The One That Got Away...What Was Your's?...

every Pace RC200 that comes up on Ebay...

Listening to the 'Wichita Lineman' (not many better lines than "I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time") puts me just in the mealancholic mood to consider regret .....

The ones that got away are:

Holdsworth Avanti - first proper bike, owned, sold, reowned, rear ended by a double decker on The Elephant and Castle roundabout in morning rush hour, repaired and resprayed, sold on eBay equipped with Super Record for buttons (I appeared to forget that pounds were a suitable currency)

Specialized Stumpjumper - first really decent off roader bought for me by a friend ("I've entered us in the Polaris" "I haven't got a bike" "I've bought you a Stumpjumper, you owe me £625 big man". Even BITD I was a figure of fun), sold to get a Klein, repurchased following a respray, abandoned in Pakistan

De Rosa Titanio - available on eBay, negotiated with owner, decided a bit too much so bought a modern monster instead. I could have owned a De Rosa built by Ugo De Rosa! Idiot squared

The best part of the De Rosa is that it put me in Carpe Diem mode which means that I am bike rich but shed poor (have on a whim bought a Yo, an Inbred and a Racelight. For way less than the modern monster).

So the moral of the story is that it is better to have loved a bike and lost than never to have loved a bike at all

I will weep quietly now.

what a record. WHAT a record.

Talk above makes me wish I hadn't sold my RC200F6 in dark grey (named 'cool blue'). Cor that was a beautiful bike.

I was sooooo excited the day I went up to Mountain High in Rickmansworth to pick it up.

Sold before I realised I might want all my old retro stuff again along with all the lovely mid nineties bits on her...




...for pence.

This is an easy one......

My Gorgeous 1996 Independent Fabrication Deluxe in Green - Blue fade, complete with 1" matching 'Tears of a crown' rigid fork and Manitou fork, Full 950 XTR, Bontrager Race-Lite tubeless wheels too!

Didn't ride it at all for 6 months - then one day the wife says

"We could do with some new floorboards in the front room!"

And off it went on Singletrack mags website - 5 people wanted to buy it within 24 hours - something then should have clicked - I was asking a bit to little for it - £650! - Well we had new floorboards down within a week - my knees ached for days afterwards - and my heart was broken in twain!

Was it one of the Gewiss frames?

I understood that it is Ugos son Danilo who builds their Ti frames and has done for several years.

I missed out on a Titanio too - I had to settle for a steel one (actually I know the guy who bought the Titanio so I got to ride it. I prefer my steel one)...

Not one of the Gewiss ones I don't think and you're of course absolutely right it is Danilo who makes the Ti frames. Still, the change to own a De Rosa built by a De Rosa sounds pretty good!

I may have to get a Neo Primato as I'll never afford a new Titanio and the chance of finding a secondhand one in 60cm at the right price is probably very slim

I still pine for my old '92 GT Karakoram

Hey Ed, i ride a CORUM DE ROSA this was built by Ugo..Got to say the best steel road frame ive had the pleasure of and dont intend on getting rid....However my mate keeps teasing me with his TI DE ROSA...If i sell a few internal organs on the black market

The Corum looks great but the Neo Primato in Molteni orange is difficult to resist (how pathetic, liking it because of the colour!)

Liking things based on colour is not pathetic at all.
I only really got into road bikes beacuse I saw a Vitus Duraluminum frame with the anodised purple main tubes and silver lugs. To my 13 year old brain that looked the bomb!
A little later my appreciation of all things steel was enhanced by a Motorola colours Merckx