gbnz wrote:Anyone else ever been tempted by a cheap bike?
We were out in the Middle East HMS Abuscade. October 1981 to February 1982.
I shared a cabin with a chap who owned a Messerschmitt bubble car .............. sorry, I digress!
He showed me a mail-order page in a newspaper - sorry, can't remember which - and there was an advert for Tensor Marketing Ltd and they were selling "racing" bike dirt cheap with the logo Eddy Merckx on the downtube.
I ordered one so it was there when I got home. Can't remember the price - maybe £70 or so.
Terrible thing really. 10sp gears - 5st double - heavy and the frame was poorly made. It got me into dropped handlebars for the first time though, and I commuted the five miles each way from home in Plymstock to Devonport and back.
After a new job in W Scotland, I commuted up and down the loch side to the submarine base and back - seven or eight miles each way.
After moving house, my commute extended to fourteen miles each way.
I really got into this cycling malarky for commuting, and even tried to see how I managed in a self-timed 25miles. Even on the Tensor bike, I did 1hr 10mins.
I sold the bike after a few years use, and bought a Raleigh Clubman in 1984.
The rest is history.
Mick F. Cornwall