Nostalgia is a funny old thing isn’t it. Sometimes we (me!) hang onto things that really have had their day, yet we can’t quite let go of them. They might sit in the biscuit tin of stuff waiting for another life, or be built up on a retro or Eroica bike to be enjoyed occasionally. Here are a five such items that I hold dear, plus the stories behind why I still love them years later. We’ll start with some rather old shoes…
Sidi Dominators (mid-to-late ’90s vintage)
When SPD pedals came out in 1990, my friends and I were riding cross country mountain bikes with pedals, toe clips and straps! It seems mad now, looking back, but that’s how it was. My first set of SPDs came to me third-hand (some PD-M737s) along with shoes, and it was all rather worn out, but what a revelation to clip in! There was no going back.
At the time, for many aspiring racers and serious XC riders, the shoe to have was the Sidi Dominator – and so it was for me too. I loved the bold blue with yellow detailing, aggressive sole, mix of Velcro straps and clicky top strap adjuster, and most importantly, they fitted me so well. I rode everything in them, and for many years, but it was when the yellow sole started to part company with the main sole that I had to retire them. I tried several cobblers to get them mended, but no-one could or would. So it was time for new shoes. Guess what I bought? Yup, the Sidi Dominator 5 in black.
Of course they fitted me beautifully out of the box, however I couldn’t bear to throw the old ones away. After all, I’d raced in them, completed Lands End to John O’Groats in them, and they’d been my pride and joy. So I put them in the loft. Why? I don’t really know, but I still have them.
I dug them out as I was thinking about this article. Unfortunately the yellow soles had become very crumbly, and so I’ve mostly peeled it away, but the rest of the shoes (and black soles) are in remarkably good condition. I’m still not sure that I can throw them away. Maybe they can be left permanently on my turbo trainer bike instead, as walking in them would be terrible…
Shimano 105 6 speed downtube shifters (SL-1050)
Many years ago I rode to Norwich from south of London over a couple of days with a couple of friends. I was riding my old racer with 10 speeds, yes that means it had a 5 speed freewheel, and friction downtube shifters! I wasn’t being retro, it’s just what I rode. Anyway some distance into the ride the friction stopped frict-ing and as no amount of tightening did anything, I had to ride one handed and hold the lever in place to keep a gear. Not ideal for 20 miles! We came across a village with a bike shop which had some 105 6 speed shifters. We bought and fitted them, and carried on with the ride. Interestingly you could choose between friction or indexed, so naturally I chose friction mode! I love the squared off look of the levers, the precise click when changing gear and the dipping of my hand to change gear. I still have the same shifters on the same bike, but I now have a 6 speed cassette and use the indexing mode. That’s progress for you!
Shimano Deore 7 speed shifters (with the ‘phantom’ eight click)
These thumb shifters come from the early ’90’s and were used with a 7 speed cassette and a triple chainring. Remember those? They were reliable and rugged, and to my recollection, always worked. If your hands were cold and tired you could shift with your whole hand if you needed to! They had the ability to switch to friction mode if your gears were playing up, and not indexing nicely. They also had the much whispered about feature of ‘the phantom eighth click’. This meant that they would work with an eight speed cassette with the unmarked ‘over-click’ on the right hand shifter. Much like Shimano’s bulletproof SPD pedals (PD-M520) these shifters were built like tanks, and were really robust. The move to the Mega-9 (9 speed) system forced a move to trigger style shifters, which, while they worked well, never captured my heart in the same way! They sit in my biscuit tin of old stuff, but are much cherished for the adventures that they were part of.
Continental Cross Country tyres (559-40)
These tyres were fantastic! Fast on-road when covering the miles and decent off-road, despite having to run higher pressures.
They were the perfect tyre when racing in the Polaris Challenges that I used to do with my mate Rob. For those who don’t know, the Polaris Challenge is a two-day race over mixed terrain with orienteering challenges, as well as being entirely self-supported. This meant that you needed – as a pair – to carry a tent, sleeping bag, food, clothes and spares over wild terrain.
Because sometimes a longer section of road riding would be more efficient than riding off-road to the next checkpoint, having good rolling tyres could make quite a difference. The downside was that they were not as good as wider tyres when off-road, mostly due to having to run higher pressures. It was a compromise, as always. Anyway, when Conti discontinued the tyre I was quite sad. So my last one, when it had run its course, had a section chopped out, to be kept in my biscuit tin of nonsense.
5-arm cranks and polished silver. Mmmm…
There is something really appealing about a polished silver groupset on a classic bike. I also really like the balance look of a 5-arm spider. I don’t mind if it’s Campagnolo or Shimano. Neither whether it has 135, 130 or 110 BCD chainrings. This chainset is a Shimano FC-1050 with 130 BCD chainrings, and is part of the same groupset that my shifters come from (mentioned above). I do like its classic design, and the way it sets this particular bike off.
The next iteration of 105 (1055) used a painted silver finish, which is nice, but it’s not quite the same. Modern groupsets are almost entirely black, with the only exceptions I can find being the Campagnolo Centaur 11 speed rim brake groupset with a polished silver option, and Shimano’s 1×10 CUES groupset (and the chainset on the latter isn’t fully silver). These seem to be your choices, other than digging through crates at a bike jumble to find old groupset components and refurbishing them…
Hopefully I’ve stirred some memories for you, even if you’re not someone who hangs onto old and odd cycling nonsense!
4 thoughts on “Five old bits of cycling kit that I can’t bring myself to let go of, and sometimes still use”
The click on 9 speed XTr shifters was the precise pinnacle of cycling. Short throw thumb shift was exact, super sound and never to be beaten. Then you realise it is emotional attachment from youthful days when the legs are always like a rocket and the linked v brakes were awful.
Exactly, same for me with Shimano 600 1986, never experienced such incredible power transmission since…because I’ve never had eighteen year old legs since…
Me. I’m old and click like an XTR shifted did.
When I bought my first ‘proper’ bike – a 1984 Raleigh Clubman with indexed Suntour ARX (which was fantastic), Weinmann brakes and an overgeared freewheel (which definitely weren’t!), it had a five-arm polished silver chainset (Sugino, what happened to them?!), which to me marked it out as a quality bike.
And to be fair it was – I put in over 30,000 miles on it, possibly a lot more, before giving it to a charity after everything had been upgraded. It still had loads of life in it but I was no longer riding it.
Some of my riding kit dates back over a decade and a half, though I don’t think much further than that. But I still looked very retro on a recent cycling week in Mallorca, where I seemed to be the only one in short socks!!