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Although like any youngster I had ridden bicycles, it was following a divorce over 20 years ago and encouraged by my youngest son, a keen cyclist to this day, that I got back into cycling. Moving back into Central London, quite apart from the economics, riding a bike as my main mode of transport and not owning a car, made most sense.

It gave me freedom of movement, cost effective reliability and, the most surprising thing of all – total predictability in the time taken to ride from one place to another, regular ‘commutes’ could be timed to within one minute regardless of traffic. I still have three of the bikes I bought along the way or should I say, three stories…

The Trek 930 – Single Track

This is the oldest of my bikes that I bought back in 1995 and today, serves as my “shopping bike” although it is still a very good ‘hard tail’ mountain bike, very light and quick.

My first mountain bike I had bought from a shop called Brixton Cycles and through having it serviced regularly, I built a personal connection with the people there who were all great characters. When after 4 years, my original bike got stolen, I replaced it with another bought from them and about a year later, out of the blue they phoned me to say that they had another bike for me.

It turned out that someone had bought this Trek 930 against their advice because to them (BC) it seemed the wrong thing for what he wanted. It was a £500 bike and in a final bid to dissuade the customer from making a mistake, they said that if they bought it and then came back to them, they would only give them £200 as a trade-in. Two weeks later, that is what happened, the customer ended up with what they should have bought in the first place and Brixton Cycles sold me the bike for the trade-in £200.

The Trek Y22

I love radical designs and this most certainly is “radical”. The body from which everything else hangs, is made from carbon fibre and is a “full bounce” bike having both front and rear suspension to soften the blows of riding off-road. Trek only made these bikes for about 3 years I think, the cost of making the “Y” carbon fibre frame from which it took its name, proved too much.

It was 1998 and Brixton Cycles had three “Y” 1997 model year bikes in stock, one each of the £1,000, £2,000 and £3,000 models, as Mel (Boss Lady) said, they had got them in as “wall sculptures”. The retail prices of the expensive bikes (+£300) are controlled by the importers, Trek in this case and likely because they had decided to cease production of the “Y” range, BC were told to sell them off. After some negotiations, they sold me the £2,000 Y for £1,000 – a brilliant deal for me!

I have had lots of fun on this bike, when I went to work and live in the States, my youngest son Michael ‘looked after it’ and on my return, I had it rebuilt in terms of the running gear. I still ride it but if ever I break the frame, that will be the end of the bike so there is a part of me that is tempted to just keep it for a wall decoration and reminder of the good times we had together and the faces it brings to mind.

The Klein Mantra

When I shipped out to the States in 2000, it was unclear just how long I would be there but with the help of Arlan one of the local IT Team who was a keen road cyclist, we toured the bike shops of Rockford in our lunch times. My original idea was just to buy a relatively cheap run around bike to use so, if I got pulled after just a few months, I would give it away and not bring it home but things turned out very different both in the length of time I was there and, the bike I bought.

I had first seen the Klein Mantra many years before in London and had fallen in love with the sheer radical concept behind it – one great big oval aluminium tube with front forks one end, suspension unit the other. However, I was a “commuter cyclist” and £1,500 of bike ‘U-Locked’ to a lamp post – not really feasible !

The last shop that Arlan took me to was Rockford Cycles run by a guy who was an ex-Trek salesman and a really decent chap. I spotted an all black Mantra – Wow Factor 5 ! He got it down, it was the ‘middle sized’ model, I usually ride small but then and once again, the “fickle finger of fate” struck.

I like Trek as a brand because their bikes have a ‘neutral fit’ which suits my build and they have been successful gobbling up other American brands along the way like Bontrager and Klein. The Mantra had ceased production that year so, and American businesses don’t mess around on discounts, all existing models were being sold off. Want a “small” frame, get you one in within a couple of days and he did.

This Mantra cost me around £700 and if just for the very many “soul rides” in Rock Cut Park over my time based in Illinois, it would have been very good value even if I had left it behind which I didn’t because when I eventually came home, it came with me too and has provided me with lots more fun hours since.

Not Just Bikes then…

So I hope I have made my point and told my story, these are more than bicycles they are also reminders of time, place and most importantly of all, the people I was involved with during those times. I have bought two other bikes since, one very expensive, one pretty cheap (less than £200) and both I gave away, why ? Neither had a “story” to tell, they were just bikes.

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