The 1980s...





Saturday 3 September 1983, Paradise Street, outside The Moathouse Hotel in Liverpool. Merseyside D.A. members about to start a ride to Manchester in aid of The Royal National Lifeboat Institution. In the foreground is the late Ken Mathews, cycling correspondent for The Liverpool Echo newspaper.



I joined the C.T.C. in April 1985 aged seventeen having been influenced by watching a BBC television series of the comedian/folk singer Mike Harding on a bicycle tour of North America.

Having saved up enough money from my wages of £25.00 a week from a recently completed "Youth Training Scheme", I bought a brand new "Raleigh Alpha Sport" for £130 as it looked nice in the catalogue. The bike was totally unsuited for long distance cycle touring due to its heavy weight, high gears and large frame but it was a start. The only experience of cycling I had was back in the 1970s as a child having been the proud owner of a battered Raleigh Chopper swapped for a pair of walkie-talkies from a friend.

I remember my first ride with Merseyside D.A. Intermediate Section was into North Wales and the chainset on the bike came loose. Having no idea how to fix it, someone produced a Chainset Extractor Tool (something I had never seen before) and it was fixed. I then did a couple of all night rides, Including Liverpool to Lake Vyrnwy in North Wales and trips to Youth Hostels which I never new existed.

There was good attendances on the club rides and the club room was open every Thursday night until it was demolished in 1988 due to a fire.

The 1980s produced a surge of bicycle development such as the practical All Terrain Bike, Shimano Biopace Chainset, Stronglight Biostrong Chainset, Tuffy Tape, indexed gears and in 1984 electronic cycle computers. I bought a Cateye Solar computer in 1986 costing £48.00! to replace a dodgy tyre driven Sanyo speedometer. The Cateye never charged up properly and leaked in the rain even though protected with a polythene bag.

By the end of the decade times were changing as car ownership in the U.K. rose sharply and shops began to open on Sundays making the roads busier.

I never thought I would be still riding with Merseyside D.A. over 20 years later, and still have genuine cycling friends, but am glad I watched Mike Harding on a touring bicycle all those years ago....

Stephen Gilmartin.



Thanks to Dave Martindale for the photos.

Click on photo to enlarge. All show "The Intermediate Section."