MarinMartin
Marin Fan
Now call me a weirdo but I have a real love of low end old mountain bikes. They remind me of how I got into cycling with a £5 rustheap and the determination to overcome my demons. In fact I feel better about saving the bikes that nobody wants than a rare bike that everyone would want to fix up.
I have a particular fondness for cheap old Raleighs. Mustang, Mantis I've had them all (in fact I currently have 3 mantis' in my back garden I'm building something with).
There's always been one Raleigh I wanted though. Not a high end, rare, dream machine but the replica of the Raleigh Mountain bike team. It may only be an old Steel Raleigh with 18 gears but I wanted that paintjob.
Back in April I had someone message me saying they had a bike sat in the back of their garage and if I wanted it to fix up I could have it. Today I finally picked it up, not expecting it to be this, and I was like a kid in a sweet shop when I saw it. It's mahoosive, it's heavy, it's a rubbish spec but it's a bike I always wanted. Every bike I own is because something about it is special to me. This is no exception. I mean I wouldn't moan at any bike for free but this...this is exciting for me, no matter how sad that makes me.
I have no fancy plans for it, I just want to get it back in action and enjoy it. This for me is about going back to my roots and having a bit of fun.
I have a particular fondness for cheap old Raleighs. Mustang, Mantis I've had them all (in fact I currently have 3 mantis' in my back garden I'm building something with).
There's always been one Raleigh I wanted though. Not a high end, rare, dream machine but the replica of the Raleigh Mountain bike team. It may only be an old Steel Raleigh with 18 gears but I wanted that paintjob.
Back in April I had someone message me saying they had a bike sat in the back of their garage and if I wanted it to fix up I could have it. Today I finally picked it up, not expecting it to be this, and I was like a kid in a sweet shop when I saw it. It's mahoosive, it's heavy, it's a rubbish spec but it's a bike I always wanted. Every bike I own is because something about it is special to me. This is no exception. I mean I wouldn't moan at any bike for free but this...this is exciting for me, no matter how sad that makes me.
I have no fancy plans for it, I just want to get it back in action and enjoy it. This for me is about going back to my roots and having a bit of fun.
