Old Bloke On An Old Bike
The story of the restoration of a 1950s classic bicycle for a Land's End – John O'Groats charity ride in aid of Alzheimer's Society
20 Feb 2016: The bikes are ready!
Here she is, pretty much ready to go. I’m still messing around with the freewheel, chain and derailleur to get the drivetrain working as smoothly as possible, but I think all is well. Something is bound to break at some stage, but I now have spares for almost every part of the bike so we can take a rest day and wait for spares and tools to be posted to usif need be.
Eric’s bike is a Nigel Dean tourer beautifully repainted in Molteni team colours by Mercian Cycles of Derby. She’s also in good shape and rides well.
All that’s needed now (apart from a lot of training) is the route and schedule. We’ve decided on the start – we’ll be leaving Land’s End on June 12th, with a shortish first stage to make sure that the bikes are in good shape. The only other definite decisions so far are a stop in Shipley to visit the Ellis Briggs shop where the frame of my bike was built in 1949. And, of course, the destination: John O’Groats. Does anyone know a good End-to-End route passing through Shipley?
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Old Bloke On An Old Bike 