My new road bike

[johnnyb44]

Hi to all.
Last night I became the proud owner of a 1983 Peugeot Equipe Road bike .
Back in 1983 when I was a gangly 14 old i always remember this bike standing on display in the front window of Halfords for £109. Halfords back then were mainly small high street shops and not the big huge stores we see nowadays. Money was always tight for my parents when I was a youngster and i never asked for anything off them because I knew they were both struggling to survive after they parted. Never the less though, I fell in love with this bike. It was a modern looking bike with a lugless frame and skinny 700c wheels and painted in a bright red finish. I never mentioned a word to my mum that i liked this bike but unbeknown to me she spotted me gazing at it one day. One August day just before my birthday we were both in town one afternoon and i asked if I could pop into Halfords for a new brake cable for my old rusty bike I had at the time.Once inside the shop my mum took me over to this red Peugeot on display in the window and asked me casually what I thought of it. I told her what I though about it and was purely expecting nothing more of it ,but she then turned round and said " well there's one upstairs in the shop waiting for you ) I was shocked to say the least and could of been knocked over with a feather. I couldn't believe she had spent so much money on me and bought me something that I never thought I would ever be the proud owner of such a great looking bike.I was speechless and over the moon and gave a big hug and kiss.. In the years I had the bike I covered thousands of miles on it and won many time trails in my local cycling club beating many club mates with much more expensive bikes. I would cycle 60 miles a day in my peak and would not even feel the effects of it the next day.Later on I started competing against other clubs and had some good wins, (not always though ) I enjoyed every minute of my club days. Eventually the frame of the bike started to show serious signs of hard use and ended up relegated to the skip. Fast forward to four years ago my mum sadly past away and "as you do" you reminisce on all the good times you had together. Her buying the bike for me all those years ago always holds a special place for me and have since been on the lookout for another one just for nostalgic reasons. Because they were a relatively basic standard bike most of them were neglected and abused by your average teenager and trying to find one nowadays that are in good condition is virtually impossible. But lady luck struck gold last night when I won one on eBay for a bargain price of £80 and is in fantastic condition . I've been out side this afternoon cleaning and polishing it ,just like I did 33 years ago and " boy " it really feels strange getting close to one of these bikes again. ( especially with the radio blasting out old early 80,s tunes ) It evokes so many good memories of times gone by. This time round though this bike will never be sold on .Its going to be with me for the rest of my days. ��

[mininuts]

What a fantastic post, thanks for sharing Be great to see some pics of it.
A great story that got me thinking back to 1983 and what bike I had. It was a Raleigh Winner, silver with faded in black details Not a top spec bike by any means but, I loved it and cared for it like I do my cars.
Girls and cars arrived shortly after and I lost interest in the bike and it too got scrapped. Got seriously into mountain biking around 1991 and had various bikes culminating in a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR XC bought nearly new in 2000 for an obscene amount of money. Still got it 16 years on and I shall keep it for ever now.

Off to look on eBay for a Raleigh Winner

[Ravinder]

Lovely, touching story.

[barney bear]

Lovely story, you can't beat a mothers love


My bike around that time would have been a Raleigh Burner bmx, iirc it was black and yellow I can't find a picture of one in that colour combo though so you'll all have to make do with a blue one

[mininuts]

Originally Posted by barney bear

Lovely story, you can't beat a mothers love


My bike around that time would have been a Raleigh Burner bmx, iirc it was black and yellow I can't find a picture of one in that colour combo though so you'll all have to make do with a blue one

Burners were and still are so cool
An old friend of mine had a black and gold chrome one, think it was a special edition but I do know it also had gold wheels too
I always wanted a Burner but, with being so tall, I could never ride one properly

[Duotone]

My late 80's touring / club run bike. Purchased brand new.

Returned to cycling last year after a few years break, great to be back cycling every Sunday.



Dave T

[Best_of_British]

I want to buy a BMX of ebay now and revisit my yoof of bunnyhopping over ramps. Had a chrome mongoose with black sky mag wheels, v handle bars same as the burner. Wish a still had it, sold it for a fiver.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[johnnyb44]

Thank you all for your posts and sharing your pictures of by gone bikes. You tend to forget all the old bikes of yesteryears..Raleigh Arena, Ace ,Record and was there a pulsar?. There was also the Raleigh Chopper and it's smaller bother the chipper and not forgetting the bomber. A lot of kids if my generation also had Sun Solos , Coventry Eagle, and Puch . BMX bikes never really interested me but where very popular amongst school mates. Raleigh burners where the most popular. They did a few different models. Ultra burners , night burners with some sporting mag wheels. There were also Amacco, Baur and Mongoose Bmx bikes around to..Today I stripped my bike down and re greased the wheel hubs and crank and replaced the inner tubes and brake cables. It now looks factory fresh and works nice and smooth. Looking forward now for some dry weather to try it out :-))

[clf]

Thanks for posting this Johnny, it is very similar to my own story.

1985, our first christmas after my mother and father separated. My mother worked three menial jobs to make the house nice and she always made sure my sister were well fed and clothed. She struggled to afford much more and was petrified that someone would criticise how she brought up her children. To her, even now, it would be a failure as a mother in her eyes. She never failed

The old coal fire, steel ill fitting windows in our council house. My sister and I, leading up to Christmas, had indicated we wanted racing bikes. Mine was the one below, a badge engineered Raleigh. Philips Premiere by Raleigh it was called, and I was not hopeful at all, as it was £150 in the club book.



She hinted that she had got us bikes each, but still not hopeful that they were the ones we had chosen. On Christmas eve we pleaded with her to let us have them early, but it was a firm 'No' each time, and talked between ourselves, as to who could be storing them for her. The coal bucket was half full, and certainly enough to get us through the rest of the miserable Christmas Eve, when she asked us to fill it up. It was a grimy dirty 3 minutes of our lives we always tried to avoid, and this was no different. I did think it strange that she asked us to get coal when it was half full, but my sister and I both declined.

Christmas morning, the bikes we wanted were both sitting in the living room for us. We were so overjoyed and grateful. Later she told us, 'I bet you wish you had got the coal last night, because that's where the bikes were kept!' :doh:

I used the bike constantly for the next 5 or 6 years until I started to drive. Mum even borrowed it to go to one of her jobs 3 miles from home. Upgrading and replacing bits and pieces. Stripped the frame to bare metal by hand, and painted it Ford Signal Yellow blending into Signal Orange then back to Yellow, with Lettraset (remember that?) on the down tube, I renamed it 'Stationary Motion'! It is still in the attic now!

[johnnyb44]

Cheers Alan for sharing that lovely story .It's heartwarming to read such stuff like this. I vaguely remember those bikes. It's funny how much you forget about the past until a photo is posted and it jogs your memory. I would love to see more pictures of members old bikes if they have any. Unfortunately I can't post pictures of mine as I haven't re subscribed yet to the club.