1992 Bigfoot Smokestone

Bike Hoarder

Orange 🍊 Fan
Feedback
View
It's late 1992, it's cold and miserable in Gloucester, I'm off on my paper round to earn my few ££'s a week to buy shiny bits with (who am I kidding, just to keep my bike on the road). So with Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine or Nirvana in my ears I pedal on dreaming of my perfect bike, flicking through pages of MBA and MBUK when the newsagent isn't looking, mentally making my shopping list.

In that era there were 2 shops in Gloucester that were selling the good stuff (iirc there were at least 5 shops in Gloucester at that time), Dave Swan Cycles on Barton St, or Bigfoot. I hung around at Dave's. No actual reason other than it was my side of town, I grew up near Barton St, it was familiar to 15 year old me. I watched bikes being assembled, watched wheels being built, learnt the art of adjusting indexed gears. Not sure what they made of me, shy, unfit and riding a BSO.

While I knew of Smokestone frames, they were way out of my price range - circa £600 was never going to be achieved on my meagre wage. I dreamed then of a Whiskey Town Mountain Goat, with its colour matched Rock Shox, and XTR. I picked up an old Raleigh from a school friend, it had XT thumbies, and 105 hubs. I rebuilt it after giving it a colour change.


Dave Swan made my first set of wheels, Ambrosio CC22 in purple, with STX SE hubs - parralax hubs, 32h, purple, they were the bees knees in my opinion. TBH it's been a while since I looked at this photo, not a bad spec for a skint 6th former. Note the San Marco Rolls saddle (still my favourite), Look pedals and Smoke/Dart tyres.

Fast forward 30 years, God has it been that long? My obsession with mountain bikes has never wavered, with life settled, a reasonable wage, I couldn't resist when @JohnMarin_77 was selling his. Sadly it was a bit spicey on my pockets, and i missed out in the end. But life has a funny way of giving you another chance - @Matttymm PM'd me with opportunity to buy the frame and a deal was done. After another epic round trip to the west country it was picked up and squirreled away into the workshop (thank you Matt).
 
Last edited:
With a Purple X-Lite seatpost as part of the deal, it set me down a path of my build. It's kind of a Teenage Self build, but not in a money no object, but more in a 'I've spent all my money on a frame', let's use my old parts with some new.

Pictures, they speak for themselves;


Ignore the tyres and hubs - silver DX with some repo Smoke and Dart and nice double butted spokes when I get to it. A nice '89 Dura Ace rear mech, needs some new jockey wheels and a polish. XT thumbies, XT front mech, DX brakes and cranks. NOS XT headset thanks to @Cheshire1980 and some Mag 21 forks thanks to @Marco-13 almost completes the build.

So with a spare few hours today, and some lovely sunshine I thought I'd roughly build it to get an idea of my 'look'. Still needed is a black seatpost clamp to carry the black from the headset, and some suitable grips, oh and a message to @gil_m for some decals to complete.
 
Last edited:
How's this build going? I have John's other frame he was selling about a year ago. I like seeing the different choices people make on their builds, I too grew up in Gloucester when the choice of bike shops was Dave Swan, Graham's shop on Spa Road roundabout and of course Calton Road bike shop! I frequently visited Graham's shop and drooled over the items on display. I managed to bag a Bigfoot circa 95-96 and I absolutely adored it. For some stupid reason I sold it a couple of years later as I wanted a full suspension frame. Now I've managed to correct that wrong and am the proud owner of a Smokestone again.
 
Calton Road - was that down Bristol Rd way, past the old England's Glory factory?

Not progressed any further atm - garage is a mess, needs extending (on the cards for 2024). I don't want to build anything and risk getting it damaged... I also need to get my Golf in to make room on the drive for a project on a much bigger scale.
 
Calton Road - was that down Bristol Rd way, past the old England's Glory factory?

Not progressed any further atm - garage is a mess, needs extending (on the cards for 2024). I don't want to build anything and risk getting it damaged... I also need to get my Golf in to make room on the drive for a project on a much bigger scale.
Yes, Linden area. It wasn't a shop that sold high end stuff, but an oldy worldy shop that you just don't see anymore. I seem to remember the assistant was Australian or American which I found so cool for some reason 😄
 

Latest posts

Back
Top