JULY 2005:
I have always been interested in two-wheelers, ever since I was a kid and Father Christmas gave me my first bike for Christmas. I rode everywhere on it, and eventually outgrew it of course.
When I went to high school, my mother and father gave me (another) bike to ride to school - it was an English bike - a Raleigh sports, with a three-speed Sturmey-Archer geared hub. It was a wonderful bike, and I must have ridden it for more than five thousand miles over a period of five years. It never gave me any trouble except for the occasional flat tyre.
In my twenties, I graduated to a BSA motor cycle, and rode that around the country town where I was working at the time, and around the suburbs of Adelaide when I transferred back to town. In the three or four years I rode it, the BSA never let me down, either. The Poms sure made good two-wheelers.
When I retired, my wife and I moved to a new house with a large shed (which I have never had before). Since then I have been able to indulge myself by restoring a 1951 classic BSA motor-cycle, and quite a few bicycles, many of which were in a sorry state when I got them, but are now being ridden around Morphett Vale and Happy Valley.
I needed to refresh my skills at spray-painting and wheel-building, and dust off all my old bicycle tools, but it was fun, and didn't take me long to get into it.
I have since restored eleven old bicycles - some "semi-racers" from the 1970s and 1980s, a couple of children's bikes, and some later model mountain bikes.
Each bicycle has been dismantled, inspected, and any worn or damaged parts replaced, not necessarily with new parts - some of which are hard to get for older bikes - but with reconditioned parts from other bicycles of similar vintage.
Many of the bikes have been resprayed with a hard-wearing paint with an epoxy content, while others have been cleaned and polished, depending on their original condition.
They have been ridden and tested, and are in good condition. Most of the wheels have been respoked and/or trued on a wheel-building frame, and have sound tyres and tubes.
Most have ten-speed or twelve-speed derailleur gears, with either Shimano or SunTour components.
Anybody who wants a cheap, well-made, reliable bike to ride either for fitness or weekday transport - it would be worth your while to check out some of these .....
The new owner of bike number four in the pictures can be seen proudly displaying the photograph of his new bike, which has covered more than 1000 kilometres since he took delivery in January 2005.
One of my personal favourites is an old Halford, with the three-speed Sturmey-Archer hub that I mentioned earlier. That's it in picture number 12 ...