Time Trial Milestone Anniversary

Ralph_the_Rohan

Retro Guru
Just thought I'd point out that it was 35 years ago today that "King Alf" Engers achieved a major milestone in Time Trialling History with the first sub 50 minute 25 Mile Time Trial on the E72 London - Colchester Road Course when he completed the course in 49 minutes and 24 seconds.

As a small celebration I thought I'd take my Emperor out to the location and take a few pics. The A12 is now a very busy major dual-carriageway so for safety reasons I decided to take the pics just off on one of it's slip-roads.

If you want to read more about Alf Engers, his sub 50 minute 25, or his ground breaking bikes, there is tons of information on the 'net.
 

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Yep, remember it well :) Alf almost did it before that but had a puncture. The young pretender Martyn Pine broke the 25 record but not on a RTTC event so didn't count. Happy days :)

Here's a pic of my Cycling mag, hand delivered by the paper boy that week, I lived at 134 Worcester Road so to make sure the paper boy got the right address it's written on the top LOL

On top is my drilled out Weinmann 500 brake calliper from that era, waiting to be polished and fitted ...

Shaun


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As an aside, you can see Nigel Dean on his Falcon San Remo Equipe team bike..........I have one of them, as well as a team jersey :)

Great frames, solid as a rock for road racing but as you can see from the pic there are cable clips holding the rear cable to the frame...........the pro frames came with absolutely no braze ons which was a complete pain :(

Shaun
 
Many thanks to Shaun and Nob for posting some clippings from 35 years ago. I'm still waiting to add that copy of Cycling Weekly to my collection, so just in case anyone has a copy that they no longer want, please let me know.

Great to see that Drillium caliper arm Shaun, I assume all the other arms are similarly drilled. What bike are they destined for?

I've been putting some mileage into the Emperor recently and gradually getting used to the 54 Chainring and 13 - 17 freewheel. It certainly makes you appreciate the stamina required to push a 57 flat out for 25 miles like Alf!
 
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