Your bike history

2018
2018
specialized tarmac pro, dura ace, ffwd
Trek
Dolan

2017
Specialised tarmac pro, campag record, Ffwd wheels
Trek
Dolan

2016
Scorpion CS, campag chorus, Ffwd
Trek pro-caliber 9.7sl mtb, sram xx1/shimabo xt8000
Dolan

2015
Scorpion CS, campag chorus, spin industries wheels
Kona Kula
Dolan

2014
Starley, ultegra, shimabo/use wheels
Kona Kula
Dolan Preffisio, 105 5800, campag Thaksin wheels

2013
Spin industries, sram force, spin wheels
Kona Kula
Chas Roberts, campag veloce, campag Thaksin

2012
Coinage cx-1, campag record, revolution carbon wheels
Kona Kula
Kona jake the snake, ultegra 10,

2011
Cinelli e-strada, sram force, revolution wheels
Kona Kula
Kona jake the snake

2010
Colnago cx-1, campag record, revolution wheels
Kona Kula
Kona jake the snake

2009
Kona king zing, sram force, mavic cosmic carbone
Kona Kula
Kona jake the snake

2008
Kona zing
Kona Kula supreme
Kona jake the snake

2007
Kona king zing, dura ace, mavic carbone cosmic
Kong Kula supreme, Xtr, ringle/stans wheels
Kona jake the snake, ultegra 10,

2006
Kona zing alloy/carbon, dura ace, mavic carbone cosmic
Kona Kula, XT
Kona jake the snake

2005
Pinarello Prince SL, dura ace, ksyrium sl
Kona Kula, XT

2004
Pinarello Prince SL
Fondriest carbon, dura ace, ksyrium

2003
Giant tcr alloy, ultegra

2002
Giant tcr alloy, ultegra
Voodoo mtb, xt/xtr

2001
Giant tcr alloy, ultegra
Voodoo mtb, xt/xtr

2000
Giant tcr, ultegra
Voodoo MTB, xt/Xtr
GT I drive, xt/xtr

1999
Giant tcr alloy, ultegra
Specialized allez alloy, ultegra
Specialized m2 mtb, XT

1998
Specialized alloy road bike, ultegra
Specialized m2, XT

1997
Trek 2100 carbon road frame, shimano 105
Klein MTB, XT, AMP forks

1996
Dennis field 653 frame, mavic/campag group
Kona cindercone, LX

1995
Dennis Field 653, mavic/campag

I think that’s about it.

A long list to follow, my

A long list to follow, my excuse is I have been doing this for a while and have raced in most disciplines, and tour and commute.

Three wheeler, rear wheel drive, single rod lever brake action directly on the front (solid rubber) tyre.
Fat single tube frame and fat tyre bike with single front rod lever brake and rear carrier. Used to learn to ride aged about 4 with my 9 year old sister sitting on the carrier as active stabilisers. No helmet, no parents no help when I headed towards the corner of a garage as my sister leapt off to safe herself. I dodged the corner of the wall as I flew over the handle bars. Nothing ventured nothing gained – I back on and got the hang of steering after that.
Slightly bigger (16” wheels) bike with front and rear rod lever brakes.  Used extensively including fitting the smaller front wheel from the three wheeler and used for jumping off ramps.
My first bike that was not a hand me down from my sisters, a second hand Halfords 24”  wheel all steel bike with flat handle bars, still single speed and cable brakes (no functional in the wet due to the steel rims. Converted to 5 speed with Simple gears and drop bars and crashed into the back of a car shortly after when I was looking down to see the gears.
1984 – first full size bike  – Peugeot Champion DuMonde frame (lugless welded frame and the only champion characteristic was where it hid all the concrete in the frame as the frame alone weighed about 9 pounds (over 4kg).  Built up with 27” wheels (Weinmann rims, Maillard hubs and Michelin zig zag tyres) more Simplex gears with 10 speeds and Weinman brakes. This went through a few iterations, repainted in black and gold and then white with blue candy stripes to prevent theft while at college. Crashed at high speed into a hedge when descending, folding up the forks which were folded and welded tubes rather than proper drawn tubes. Straightening them at the road side and then racing to the local bike shop to order new forks to avoid missing a day’s training.
1985 – Very second hand Clifford frame in 531 wild Orange paint and very relaxed  seat angle.  Built up as a training bike and still used as a fixed gear pub and shopping bike with retired racing bits.
1986 – Motobecane grand sprint Vitus 888 tubing frame from local racer as I started to race. More Weinmann brakes and added Suntour cyclone rear mech and Stronglight 99 chainset. First introduction to sprint rims (Atom hubs and Montherly Pro rims)
1987 – Hand built (Tony Revell) frame in 531 – one of the most comfortable bikes I have owned. Built up with Suntour Cyclone brakes, Shimano 600 front and rear mechs and chainset and Campagnolo Victory pedals.  Cinelli 65 bars and 1a stem – and I use the same on most bikes  since.  Originally a Turbo saddle but swapped to a Concor when I found I did not get on with the Turbo saddle. Rode this in the junior tour of Ireland representing Wales. This frame was badly bent in a heavy crash in 1989 in the middle of a road race – ultimately a friend bought the remain from me and straightened it out for commuter duty. The crash ripped the back off one of the Campag Victory pedals and dislocated my hip. I swapped to Look pedals straight after this
1988 – Bob Weston Frame bought as a training frame, equipped mostly from spares rejected from racing bikes. This frame took me to France and back from North Wales twice covering 750 miles in 6 days and cover a higher average mileage than the Tour of France I was going to watch.  I caught up with the Tour to see Greg Lemond’s comeback time trial in 1989 on stage 5 which was enough to convince e he would win that year
1988 – Ribble 653 frame and most of the bits from the Revel frame with the addition of wheels using Argent 10 rims on Campagnolo Victory hubs and stainless spokes. This frae was written off in 1989 when a car cut me up leaving me somersaulting over the bonnet and landing on my feet (Look pedals helped here!)
1989 – Peugeot Perthus Pro 753 frame and most of the bits from the Ribble. Frame bent in almost direct repeat of car turning into me. More painful for me with my shin hitting the front corner of the car and my ankle smashing into the crank. Forks from Ribble fitted to the remains and the same bike then raced in 100 ile time trial 3 days later. Walking was quite challenging for the next couple of weeks after this one
1990 Track bike in 531 with lugless fillet brazed construction and shot in rear stays. Another Orange bike but I repainted this one in blue.  Raced for a number of years including at Leicester at the track champs.  This followed my first track racing using my Dad’s Ephgrave road path frame from the 50s.
1990 – Kona Lavadome bought having had a go on a friend’s mountain bike. Spent many hours doing winter training in the hills on this and only sold recently.
1991 – finally replaced the Peugeot frame with a Raleigh Special Products 653 frame – a bit of a mistake as it had “special” geometry with a 75 degree or worse seat tube angle making positioning awkward and me longing for my old Revel frame and the holes for letting out gas during brazing were so large they whistled when you rode (some tape solved that).
1994 – new track bike – a Ribble 531 with Campag Record chainset.
1998 – experimental lo pro using a small frame
1998 – second attempt at low pro using a Muddy Fox alloy frame with colour coded carbon forks
2005 – 1950s tandem frame from ebay built for the school run taxi, taking two children to school for a number of years, the second child fitting on a custom rear seat.
 2007 – Accidental ebay purchase of Fondriest Mega plus frame led to upgrading  to a mostly Campag Mirage/ Centaur / Daytona equipped machine.  Unfortunately I had to conclude the frame was too small and needed replacing.  Wheels were Campag Mirage hubs built onto MA2 rims.
2009- training bike built around a Deeside cycles alloy frame – hugely stiff and significantly uncomfortable.
2010 – second tandem – a Dawes Galaxy bought in haste due to low price – I discovered why it was cheap when I tried riding it.  The forks were displaced sideways and needed some significant force to cold set them back into shape so that the tandem rides hands free.
2011 – hand built Penny Farthing – just had to be done
2011 – Planet X Pompino fixed bike with deep V wheels (the cheap sort that look good but appear to be full of concrete). Campag aero seatpin and Stronglight 99 chainset recycled from some of the earlier bikes.  I really like this bike and the way it rides – almost enough to look forward to winter when I can use it for most of my training.
2012  – ebay Chinese carbon fibre frame and all the bits from the Fondriest, plus a new set of wheels, Bianchi branded Miche.
2013 – swapped the training frame for a Columbus Zonal alloy frame with canti-bosses. This is used for training, touring and off road / cyclocross depending.
2014 – Mongoose BMX for playing at racing.
2015 – Team Orange E4 mountain bike in a sorry state but restored to replace the long standing Lavadome (see 13 above)
2017 – new carbon frame – Dolan Etape with the bits from the Chinese Carbon. Amazing improvement in comfort.
Small wheels folding bike undergoing conversion to something vaguely rideable
Not really bikes but to get to the round 30 counting them as a single entry –  I have built three recumbents, one unicycle and own a second unicycle.

@madcarew did your mum work
@madcarew did your mum work for British Cycling? Her motivational methods may have inspired Shane Sutton (pulled uphill with the whacking strap)

Way too many to list

Way too many to list induvidally or even remember what year i had them

So off the top of my head over the last 35 ish years ive had

Bmx’s 60+ (been a bmx’er for 30 years, just sold 10 from my bmx collection)

Mtb’s around 15, mix of hardtails, full sussers, dh rigs etc…

Road bikes 15, 12 of which have been Colnago’s (been a roadie for around 7 years)

Then there’s the odd bikes like choppers, budgies, hybrids etc…

I prob buy at least 2 bikes a year, used to have one road bike for commuting (5000 miles a year) and one road bike for good weather riding, always been a bit of a wheeler dealer when it comes to bikes plus have friends in the indusrty so always get good deals

A childs Raleigh in the mid

A childs Raleigh in the mid 70s, went without a bike for a while until about late ’82 when I got a Raleigh Winner, that got nicked, got another Raleigh (Scorpio I think), that got pinched outside the village post office (though we lived in the village insiide a big housing estate so crime was rife in the 80s) and then I saved all my paper round money and bought a Falcon from Halfords for £114, it was literally every penny I had saved and a lot of money!

I’d started cycling to school around that time (it wasn’t that far but was quicker than walking) and getting about a bit further, summer of 84 my neighbour (on a BMX) and I cycled to Bridlington from outskirts of Hull and back (circa 60 miles). This was along the A165, it was a doddle and no fear of being run over.

Commuted to college for 2 years (on the Falcon) and did my first audax , joined the army so without a bike for a while, accquired a new Raleigh Record Sprint for summer of ’90 to tour around France, do more cycling and commuting to work, had it 11 years and did a shed load of miles on it somewhere around 80-85,000 miles, also had a dabble with a couple of mountain bikes -Kona Lava Dome and some big arse steel downhill thing and a Raleigh cr-mo MTB (still have the latter two) and foray into clipless pedals in the mid 90s.

2001 bought a Ridgeback Genesis Day 02, my first flat bar, epic bike, did everything, fast handling, was as adept on a fast run and high speed descending as it was carrying loads/doing utility duties. Sold that in ’07 and replaced with a spesh Globe pro (Still main daily).

Meantime I’d bought a Raleigh special products Titanium (still got 14 years later) and by the mid to late 00s my bike fetish really took off

Older stuff, Carlton Super Python (Still got), AS Gillott, Rudge, Halfords of Birmingham single speed, Dawes Londoner, Dawes Galaxy (70s), Dawes Imperial, Barry Chick (with Campag 8×3), Claud Butler Velox, Peugeot Super Comp(PX-10), Hirame (in the most gorgeous blue ever but too small!), Bromwich, FW Evans, GPH Heswall (as ridden by Chris Boardman) and rebuilt as a 10×3 super tourer/audax.

Then there’s the more modern bikes, Villager Eagle (as per my pic), Porche Bike R, Principia Rex, Principia RS6 (epic rocket ships), Peugeot 2000 (still got), ’91 Gitane team replica (Vitus GTI & still got), Spesh Globe Elite converted to a drop bar tourer/audax/winter racer )still got), my first carbon bike after I sold the Principia’s was a KTM that was direct from the continental team as an unused frame and is my main go to summer bike, then I bought a NOS Scott CR1 SL frameset (haven’t built) and the last a few months a NOS ’09 Spesh Sirrus Pro Ltd Carbon that is going to get gravel/off road duties this summer.

For me I’m done buying bikes for at least the next 4-5 years, I’ve got a few older bikes of different vintages and some modern stuff for going fast, pottering, utility/commuting and touring

It all started off 7/8 years

It all started off 7/8 years ago for me.

I got a 2010 Giant Seek 4, 3×8 speed with big slick tyres. Not particularly fast, but more reliable than the bus for getting me to school and to see my (now) girlfriend. This bike then got converted to Sora 9 speed with a 50/34 crank, cycled around Normandy on that bike and loaded it up to go camping as well 🙂 I eventually converted it to a DIY 1x cyclocross setup before stripping it and selling it (I sorely miss that bike) 🙁

Got my first road bike a year or so later… 2011 Dawes Giro 500 with Tiagra 9 speed. Rode that bike everywhere and tackled a fair few hills on it, massively increased my fitness too! Eventually ended up with Campag Zondas and Shimano 105 5800. Had my first crash on that bike and my first encounter with ice (which didn’t end well). Also had a few very uncomfortable incidents with vehicles, one of which led to the police getting involved and the driver got fired from his job in the end. Last year I stripped down the bike for parts and sold the frameset.

At the end of 2016, I replaced the Giant with a Mango Point AR frameset which I built up initially with Sora R3000 before using the Shimano 105 5800 from my Dawes with TRP Spyre brakes. Used this bike for commuting to work and uni. Sold it a couple months ago to a chap whos using the bike for LEJOG.

Enter carbon;

To replace my Dawes I got a 2017 Canyon Ultimate CF SLX Disc 8.0 with Mavic Cosmics, awesome bike, my PR’s everywhere! Upgraded it to Ultegra R8000 a couple months ago.

With my Canyon as my summer bike, I sold my Mango and bought a Whyte Wessex 2018. The Ultegra R8000 shifters are on my Canyon, and the RS685’s (from the Canyon) are now on the Wessex, also put some deeper DT Swiss R32 Spline wheels. Awesome winter and commuter bike.

Other bikes;

Peugeot Premierelle I saved, someone was taking it to the tip, spent a couple weeks restoring it and eventually sold that.

Also got hold of a Raleigh Olympus, saved that from the tip too which I restored… and sold!