40 Years of Bicycles

My Bicycle Experience Timeline.

• Dad told me that he began teaching me to build bicycle wheels when I was 3 years old. I remember sitting on the stairs of his second shop waiting for him to show me what to do next.
• During my childhood Dad taught me how to repair and restore bicycles. Many of the things that I now know I can't remember being taught; I have just always done it that way.
  
  I also learned to ride a bicycle at about this time. Dad held the saddle whilst I got on then gave me a push. I remember him shouting from a distance "Don't worry I've still got you!"
• During my teenage years I would help Dad in the shop on Saturdays. This was the first time that I was paid to repair bikes. It was also at this time that Dad taught me how to repair Sturmey Archer hubs.
  
  It was at this time I joined the Redmon Cycling Club which was the club that my Dad had raced in. I was inspired by the stories that Dad told me about his cycling days but although I did some time trials I didn't have the passion to become a racing cyclist.
• After I left school my Dad found me my first job with "Mitsui Machinery Sales" in Tolworth. They were the UK importers for Motobecane Bicycles. I was employed as a mechanic and assistant store man.
• In 1985 I joined Dad as junior partner in his bike shop. A year later he handed the shop over to me as sole owner. Unfortunately I didn't have the business ability of my father and the business was handed back to Dad in 1988 in a worse state than he had given it to me.
• Although I was no longer employed in the bicycle trade I still enjoyed riding and repairing bicycles.
• In 2005 Dad passed away and left me his business, which was then called Colwood Wheel Works. I moved the business to Hailsham and now trade under the "Colwood Wheel Works" name.