Ultimate Proof of Vintage Steel ,, or Its the Man not the Bike
 

I was playing with a newspaper search engine and found this article.
Reg Harris was at the New York Bike Show after his comeback in the 70s and got to meet him.
2 1950's Raleigh Reg Harris Lentons are prized parts of my collection.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...be054a6bcd.jpg

Speaking of steel, Reg Harris famously once ripped a bottom bracket out of a frame in a sprint in his earlier days of sprinting at the height of his strength.

Maybe the 1st Ironman......great read.
Best, Ben

I guess that is why my 2 Raleigh Pro Track bikes have these long spears.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...41eb6b1b7b.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...23b56de9d9.jpg

That is amazing. A 54 year old riding his 20 year old bike thrashing the field and winning the national championship. Take that you young whippersnappers, and stay off of my lawn!

Not to speak ill of Reg Harris, who by all accounts was stronger'n hell, but there is another at least partial possible explanation, and it involves somebody having a bad day with a brazing torch . . . .

My friend Devon, beefy guy but quite fit, came back to me several days after I'd built a bike for him. "Sam I've broken my chain", he said. So I put a new master link on and shrug it off. Then a week later, he comes back. "It's happened again on my way home from drinking, and this time I couldn't even find the chain!" I put another chain on, but this time pinned it instead of using the master link. Now he's known as Devon the Animal.

I guess knowing firsthand the infamous British build quality, it could well have been poor brazing. But that article makes me wonder! Wow!

You'd hope that the builder brazing a frame destined for Reg Harris would be especially careful. Still, in the days of British class resentment, especially on the part of the ragged-trousered philanthropists, i.e., the workers exploited to subsidize the leisure of the upper classes, the Raleigh factory would have had its share of tools downed and poorly performed work.

You'd hope that the builder brazing a frame destined for Reg Harris would be especially careful. Still, in the days of British class resentment on the part of the ragged-trousered philanthropists, the Raleigh factory would have had its share of tools downed and poorly performed work.

you can say that, again!!! ;)

"...just 20 years after..."
Like it was a race between locomotives.

"The round one sprint was an absorbing anticlimax..."
"a gentle tour of the top of the banking...."

Newspaper writers like that no longer exist.
Now we now what Phil Leggett read while growing up.

OP may remember...
There is a hill in Greenville, often used for runners to do hill repeats.
The first Trek aluminums had come out.
Of course, we had to do hill repeats with one. (not mine)
Broke the BB.
Shop (OP's family) replaced it free, frame by Trek under warranty. (Trek did not pay labor then)
Broke the next one. Shop and Trek replaced it free, again. (Trek did not pay labor then)
Walked into the shop a while later. OP's mother said "I know who you are. No aluminum."
She wasn't sure exactly who broke the frame(s), but she knew the crowd.
She was a legend, a leader, and her influence will not cease until bikes do.

She sounds like a pretty good businesswoman, too. I wish I could have met her.

You did not “buy a bike” there. You began a relationship.

If you bought the same bike elsewhere, cheaper, you did not “save” a dime. The bike was not just ready to ride; it was ready to race. You could take the tune for granted. Period.

I did not ride a Trek, er, again, until the OP put me on his Y-Foil, in the shop jersey, maybe 15 years later.

Later that summer, I high-sided it, flipped it; and broke my arm halfway through a century. Saved the bike. Greg met me at the metric stop, where I swapped out my ruined jersey, wiped the bugs off the road rash, and went on. (It didn’t feel broken).

At 80 miles, I gave up the bike, too hot, too tired, too sore to risk their bike. That was how I felt about that shop.