My first push-bike
I bought with my own money was a Raleigh Team out of my mum's catalogue as a student back in 1990. For an extra tenner, I could've got the Raleigh Banana, but it was exactly the same bike except for the decals. I put some serious mileage on that. Never anything long distance that was more than a day out, but still added up to many 1000s of miles. A common trip was the 15 miles or so to The Hare & Hounds pub in Leven in the evening. A couple of mates bought mountain bikes (which were still quite a novelty) about the same time and the racer vs mountain bike arguments were commonplace.

In 1998, when the only original parts were the frame, saddle and handlebars, I was cycling into town when some dozy bint in a Micra pulled out on me and I went clean over her bonnet. My frame actually creased with the force and that was that. It was only fit for the bin. Still, it left a nasty crease in the side of her car and a massive yet satisfying score across the bonnet. Not just a scratch either, a sizeable groove that would need filling.

I was gutted and I was nearly in tears when I got home. I loved that bike. After a couple of weeks of mourning, I consigned the bike to a skip.

About 6 years later, I came across this webpage.
www.simonmason.karoo.net/page470.htm

It can't be. Surely. The front forks were pushed back like mine were. Had someone dug it out of the skip, tarted it up and ridden about on it before dumping it on the mud? I emailed the guy. Alas, it wasn't the same bike. I had pink paint splashed under mine after riding through a spillage on the road. Also the frame wasn't big enough. Mine was a whopping 25 inches. Ah well.

A few months later, he emailed me back and asked me if I wanted it as he had bought a better bike. I jumped at the chance and he dropped it off. He didn't want anything for it, but I traded it for a crate of his favourite ale. I was overjoyed.

It needed a bit of work, but not much. I replaced the 10-speed gear cassette with a 12-speed, replaced the various cables and brake blocks and the gear shifters to indexed ones that click into place and it was as near as damnit to my old bike.

I was positively orgasmic. I took it for a spin around the block with a big stupid grin on my face. I had resigned to buying a mountain bike a few years previously, but this went like a rat up a drainpipe and could stop on a sixpence. I did forget how narrow the saddle was and the next day it felt like I'd been kicked up the arse to death.

My son's mates think it's fabulous but that's probably because such road bikes are rare nowadays and they all seem to be in excess of £500 in the shops. I've put many miles on it since, and unless some dozy cow in a Micra doesn't look where she's going, I intend to keep it on the road for many years to come.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 12:22, 18 replies)

Excellent stuff.
*click*
( Fathter Puddytat Kill Kill dat widdle boid is mine on, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 12:26, closed)

I like this.
My mountain bike's a Scorpio Champion All-Terrain, bought when I was 14 or so. No fork suspension; saddle, tyres and brakes have been replaced; the whole thing's as heavy as fuck; and I love it. It takes me everywhere.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 12:48, closed)

Fuzzy warm glow QOTW
I have a white 80s Peugeot racer that goes like shit off a shovel. I'd be devastated if it got redesigned by a Nissan!
(Beelzebub's Ball Bag is pleasuring your wife on, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 12:55, closed)

Nice!
I used to live opposite an old family run bike shop as a kid, and was always ogling the bikes in there. Remember the Raleigh Banana well, and the Purple dusted Raleigh Mustang too - one of the first mountain bikes I ever saw.
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 13:07, closed)

Good stuff
I commute on a 30 year old Benotto racing bike. Love it to bits. Stripped everything off it. Just one gear, no maintenance and super zippy.
(Alphabet Soap boshboshboshbosh, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 13:56, closed)

Great story...
...a definite winner.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 13:59, closed)

Pics.
We need pics of the done up not-original.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 15:16, closed)

bugger that
it's pissing down here.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 15:22, closed)

eeeh
I were right abaht that saddle though.
( Not Pineapple anymore, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 15:38, closed)

That advert ...
What is it?
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 15:43, closed)

yellow pages
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMYZyUygW6Y
( Not Pineapple anymore, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 15:46, closed)

there is one thing that troubles me
I'm sure it's my ignorance, but having looked at that link, why did that chap buy a perfectly good bike to fix a broken one? Why not just ride the one that worked?
(Deligrams, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 16:08, closed)

because the banana is a better frame - cheap bike was just a way of buying wheels without shelling out lots of £££ for new ones.
(Alphabet Soap boshboshboshbosh, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 16:22, closed)

gives me a warm glow
reading a story like this. Sometimes older is better.
(Gru being trolled since 1998, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 17:02, closed)

just ask Wayne Rooney

( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 17:09, closed)

I never understood the mountain bike versus racer thing.
Surely road bikes are better on the road, because they're geared that way and have less rolling resistance? Similarly, if you tried taking a racer on a woodland trail at high speed you'd break the thing.
"Horses for courses", perhaps?
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 17:49, closed)

Click
Click click click click. Used to love cycling me.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Tue 9 Nov 2010, 18:47, closed)

...
I remember reading about Simon's find a few years back (I used to read/post to uk.rec.cycling). It's great to hear the other side of the story.
( SteamedCleaner, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 11:40, closed)