It all started back in ‘Ebay and Market Watch’ thread (October 200
Gravymonster had spotted it on Ebay and posted it up for fellow retro bikers to see. There seemed to be lots of interest but not a lot of bids, seemed like an opportunity not to be missed so I quickly sold off lots of bits in the ’For Sale’ thread to finance a bid. I was thinking it would go for well in excess of £700, but to my surprise when it came to bid with a few seconds remaining it was at just £252. The auction ended and as the screen refreshed the final total was revealed £362! I could not believe my luck.
Research (October/November 200
The bike had been tinkered with over the years as parts wore out or broke. With a 1993 Grundig bike there was only one thing to do with it in my opinion, return it to it’s original specification. So where would you find its’ original spec, you ask the lads at retrobike and that’s what I did!
The response was overwhelming. These were the bikes that had dominated the pinnacle of mtb racing in the UK during the early 90’s, yet like the production Raleighs of that era they had been almost forgotten. Seeing this brought memories flooding back of Baker, Hinton, Clarke, Alexander and Timmis, names that locked out podiums around the country.
Adrian Timmis
My background prior to retro mountain bikes was twinshock motocross. Here it was common practise to reunite the old pro’s with the bikes they won their silverware on. What a privilege to ride on the same track, be in the same race and possibly compete with riders you watched with adoration back in the day. So to me it was only right to get Adrian Timmis himself involved with the project and ultimately reunite him with the bike. I contacted Adrian via his cycle coaching website and he was only too happy to help me with getting a spec together and indeed sent me some of his old parts collection to help. It was agreed with Adrian that the Retrobike Cannock post Christmas meet would be an ideal opportunity to reunite him with the bike. Adrian being local to Cannock and with Swinnerton Cycles being his first sponsor, plus this placed a realistic deadline on the project.
- Finding the parts
For the first few weeks I enjoyed the bike in it’s how it came spec and wow what a bike it was. It rode fantastic but it had a few issues that would raise restoration costs, things like bent bars and small cracks appearing on the bar ends. With a good idea of the parts I needed from the spec gathered I set out with a wanted list and placed it on the Retrobike ‘wanted’ thread. Soon the parts were piling up and the project could begin. I also sourced parts from the ‘For Sale’ thread and contacted Retrobikes’ finest decal creator Gil_m to add the finishes touches.
The part I enjoy the most. Turning your thoughts into a reality and your parts into a fully functioning bike.
From this:
To this:
- Set Up
The deeper I’d got into the project the more my thoughts turned to who would be riding this bike. Personally I like everything to work A1 on my bikes but I know sometimes that I don’t get it right every time, but can ride around the problem. With having a pro riding my bike the pressure was on me to get it spot on. I’m sure the Team Raleigh mechanics often got an ear full if the riders were sent out on badly set up bikes. I doubled my efforts reading up on the Shimano website how to perfectly set up the gearing and brakes.
- Cannock Chase (December 200
The annual ‘Retrobike Cannock Turkey Twizzler’ from the ‘Rides, Meets, Events and Races’ thread:
Adrian rode the bike for the first time since 1993. Much to my relief everything worked perfectly and a good time was had by all. Adrian brought his old Raleigh Dyna-Tech jersey with him and looked as though he and the bike had never been apart.
Aftermath.
- What’s Next
Well since Cannock I’ve regularly been riding the bike, it’s a great ride and I’d be very hard pushed to ever let it go.
