After riding the ‘cross bike for far too long on the black stuff, It was time to get serious about a bike built for the purpose. Scouring eBay hadn’t turned up much over the past 3 months – until this week, that is. And just as well – since my beloved Peugeot I use to get to work had a catastrophic engine failure on the way from retrieving my Yeti at Manchester International.
The idea of an old school roadie must have been inspired in my youth upon seeing a 1984 Dura-Ace spec’d bike a mate of mine had picked up. It was pig heavy, but in the time he had it, and even until the present day where another friend is now the custodian, the only component I have seen changed on it was the bar tape. So in my current circumstances – where for 4 months of the year it is nasty cold, wet, and everything outdoor is covered in a smearing of component grinding salt – a simple roadie makes sense. Or as the locals say in the North of England “there int owt that can go wrong w’ bike like that”
So in an experiment for training for the summer marathons, I’ll be piloting a 20-something year old Paul Milnes (made by a great shop in West Yorkshire by the way) weighing in at probably 14-15kg. So it looks pretty grim now that i have been forced to ride an old clunker to work in lieu of driving – but on the bright side, I now have strictly enforced the n+1 rule with 5 bikes calling our one bed flat home!