Hi All, This is my first post, having joined the mailing list yesterday and I'd like to say hi to everyone.
I have been a bike enthusiast ever since I spent my teenage years racing in the schoolboy and junior catagories in South London in the UK. I raced against people that had more money than I had and, as a consequence, had much better bikes than the ones that I rode. These included the locally made Holdworths, Allins and the not-so local Carltons, Peugeots and other main stream bikes. I rode a Ciclo Parigi bike that was made in a Clapham bike shop. The British Sprint Champion sat on it once while it was parked in a heap of other bikes at a Herne Hill meeting. It had ultra close clearances, campag vertical drop-outs and a fast back seat stay arrangement.
I raced a lot of road races, but like many others in the UK , I spent most of my time doing time trials. My fastest 10 miles was 21 minutes when I was at the grand old age of 16.
Today, I have a pristine Mercier from 1981 (totally Campagnolo equipped) a PX10 (that I purchased in France for 16 pounds) and a Peugeot PR10 (or something like that). I just acquired a very early Holdsworth Pro Frameset on Ebay (you probably saw it) and a second PX10 frame from 1975.
I was wondering if there are any Holdsworth experts out there. The serial number on the Holdsworth frame is close to that of Darlene Pitman's bike and yet, unlike Darlene's bike, my frame has no chrome. My Holdsworth pre-dates Darlene's bike and my feeling is that it was one of the first factory built professional frames from late 1969, but I am not 100% sure. So, if there are any Holdsworth experts out there, I'd love to hear from you.
I have spent my first full day on the mailing list reading the emails. It is good to see such avid interest.
Best wishes to all.
Peter Rogers
Barrie, Ontario, Canada