Les Rigden 653

Update on Les Rigden Tandem

Well, I finally finished stripping the tandem down and cleaning up a few spots on the frame, at which point I decided that a really excellent paint job was required. Today, I hauled the frame up to Mercian in Derby and ordered a respray which should take about 6 weeks. The original color of the frame appeared to be a sort of dark blue (see pics on flickr at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40147489@N ... 824121091/

Once I was at Mercian, the 60-plus colors available were all with merit, and the choice was very difficult, but as I only wanted a single color on the bike, I thought a lighter color would show the lugwork best and provide a little shadow to show the relief work. I chose a polychromatic minty green sort of color, about one shade off of a light blue. The man then mercilessly brought out a fresh Mercian in the color which showed the proper application of gold lug lining, which I was unable to resist.

The difficult part is sorting the transfers, but I think I have the right font and they will make up a set in gold to match the lug lining.

While waiting for the frame to return, I have a NOS set of Maxi-car 48h tandem hubs to lace up to Super Champion 58 rims. The spoke count alone should keep me busy most of February.

More pictures as they happen.

Best

David

Hi Everyone - I know this is a very old topic but I just wanted to set the record straight here as Les is my brother-in-law and happily is alive and well and still living in Brighton. I was just talking to a colleague at work about his bikes and thought I'd google him to see if there was any info on line. Glad I did now....he is retired and yes the shop is now some swanky office but he is most definately ailve you'll be pleased to hear.

Really pleased to see so many fans of his on here - and some of the great pics of his bikes!!

That's great! I am reassembling the tandem and will post some pictures this week. It's a lovely thing; I think Mercian did a very nice job with the respray and I'm happy with the way the parts are going on the frame. We had it up and running last year but after some trial runs I took it back down to refit some things, and then the summer was gone.

Say hello to Les!

WOW :shock:
What a couple of updates!
The great man is alive, just retired, very good news and the tandem is is almost ready to show
Its been a long wait and I'm really interested in seeing the finished result.
keep em coming,
Jamie

Nice to see a Sussex bicycle - not mnay of those!

Always interested to hear why people buy a bicycle from/of a particular maker.

Look forward to seeing more.

Roadking.

sammydoos":132oelxx said:

Hi Everyone - I know this is a very old topic but I just wanted to set the record straight here as Les is my brother-in-law and happily is alive and well and still living in Brighton. I was just talking to a colleague at work about his bikes and thought I'd google him to see if there was any info on line. Glad I did now....he is retired and yes the shop is now some swanky office but he is most definately ailve you'll be pleased to hear.

Really pleased to see so many fans of his on here - and some of the great pics of his bikes!!

Click to expand...

Great to hear it, I have been looking from time to time to see if any more bikes or info had turned up. Please give my (our) best to Les, he was certainly a great inspiration and very knowledgeable.

Would also like to know if he had those Photo-Albums of his work still about?

Wow, that's great news! I was told that he'd passed away by someone working in Rayments a few years back - I'm delighted that that's not the case.

Re:

Hi, came across this thread after googling my University commuter bike I bought in my 2nd year at Sussex.
looking to put it back on the road after many years.
Will take some proper photos if asked.
Lovely lively hill climber. Les was a total gent, my regards to him.
I think i have the receipt somewhere
All the best

Chas