The other day I was dropping something off at a friend's
house and on the way home drove through an area which was
scheduled for council pick-up (they have bi-annual bulky
refuse pickups in this part of Australia). Now being a bit
of a scavenger these pick-ups are very appealing to me.
Some months ago I picked up an old road bike to supplement
my main mountain bike, however it was a bit tatty and had
steel wheels.
On this occasion however, I saw a bike by the side of the
road and thought, "maybe it has alloy wheels that I can swap
out with the other one". A quick check in the semi-darkness
showed that they were so I picked up the bike and its
separate front wheel and mudguards and slung them in the
back of the car.
I got home and put the front wheel back on, gave the brakes
and gears a quick check - nothing a good clean and an oil
wouldn't fix, then rode it up and down the road. I then put
it back in the garage and finally looked to see what make
the bike was. It was clearly a Raleigh but it was hard to
make out the model as the paint was worn at that point. On
closer inspection it turned out to be a Record Sprint.
Now when I was about 12, I used to bug the local bike shops
asking for bike catalogues although there was no way I could
afford a new bike. The one bike that I really drooled over
was, you've guessed it, the Raleigh Record Sprint! Black
alloy rims, black frame, black brakes. Cool!
It's only taken 22 years, but I got one, and it was FREE!
:-)
Graeme