I was lucky enough to see both remaining unicorns on eBay last weekend.
Unfortunately I only equalled the winning bid on one and lost out.
Lucky though, the second didn't have much interest and I won it for £35. Not quite the bargain of my £5 Diamondback but still pretty good.
I picked it up today, not NOS but the best condition one I've seen since the early 90's and in British racing green.
It's a real piece of handmade British mountain bike history, an icon. All of you will have heard of it but very few will have ridden one, always causing a debate when mentioned on here.
As soon as I got back I put the wheels back on and took her for a ride.
The six speed gearing was as clunky as I remember from BITD, the cantilever brakes (with upside down pads) which were frightening poor I discovered on the first downhill on wet cobbles! Like every bike I seemed to own BITD, the crank was loose giving a similar to Biopace type feeling, the gears jumped every √10 revolution, the saddle kept slipping and inserting itself and finally the horizontal dropouts with not tight enough axle meant I kept having to kick the rear wheel back into the correct position. But, it was the most fun I've had on a bike in ages.
I'm going to build it with a (sort-of) period XTR groupset, British Ti forks (or Bombers) Ti bars, Hope wheels and brakes TBC.
Unfortunately I only equalled the winning bid on one and lost out.
Lucky though, the second didn't have much interest and I won it for £35. Not quite the bargain of my £5 Diamondback but still pretty good.
I picked it up today, not NOS but the best condition one I've seen since the early 90's and in British racing green.
It's a real piece of handmade British mountain bike history, an icon. All of you will have heard of it but very few will have ridden one, always causing a debate when mentioned on here.
As soon as I got back I put the wheels back on and took her for a ride.
The six speed gearing was as clunky as I remember from BITD, the cantilever brakes (with upside down pads) which were frightening poor I discovered on the first downhill on wet cobbles! Like every bike I seemed to own BITD, the crank was loose giving a similar to Biopace type feeling, the gears jumped every √10 revolution, the saddle kept slipping and inserting itself and finally the horizontal dropouts with not tight enough axle meant I kept having to kick the rear wheel back into the correct position. But, it was the most fun I've had on a bike in ages.
I'm going to build it with a (sort-of) period XTR groupset, British Ti forks (or Bombers) Ti bars, Hope wheels and brakes TBC.
