I suppose it was a combination of rose tinted spectacles, with memories of teenage years rambling the country lanes on a lightweight Viking Ian Steel, and the need to accompany my wife on her new electric bike which prompted me to buy a secondhand bike. Bear in mind that I haven't cycled for approaching 40 years.

It was to be a Raleigh Courier racer. An attractive, little used, 10 speed bike in very nice condition with barely a mark on the frame bought for just £15 - probably less if I had bothered to haggle. I looked forward to the first run with anticipation but what a disappointment. This bike was flat and lifeless, it did nothing for me and I felt cheated, was it me or the bike? Mechanically it performed faultlessly but just didn't stir the soul. I think the basic problem was that it was 'pretending' to be a racing machine even down to short alloy spats and 700c rims with the skinniest of tyres. At best it was it had the build of a tourer, never a racing bike. Anyway, I was to learn that there are bikes with a feelgood factor and those which are totally lacking, and it has little to do with the style or age of bike.

My second bike purchase came unexpectedly. I wasn't looking to buy anything just browsing the small ads when I saw one which simply said, 'Old gents bike, good condition'. On calling to view, I found an elderly black Triumph roadster. Less than perfect, it had probably been someone's daily transport for almost 50 years but the age hardened oil and grease stains suggested that they had treated it with some respect.
The front Westwood wheel rim had worn plating but was sound, the rear rim had rusted through and split. The frame had worn paintwork but little rust and it carried that all important roadster oilbath chaincase, a Sturmey Archer battery pack for powering the dynamo lights when at standstill and roller lever (rod) brakes. Even without riding it I knew that this would be a good, honest and comfortable bike.

At some point I had read of a bike with stainless steel Westrick wheel  rims - brilliant idea, I wanted a pair. Usefully, Westrick rims, a combination of Endrick and Westwood styles, can be used with either caliper or rod brakes. After searching the web and a few phone calls I found two secondhand stainless steel rims, 26 x 1^3/8,  and tried two local bike shops to get them rebuilt. The first shop, which sold terribly expensive racing machines, had two attempts and made a complete mess, they obviously were not experienced in building standard 26" wheels and caused me much angst. The second shop made a slightly better job although still not to my entire satisfaction, and the cost of buying the rims and having them rebuilt............. a mere £70! - I was naive. Much later I discovered that it was cheaper to buy a complete old bike already fitted with S/S rims, and they are not nearly as rare as I had imagined. They had been fitted to many Raleigh roadsters during the 50's and 60's and are also known as Raleigh Pattern rims. Note that they are stamped 'Stainless Steel' - I once travelled, again, about 180 miles to buy a bike with 'stainless steel rims' only to find they were just chromed rims......... Course, this being a 1957 Triumph, it is in reality a Raleigh. Raleigh took over the Triumph brand in about 1954.

I wanted to keep some of the original patina of the Triumph, so the downtube, cross bar and forks were stripped, masked and resprayed simply using quick drying car type spray paint over a coat of primer. This was trouble free but it is more awkward to spray a tube than a flat panel.

One particular problem was relining the frame. Brush lining was out of the question. I had also tried a line rolling tool many years ago and couldn't get the hang of  it. Possibly the solution lay in using an airbrush. The answer, for me, was rolls of pinstriping tape made for car bodywork. I bought two rolls of twin gold striping with one thick stripe and one narrow stripe. This was cut down the middle so that I could use the narrower stripe. This applied quite easily, more easily than I had thought, although it seems to become wider once it is removed from the backing and firmly pressed into place. On the Triumph it should be a twin stripe of Gold and Green, quite flamboyant in fact, but I haven't yet found a narrow green tape so this aspect hasn't quite been completed. For a second attempt, on a later bike, I used a narrower self adhesive pinstripe from a model shop, although this has a slightly brassy finish and seems not to adhere quite so well so that even gentle pressure will move it out of line.

NOS North Road Raised handlebars, a Philodyne headlamp to replace the standard Sturmey Archer, Spencer type mudguards, with the all important chrome 'bullet' end, rubber handlebar grips, rear dynamo lamp, a leatherette saddlebag, reflector and bell and odds and sods completed the makeover and also pushed the total cost up to about £180. Rather a lot for a 50 year old bike but one which is now good for another 50 years. The Triumph roadster is almost finished, after about three years of slow and admittedly occasional but satisfying work. Note that the oilbath chaincase still has to be refinished and refitted, For the moment it has a 'hockey stick' type fitted. It has also brought me into contact with a group of really nice people, worldwide. Old time cyclists are, for the most part, helpful and jovial and not devoid of a sense of humour regarding their slightly offbeat hobby. 

The frustration, not to mention the cost, of having wheels rebuilt led me to try wheelbuilding for myself. I ordered two endrick rims and sets of spokes, from a professional wheelbuilder, over the web. The rims which arrived were cheap but they were also poorly made. After 55 years on this planet I should know, by now, that you only get what you pay for!

I sweated for several evenings with wayward spokes and rim and had almost given up before I realised that the wrong length of spokes had been supplied. They were, in fact, too short and it would have been impossible to build the wheel using them. I queried with the supplier but he was adamant they were correct - an old Raleigh spoke chart begged to differ and once my local bike shop had supplied the correct length spokes (the last of his stock) and a half decent spoke nipple key I found it surprisingly easy. So the most important aspects, I found, are to ensure that you have the correct length spokes for the rim and hub, buy the best nipple key that you can afford, I believe you normally start at the first spoke after the valve and, important for your first run, have a spare wheel to copy. Its then quite simple and satisfying, too. See http://www.rickadee.net/~zephyrus/ad4935/ad5031a.gif  for a really useful spoke length chart for older wheel builds.

Some time later, the old bike bug having bitten seriously, I set off for a 180 mile trip towards the south coast to make two new purchases in one day. 

Purchase number one was a 1948 Hercules roadster fitted with a 1952 32cc. Cyclemaster engine (my second Cyclemaster) and number two was a dark green 1956 Raleigh roadster fitted with 1957 Trojan Minimotor (I also have a weakness for cyclemotors - becoming less of a weakness since, along with many others, I've just been fined £25 for not declaring SORN. Talk about highway robbery - good old DVLA).

The Hercules roadster was in a bit of a state. It had been repainted many years before but the frame was quite heavily rusted. And yet it had a certain attraction, slightly different lines to most standard roadsters with very relaxed front forks but surprisingly upright, slim, tapering rear stays, almost sporty in appearance. 

The frame of this bike was completely stripped with my favourite tool, for this job, a drill driven paint/rust removing disk. These are available from Halfords or a slightly cheaper version from Wilko stores for £5-£6. They are similar to a washing up pad but with a deep and spongy disk which is impregnated with an abrasive material. They are flexible so you can use them over curved surfaces and different angles of use give either heavy or gentle abrasion. One pad will last me for a complete bike paintwork strip.

After this the frame was given a coat of spray filler. This goes on quite heavily but sands down really easily and very smoothly to help fill a poor surface and inhibits any further rusting. This bike was refinished differently. This time I brush painted with 'Repaint' coach enamel giving two good coats over 3-4 weeks. Initially the results look pretty amateurish but after 2-3 weeks hardening time it sands down really nicely using 800, 1000 and 1200 grades of wet and dry. It will then polish up well with T-Cut followed by a coat of wax. It provides a good durable surface but retains a nice mellow finish so that it doesn't look too bright, 'plasticky' or that 'just painted' look. If you want the best coach enamel it is undoubtedly Tekaloid, but its not cheap and not widely available.

Even the unusually contoured Hercules mudguards, which were in a pretty poor state but which I wanted to preserve, stripped back well and were given the same treatment as the frame. Work is still in progress but at least its the slower but more pleasant direction - putting everything back together. The Cyclemaster engine has been a different story but more of that at another time.

Bought from a second location was a gem of a Raleigh roadster. Finished in that attractive dark green and fitted with locking front forks, it looked a treat. It was only on getting the bike home that I started to inspect it more closely. The front rim was a cheap repro Westwood with an area of poor plating. The handlebar plating was in poor condition and the chaincase had been resprayed in the wrong shade of green. The rear rim was an elderly Westrick. However, the bike did come with a lovely pair of original matching, unmarked, gold lined, mudguards, and a sound, overhauled Trojan Minimotor. 

The frame was very sound and rust-free and I simply mixed up some dark green coach enamel, touched in few chipped areas and then gently and carefully sanded them down with wet and dry. After T-cutting the new paint blended flawlessly with the old. With two rod braked roadsters already, I decided to convert this one to Raleigh calipers for ease of maintenance. Together with a NOS pair of handlebars from the bitsa box, new cables and new levers it was beginning to look quite respectable.

So onto the wheels. I bought another  complete but tattered Raleigh roadster just for its stainless steel wheels - and the complete bike cost less than buying rims and having them built up. An added bonus was that the rear wheel was carrying a Sturmey Archer FG 4 speed hub. Plus, this old bike provided a supremely comfortable old Brooks saddle. Whatever else you buy for your bike, first get yourself a decent leather saddle. It makes a tremendous difference to cycling comfort compared to cycling on an uncomfortable sticky plastic saddle. Be warned though, that a brand new leather saddle can take up to 500 miles to break in - go for a good secondhand one where someone else has suffered the initial discomfort!

These heavy roadsters were scorned in my youth. They made solid everyday transport for the police and the postman but you really wouldn't want to be seen dead on one, and they certainly wouldn't impress the girls. They were never going to be a fashion item or a style statement, they lacked the cachet of more prestigious brands of bicycle, and yet today I notice a growing interest. Surprisingly its OK, almost avant-garde or maybe bohemian, to be seen riding a battered old roadster. Just a week ago, I saw a lady's Pashley roadster, parked at the roadside and in everyday condition, drawing a lot of admiring attention. 

Now, with the wisdom of old, or at least, older age, I can appreciate them. They were extremely well made and finished, they were made to last a lifetime with good quality materials, providing economical transport with minimal attention. Even today, with my more keen eye, I see them, still in everyday use - obviously in much smaller numbers than 40 or 50 years ago, invariably dilapidated but still being used. No wonder they were exported around the world and such a loss that now that Raleigh has ended production in Nottingham. 

Parts are becoming a little more difficult to source, even items like brake blocks, rubber block pedals and handlebar grips, items which once were commonplace are not so easily found. I have started to stockpile. Its very pleasing to know that you have a new chainwheel and cranks or pair of handlebars 'in stock' when you wife casts an uncertain eye over your newly acquired machine. Some new reproduction parts are becoming available from India where roadsters are still built.

With a steadily growing collection, was my appetite for old bikes satisfied? Unfortunately it was not. I still hankered after a Reynolds 531 lightweight to relive those exciting teenage years. My first thoughts, and still not completely dismissed, were to look for a period 1950's Raleigh Lenton. Several have appeared for sale in quite distressed state but fetched considerable sums of money, far in excess of their value to me. If you know of a sound one at a reasonable price then do let me know.

There had been just one item missing from my 1960's Viking - I desperately wanted chromed front fork tips. To a 1960's teenager, in a world of Ford Consuls and Vauxhall Crestas, chromed fork tips  apparently represented the sign of a quality machine. Sometimes in life there are things which you just have to have, without necessarily rhyme or reason! And so this fetish was satisfied, almost forty years later, when I saw a 531 framed Carlton for sale. It was absolutely spotless.  It looked so clean that you could eat from any part of the bike. I'm still not sure how anyone could get a bike so clean. The frame had been resprayed, but in the correct deep bronze colour, but its lacking its original and rather brash transfers, something which hasn't been corrected, yet. This generation of Carlton is also a Raleigh, the Carlton name having been bought by them by this time and in fact, the Raleigh name is displayed on several components.

One of those awkward little twists had wreaked havoc on my back some months earlier so a short trial run was just that, very short. I have to say that it was all there, just as I remembered, the sharp, delightful handling of a nice lightweight cycle and fast, too. There was one minor inconvenience which arrives with increasing age. Bent low over the bars, one finds that one's knees are apt to contact, shall we say, one's abdomen! The other minor problem was wobbling about the road trying to get my foot into the nearside rat trap. Never had this problem in my youth, must have been much more agile.

The story doesn't end there. The collection has grown since. I now have an Emmelle three speed tourer (1980's I guess), a surprisingly smooth and pleasant bike, reminiscent of a typical 1960's machine. This bike gets most use since I'm not too worried about the odd scratch to the paintwork. My wife has just two, a traditional style Raleigh loop frame three speeder, relatively modern, which she loves dearly and an Emmelle with slightly more sporting stance which she hasn't quite taken to, yet. Her electric bike is described elsewhere. In fact we recently had a pleasant holiday in the Isles of Scilly when we took our bikes over with us. Roads on St. Mary's are still quiet by mainland standards although we did notice that both numbers of vehicles and speed are increasing year on year.