Years of Bikes part two

Ok so it was not quite the end of the 90's where I finished the last post. Putting these posts together has bought back alot of memories of my racing days. Part one was somewhat easy as far as the photos go, but towards the end of the 90's was getting a touch hard to remember. In this post I had some trouble locating photos, some were on Lindsay's computer and were lost when it once crashed. Trying to remember what year I had what bikes was also hard, especially from 98 to about 2002 because of living and work changes also going on in my life.
So just to recap on where I left off, the Viner had been in the shed collecting dust while I was riding the green Norco. Once I had the red Norco [now with Campag] I put the 105 groupset on the Viner and sold it.


In mid 98 I moved house [which seemed to be my normal routine every 12 months] to a new area of town and needed to find a new local bike shop. I was never really committed to one shop at this time. A shop I often went to was too far out of the way now and I only really went there because a friend shopped there and he had a friend that worked there. I had being living in my new area for a month or so now and took a walk down to the local shopping strip to get some groceries. I happen to notice there was a bike shop there but didn't go in. Some weeks later I was wanting some V-Brakes [yes they were out now] to upgrade on the old Apollo, so I thought I would visit my newly found local shop. I went in and had a friendly chat with the owner Jae, before walking out with a set of XT V-brake callipers. To be honest the shop never really appealed to me that much as it was small and a bit messy, but what attracted me to the shop was the down to earth and honest approach of Jae. There was no bullshit sales talk or pressure to buy anything. I now went into O'Mara Cycles to see Jae for all my bits and pieces and the last thing I bought at my old shop was the Campag groupset for the red Norco because it was a great price, not long after that the friend I knew there left so there was no need to go back.

Some time passed and I was a bit of a regular now at my new local bike shop. Jae would have liked me on one of his bikes as I was still riding the red Norco, which was a brand he didn't sell. But for some time I was already keen on something else. My friend knew a guy that was selling his De Rosa and I had being thinking about buying one for a while. A shop on the other side of town was selling the same iteam-Nova bikes that the then pro team rode, but new ones were expensive so I just bought this one. The blue was a matt finish and always looked dirty no matter how much I washed it, that I hated. I bought some race wheels for it off my friend, Mavic had released their first Ksyrium wheelset and were a huge weight advantage over the 32 spoked wheels I had always raced on. What were once good quality 32 spoked race wheels were now training wheels. The other changes I did to this bike were fit some Record ergo shifters when the Chorus ones were no good. One of the changes on road bike by now were the use of a A-head type stem that was first itroduced on mountainbikes some time ago. The one inch threaded steerer was no longer used. Not long after I bought the De Rosa I had sold the red Norco.



It had been over 12 months since I first walked into O'Mara Cycles to buy those V-Brakes and I think around late in 99 I was offered to race for Jae's shop as a sponsored rider. At the time he mostly had track riders so with me more into the road it would be a good change for him and the shop. I now felt a little guilty about buying the De Rosa, so I opted to get rid of the shit matt blue and have it painted in Jae's glossy blue and yellow shop colours to show my gratitude for given me sponsorship. I did cop a little flak from some people for doing that to a De Rosa but I didn't give a shit, the sole reason was for Jae otherwise I could of resprayed it any colour I wanted. As the 2000 road season went by I said to Jae for the coming track season I would get back on the track for reasons of more exposure for the shop. I did a design and put this bike together in a few weeks once track season started, and although a well built bike there was just something about it. At the time I picked the colours, Jae and I thought they looked really good but along with the colour scheme the ride quailty was also not sitting well with me. In the end as much as the colour wasn't doing justice, the ride quality was a more major factor. I rode it for that one season and eventually sold it because it just didn't feel right when riding it, especially on the steep banked velodrome.




I didn't do alot in the 2002 season because of work. I did enough to keep in shape by still training and doing the odd race or two on the mountain bike. Despite the old Apollo looking a little outdated, it did give me the motivation to start another season racing on the dirt. Then sometime early in 2003 Jae got this deal brought to him that the distributor was clearing out these Merida Magnesium Elites and the price was too good to pass up on. This bike was like 9kg, Manitou forks, complete XTR with Avid Ti V-Brakes, Ritchey WCS componets, Mavic 517 rims, I mean this bike had the works. The frame was magnesium alloy and although some cracked, mine never did. The bike loved to climb, it was so nimble to ride through tight single track and to this date is the best mountain bike I've had. I sold the Apollo to a friend to use as a commuter and started racing the 2003 winter season aboard the Merida, even going to the Nationals. I raced it again in 2004 and took this photo on my return trip from the Nationals of that year where I finished 5th in my class. My class was Expert back then, the one down from the 'I'm a fulltime sponsored mountainbiker' Elite class. I was clearly no Chris Jongewaard, or a Trent Lowe so the Expert class was enough for me.
Mid 2003 I had also started working at the shop as Jae's mechanic.




By 2004 we had a few more guys involved in doing the road season. Everyone on the team were offered a special deal on a new team bike that Jae was offering us. despite working at the shop I was the last one on the team to recieve my new bike. I sold the De Rosa to a guy that had been eyeing it off in the shop over a period of weeks while it was on display. Now with some extra cash [hence why I was the last] to hand over I jumped on my first carbon bike, and with the new Shimano Dura-Ace 10 speed. I was reluctant to change from my Campag after my Shimano experience on the green Norco, but the Dura-Ace was something else, I haven't used Campag since. The frame was an Alex C-1 and was from a local distributor wanting to get his new brand out there. It was a comfortable bike and fitted me well. It was a good all round bike for different types of racing and was a big improvememt over the alloy frames I had being riding. The biggest improvement was the Dura-Ace thou, it was so much better to shift than the sloppy feeling Campag.


By the same distributor that supplied that Alex road bike I was offered to ride this prototype mountain bike frame, but they had changed the bikes name to Inexa. I had someone keen to buy the Merida so it was sold. I was to ride my new bike and give feedback for future production. At the time there was only two in the country and I rode this one throughout the 2005 mountainbike season, riding again the Nationals where I finished 4th on this bike. Shifting was from Sram X-9, the brakes I don’t remember but they were not that good anyway and cranks were XT. I built the bike up mostly with parts we had in stock at the shop in order to clear some stock. It was a nice looking bike but compared to the Merida it was too heavy for my liking.


After some seasons away from the track I got another frame from the same Inexa distributor. This was a far improvement over the orange one I had built. It was a similar ride to that Ken Evans I use to ride in my earlier years. It had a very low top tube and head tube so when this photo was taken the bike was only new and despite my bar height being the usual height I eventually dropped them another 10 or 15 mm. I also had another bar set up, a pair of road bars with another stem that I would use for training and endurance races, it was these bars that mostly stayed on the bike rather than the sprint ones you see here.


So it was now 2006 and with the Inexa deal going a little sour for the shop, most guys on the team were now riding Trek's. Me on the other hand sold the C-1 frame and took delivery of Inexa's new model. The C-2 was a better geometry for me and looked like a more solid bike, but it lacked a bit of get up and go. From these guys I was riding their frames, bars, stems and wheels, so I was to say the least giving them a fair go. But the bike just didn't do it for me. As we were mainly a Trek dealer at O'Mara's we also sold the Lemond bikes and the Rep told me that Trek were clearing out some old models that I could pick up at a smoking price. It just so happened that they had a bike that siuted me and I was soon aboard a Lemond Tete de Course [Sorry but couldn't track down the photo]. This was what they call a spine bike, with a lower titanium section and a upper carbon section. This made a very nice bike to ride, best of both worlds really, comfortable yet stiff and very light. It was a classy looking bike and was riden by US pro teams such as Saturn and Webcor, it was the best I would own since the Hillman. I stripped my Dura-Ace group from the C-2 frame and sold it and the wheels along with other remaining bits to different customers. With the Dura-Ace now going on the Lemond I fitted a new Bontrager kit including post, bars and stem. I went shorter in the stem as the top tube was a touch longer than I prefered. I also got some Bontrager Race X Lite wheels for it that were sort of a gold colour and matched the brushed titanium frame colour just nice. I owned this bike for maybe 5 months before selling it prior to moving to Europe, as I did with all my bike stuff. I got a good price for the Lemond and also sold some Flashpoint [made by Zipp] carbon wheels I got for the bike to the same guy. The Inexa track bike I also sold and the mountain bike was stripped with the parts sold to a regular customer and the frame going back to the distributor.


Once in Europe I never really owned a road bike for the first two years. In 2007 the team I was working for rode the Litespeed Siena, so I was given one of those to ride for the season. It was a nice bike and I was prepared to buy it at the completion of the season, but was told a rider needed to borrow it until the new bikes arrived, I never saw it again. During that winter I did many mountain bike tours on a borrowed bike, so for the next winter I bought this Ridley Scorpion. While not as top end as my other mountain bikes I've had it would do the job. The tours here can get quite muddy so I just settled for an alloy frame with a XT group. I decided not to get the disc brake option because the bike I borrowed had disc brakes and they just clogged with mud and continued to be an annoying noise throughout the ride, not to mention chewing through brake pads like a hot knife through butter.


For 2008 I was actually a registered rider for the Continental Cyclingnews-Jako team and recieved this Fuga bike as my team bike. The frame was very similar to the Alex C-1 I once owned, exactly almost. The Dura-Ace was from a Litespeed the previous season but still worked well with a new chain, cables and brake pads. At the end of the season, like with most teams, the bike was given back and sold off. At the end of that season I decided to get my own bike so I wasn't stuck without one over the winter.



My team manager at the time had this alloy Fuga frame sitting at his house, it was my size so I bought it. I first put the Ultegra SL group on it but then I gave that to Lindsay when I purchased the 6700 group you see on it here. It's nothing flash but it does me fine for now, and this is the bike I still ride today until I can justify in getting another one. I don't race as much as I would like to so there is no need for something high end, and even with this bike it is still suitable to race on. I'm sure I could still hold my place in a race on this bike with guys riding top end bikes and wheels, presuming I'm race fit of course.


The last bike to add to this list is my town bike, a retro style bike I put together with old bits and pieces from a couple of trashed bikes. Again nothing flash but is good for something to ride to the shops. The town bike plays a major role here in the Netherlands and come in a huge range, from a basic singlespeed with a back pedal braking system to a full cruiser with suspension everything and sometimes a small motor. But for me my retro Fuga will do. Soon there will also be another bike to add to this long list. A bike I have being considering the last year or two, a cyclocross bike. It would be nice to upgrade my road bike to something nicer but I think I will get more use from a cyclocross bike, so that will be my next bike.

So I think that brings it to a total of 24 bikes since 1983. My parents bought me my first race bike followed by a couple of hand me downs from my brothers, then from there I purchased my own bikes. I would hate to count all the cash I have spent on bikes over those years but the way I see it, is that it's better on something like that rather than drinking or smoking all your cash away and it has probably taught me a little more respect for the things I own.