Dave Marsh late 80s TT bike.

Recently found a very nice Dave Marsh lightweight road-bike frame/forks.

Fitted it with some components off another similar machine, and here it is:

Very nicely built steel frame (unknown tubing just now) and quite close clearances, so a dedicated fast, fun machine for me.

I know very little about Dave Marsh right now, but DM are prepping the GB womens Olympic bikes, so I guess they have respect! The bike is absolutely great to ride and fitted here with 700x28 Panaracers & Campagnolo Centaur triple chain-wheel, which rides well on my local corrugated roads, and looks brilliant in my opinion.

Had some comments about a 'Ghost Bike' etc. on Retrobike, but I try different ideas for finish/components & I like the clean lines of this one. (Looks neater with black tyres I think now, &, when I run over black cherries on our local paths in the summer, it is a problem keeping them clean...) Experiment I say. Variety is the spice of life for me.

Got the same cream Panaracer Paselas on my 55 Royal Enfield Superlight & I think that is very cool too.

1955 frame, powdercoated & built with relatively modern components.
RetroMod?? That's what I call them anyway. A nice vintage frame, fitted with good modern parts, is very sensible to me. Good braking is essential IMHO & alloy rims with good calipers (Weinmann Carreras here) makes it safe to ride in the wet.....

This particular Royal Enfield Superlight came with 26" steel wheels originally. With 531 frame tubing. It also takes 700 rims comfortably, and you can even go with 27" if you care to.
So it is a great basis for a RetroMod.

If you can find them.

I did find another one; )
See here.

Bicycles, just bicycles...

Welcome to my modest space on Blogger: )

This Blog is solely concerned with bicycles. Their riding, maintenance, restoration, research and some of the various issues concerning cyclists everywhere, but mainly in UK.  Since I'm born here my main area of knowledge and interest is obviously English bicycles, but the odd Italian exotic might well surface at times.... French and others also, at times. Nothing political here, just my experiences.


I am (always) currently revamping my own website  www.bicyclz.com and these pages will (hopefully) be a taster for that. You want more detail on any of my machines seen here, it'll be there! Or a Contacts page to ask: )

All contacts, questions etc. most welcome.

Variety is the 'spice of my bicycle life,' so you will see a variety here also. Claud Butler, Mercian, Holdsworth, Raleigh RSW, Dawes, Royal Enfield Revelations, Superlights, Gundle, Bates, Simoncini, Tour de Suisse, Simoncini, Brompton, Puch, Scott, Carrera Podium, Chesini, etc.etc etc.

Some rare, some more common, but all nice: )

Anybody recognise the above?
Or this below?

This one is a Rory O'Brien Club bicycle from the early 1950s and a classy, lightweight machine awaiting restoration. Rorys from this period have a good chance of being built by Les Ephgrave and this one bears all the hallmarks.


The mixte at the top is a Tour de Suisse from around 1980. Swiss made and the company is still in existence and better known now for its electric bikes!






Golden Age photos.
(part of an auction find)

I believe this photo is from the late 1940s. The car is a Wolseley but the bicycle is unknown currently. Has a Chater Lea chain-set and chunky seat-stays. Riding fixed as was the fashion then, and probably a time trialler.

This photo was taken in 1947. It says on the reverse: "Geoffrey aged 20 1947, taken during a tour of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire." The bicycle is a Bates, recognizable by the Diadrant forks.  He was a lucky to be riding such a fine machine in the austerity of post war Britain.

Looks like this young lady has a new bicycle! Photo probably dates to late 40s and the bicycle is a juvenile Coventry Eagle. Makers of fine machines in those days.

A very nice period photo. Unknown rider and bicycle but a familiar scene in the 40s and 50s on the English, traffic free lanes.



Just bought a couple more bicycles on ebay.

The latest being a mid 1950s Royal Enfield Superlight. Above. Looking a bit sad here with totally wrong track bars, but having the original Royal Enfield alloy chain-set and brake calipers and a potentially good front lamp.... (Depends on the rust on it: )

On collection it looked pretty sad, but worth its £26 price. Any Reynolds 531 has to be worth that? I think so. Especially a Royal Enfield. Quite rare. The bars look good to me: )

Getting it home and dismantling showed that the frame/forks, were very good. The wheel rims way too rusty to even attempt a recondition, but the hubs are good and can be used again, or ebayed to get some money back: ) The track bars turn out to be 1930s Major Taylors and after a clean up went back on ebay. Any guesses about how much they got?  (£55) The frame/forks are waiting now for a repaint and will make a lovely retro bicycle eventually. And just my size: )

Latest version of this frame is below. A great, nimble machine now.

 I love the idea of finding a cool retro frame & building it up again with modern components: ) I don't care about 'Originality' most of the time. I want a modern, safe to ride machine that I will use...

The other buy was a Falcon Black Diamond which I 'won' for £50....

Not my best buy, but a nice, basic machine after a clean up....

Long gone now, but I still  use the panniers: )

The Catalogue page is a later Black Diamond, not the exact model, but the Spec is similar.