a bargain price and a full sus was built up – way too heavy now for general riding. Lots of chainreaction bargains went into this machine! I’m toying with selling this bike soon as it’s not getting the use from me.
I then bought a SH resprayed Specialized Langster frame from Freshtripe in the UK, and I’ve built this up really nice as a for sale project, see Adverts soon!
The Massi MTB carbon frame was swapped out for a no name Chinese carbon MTB frame, and branded a Scott by me! (Yeah, boo hiss etc from ye at the back). This bike really got the treatment, Rock Shox Reba Race SL, more XTR inc Stans Olympic tubeless rims on XTR rims, full carbon one piece bar and stem etc. Really nice machine now! It's different from the orig photos now!
The Massi has been almost completely rebuilt with a full Deore 9speed disc brake machine, and hopefully will be sold off soon!
Back then to the Peugeot 501 – recently rebuilt after a full respray and new 8spd Shimano Sora drvetrain, very happy with this bike – will probably be a family heirloom! BTW this is the first roadbike I’ve ever owned that has a full Shimano groupset!
I think that’s about it! 8 full bikes at the moment, with another couple of projects on the go!

Side Show Bob

First Bike Raleigh trike (c1975) slightly bigger than the one above with solid wheels
Raleigh 18 originally older sisters, front basket and carrier was immediately cut off (1978)
Then the chopper (the most dangerous thing ever given to a child) with car type gear lever in top tube (1981)
Raleigh Winner very cool black & Silver, 5 speed, my first bike with 27X¼ wheel. (1983)
Raleigh Solo 12 speed 501 frame with really poor quality Shimano groupset (1987)
Cannondale R500 Caad 4 Tiagra Groupset (2001) Pimped with SRAM Red 2009
Specialized Roubaix straight with top tube & Ultegra
Lapierre MTB only used it for about 50 km, didn’t take to mountain bike at all
Pinarello Prince Campagnolo Record 2008 and was stolen 2009 with only 1500km done
Used pimped Caad 4 until late 2009 and then got Roubaix Elite frame and fitted it with SRAM red while in the USA.
Cannondale SIX frame in USA 2010 but didn’t use it, had intended to transfer the groupset from the Caad 4 but like the it too much to strip apart.
Still have 3 bikes, unused MTB, Cannondale Caad 4 and Specialized Roubaix

Diego Murphy

80s-tricycle of some sort.

Late 80s-BMX-the blue one with sort of yellow grips with blue dots on them.

Early 90s-18 Speed Raleigh Marauder Mountain Bike

Mid 90s- Claude Butler Mountain Bike

Late 90s- 21 speed GT mountain bike(with triple triangular technology and rapid fire gear levers-actually my brother is still using this one)

2009 Cube Aerial(still have this one)
2011 Planet X HM Nanolight Carbon Fibre SRAM Red

RobFowl

RobFowl wrote: »

1993 British Eagle MTB with heavy suspension forks and a 531 steel frame. Bough it second hand after trading in the Raleigh pursuit from Raphael Kimmages bike shop (Got the giant escaper there too). Bit of a dog of a bike, sold it to a mate later that year.

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

just got a nice vintage English mtb with 'Reynolds 531 All Terrain butted tubes', brand is 'British Eagle'
Is a reynolds 531 mountain bike rare? Ive seen an old Raleigh with 501 tubing

gonna build up into a lightweight singlespeed or maybe a 29r