Here we go

Hi everyone, this is my first post which may interest one or two of the six billion or so people out there.

Here's a bit about my background....

I had always been a very keen cyclist but it wasn't until the Tour de France came to Brighton in 1994 that road racing had captured my imagination. I had watched it on TV the year before and the prospect of seeing it for myself (and a day out of school) seemed too good to be true. I did not expect to get hooked, but I surely did, and had to get my own road bike ASAP!

From that day on it was a case of doing extra paper rounds, part time jobs etc to pay for my first bike, a Raleigh M-Trax 7000R. This was one of the very last handbuilt Raleighs out of Nottingham (built by a chap called Clive, IIRC).

From the moment I had my first road bike I was constantly striving to improve it's, rather than my, performance! This has led me into a career in the cycle retail industry as a cycle mechanic/shop assistant full time since 1997.

In that time I have built/maintained bikes for the Commonwealth Games, Revolution track series and World Masters track championships. I have had two "Best-in test" reviews in the national press for my wheel building and am generally known as a tech-geek! Carbon fibre chainrings, 24carat gold cables, drilled out stuff; you name it, I've had it.

Now however, things have come full circle for me. Whilst in my day job I still love fitting people for exotic custom carbon fibre bikes and advising on how best to get under that 6.8kg limit the UCI set, I am now the proud and very lucky owner of a 1953 Stuart Purves road bike.

I have acquired this from an elderly customer who no longer had any use for it. I have gratefully accepted this on the proviso that I will restore it, as best as possible, to the original design brief.

For now, here are a couple of pictures of the bike as it has come into me. In my next post I will endeavour to give a full run down of the spec as I received it.

TTFN (that's Ta-ta for now!)

Steve.