Relics: Our First Race Bikes
Relic
An unexpected find at a shop, led to an Instagram photo shared on Facebook and comments about my first bike. A possible future side project too: a museum of cyclo-computers.
-
Martin Gisborne – First road bike: a blue Raleigh Arena which I always thought was a poor imitation of the Carlton Continental my brother had once had (and all the cool kids had moved on to the Raleigh Europa. Second road bike: a Peugeot which I loved. I rode thousands of miles on while training for short track. Had it stolen from right outside of a nurses room in the nurses quarters at the local hospital. She was kindly patching up the blood pouring out of my knee after I’d fallen off at the end of a ride. Third road bike: a Dave Marsh, handmade, 753 tubing beauty. Outfitted with Campag components. Mr Marsh himself drove down to Nottingham, from Rotherham, with the bike in the trunk of his car. I remember him taking it out, putting it together and adjusting the bars/saddle to fit. I remember clipping into the Look pedals and listening to the brand new, hand made wheels, go b-r-r-r-r-r-r-ing as the spokes settled in for the first 10 yards..
-
Byron – My first road “race” bike was a Specialized Bicycles Epic Allez, the alumimum-lugged, carbon tubed whip machine with a Vetta computer on it..
-
Brian Snyder – First race bike was a brand new teal and white 1987 Schwinn tempo. Of course I plopped an avocet 20 computer on that beast. Who knows where either of those are now.
-
Marc Pagani – First road bike: Ross Eurosport. Second road bike (and the one I got into long distance touring with): Fuji. First race bike: i custom built a Peugeot Reynolds 531 frame up with Shimano 600EX and Matrix ISO rims, and Clement Criterium Seta tubulars. Went from that to a couple of aluminum Felt’s that I built up with Campagnolo Chorus, and I’m now on my Orbea Orca with Campy Super Record Record 11 with lots of Deda and Edge 1.45 wheels.
-
Mark V – First road bike: Specialized Allez lugged steel. 2nd was Colnago Bi-Titan; it was a piece of shit. Bought the Allez back and used as a work bike for years. 3rd bike was a Bianchi El/OS; a bike that was just so right. Sold it to an ex-gf. Bought it back, still have it 16 yrs since I first rode it.
And Matthew Cole noted, “I love how the color coding indicates you’re in “The DANGER ZONE!!!!” if you’re riding 20+ mph.”
Epic Allez
Your first race bike? I still see Allez’s on the road and locked in bike racks.