I am now the happy owner of the 1985 Holdsworth pictured below.

The previous owner was another Bike Forum member, Verktyg (Chas). A great thing about buying from him is that every detail was tuned and polished before I took it home. We stretched out the process to include a few weekends of discussions on the bike’s history, components, with a few glasses of wine along the way.

These pics run chronologically, with my initial test ride, then on a 20-mile shakedown ride, to the latest iteration yesterday.



There is an odd, perhaps irrational aspect of my 3 road bikes. My 2014 Cannondale SuperSix is several pounds lighter, and I can carry a 0.5 mph faster average speed on it. But many days I’d rather ride a steel bike with downtube shifters than the carbon bike with brake/shifters. I guess I'm on an 80’s kick.

The Holdsworth rides a little harder, and steers slightly quicker than the smooth riding Gitane TdF Chas sold me last year. I’ll see how these Tufo 25mm tubulars feel after a break-in and may switch to 28mm.

I think Chas a few more bikes he plans to sell on here, most of them British, French, or Italian from the 60’s through 80’s. I might have room for one more…