Sunday, January 17, 2010

1973 Ellis-Briggs

























I suppose all collectors have a moment when they begin their obsessive need to acquire, "save", research, invest or whatever they want to call the drive to accumulate more then is necessary. My bicycle collecting began 15 or so years ago when I found a bike in the basement of a bike store on Bloor street in Toronto. I didn't know at the time it was going to become the beginning of something. It was just a bike. I had always been into bikes and cycling, first BMXs then mountain bikes, and I was just finishing my fourth and last summer assembling Supercycles at the Yonge street Canadian Tire. I built 1200 a summer on average, a huge number considering they were almost all defective straight out of the box and needed TLC to be rideable. This bike in the basement was different. It oozed quality. Every component was beautifully made by Campagnolo of Italy of machined or cast aluminum. The British frame had extremely slender steel tubes and a translucent green clear coat which exposed the minute details of the craftsmanship. I bought it for $350; probably a fair market price in the pre-ebay days. It was too small for me but I didn't care. I changed the drop bars to mustache bars and rode this bike for years. I even used it for a season as a courier, although the tubular tires were a real pain to repair in the middle of a work day. Over the years a lot of the clear coat has worn off and I blew-up the original freewheel and rear rim but it still rides like a perfect piece of machinery.

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