Yeah yeah – that’s me, my brother, Richard, is on the tricycle. It was the late ‘70’s and that is a ‘Micron 5’ and I think it was made by Raleigh. Having the word micron in the name of the bike my give you a clue about the bike – it was tiny and I still had the seat at it’s lowest and most forward position. I have also just noticed the huge rear light and now the memories are flooding back. I loved that bike, all the other kids were on ‘Grifters’ and ‘Boxers’ and ‘Choppers’, you know BMX style street bikes and there I was on a racer. Man I was teased so much about it, but I was the quickest on the housing estate and often just went out to race myself around the estate’s perimeter roads. I do not even know how aware I was of bike racing at this point but I did know this was like the bikes my Dad used to ride.
I seem to remember a purple Peugeot following the Micron 5 bought from Alf Jones’ in Wrexham, the shop is still in business. I joined Wrexham Fibrax cycling club when I was 16, by then I was already going off into the Welsh mountains to do 60 miles+ on Sundays, if I had done my homework that is. I also bought a secondhand old racer, by that I mean it was a handbuilt steel race bike built and badged by a very respected British frame builder – unfortunately I forget who. It was kitted out with original 1960’s Campagnolo and a hollow stem, which would have cored my chest if I had fallen onto it. Both of these bikes were stolen from our garden shed within a week or so of getting the retro bike.
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