Cardy George
Piercing rural members since 1981
It's a bit of a tale, but I don't care. Sadly, no old pictures, but my catalogue is fairly extensive, although the early days weren't exactly expensive.
I blame my Uncle for all of this. He bought me my first real bike when I was 5. Red, tyres with square knobs, banana seat. Only thing I wished it had was the three speed shifter on the top tube.
That was followed by a Toyworld BMX (shut up @moorey, we both know I'm old) with plastic disc wheel covers. Roadies who bitch about deep section wheels in cross winds clearly didn't grow up on these.
Then there came my first Grown-Up bike. A second hand 26" Malvern Star with a permanent buckle in the rear wheel. Destroyed the rear hub on that thing twice. Replaced it with a Target MTB with oversized tubes and wicked hydro-dipped looking paint job. This one taught me how to maintain a bike, mainly because Dad had NFI and I couldn't afford to take it to a shop.
Then shit got real. Year 11 I landed a Macca's job and wandered into a bike shop. Wandered out with an Apollo, size 2-sml, but with full bull horn bars, and wait for it, suspension forks. Only one in the school bike rack with those suckers. Rode my first century on it. Morphettville, up the Torrens to Cudlee Creek, over to Handorf, Bridgewater, back down to Morphettville.
End of year 12 brought me an apprenticeship, the first pay packet of which started paying for an metallic Blue Trek Y3.
And the games began. Brought it home with Indys, v-brakes and whatever shock that is. 3 months in to owning it i took it on a 3 day guided riding tour between Tumut and Jindabyne. By the time I had finished with it, it had Bombers, Fox Vanilla Air and Magura HS-11s.
Then my first custom bike.
This frame was actually a complete bike at the time I bought the Y3. A couple of years down the track the bare frame was sitting forlornly on the floor. So, I put the original parts back on the Y3, and sold it to my brother, who later fuckwittedly thought it would be safe in an apartment block communal shed. He didn't have for long. Anyway, took the Bombers, shock and Maguras, and had some Velocity Deep V rims built onto a no-name front hub and a Sachs Rear hub (ripped that to shreds too). Spinergy Xyclones brought Juicy 7 disc brakes. The thing looked fucking impressive. It will be resurrected.
Then, 20 years and three roadies later.......
I blame my Uncle for all of this. He bought me my first real bike when I was 5. Red, tyres with square knobs, banana seat. Only thing I wished it had was the three speed shifter on the top tube.
That was followed by a Toyworld BMX (shut up @moorey, we both know I'm old) with plastic disc wheel covers. Roadies who bitch about deep section wheels in cross winds clearly didn't grow up on these.
Then there came my first Grown-Up bike. A second hand 26" Malvern Star with a permanent buckle in the rear wheel. Destroyed the rear hub on that thing twice. Replaced it with a Target MTB with oversized tubes and wicked hydro-dipped looking paint job. This one taught me how to maintain a bike, mainly because Dad had NFI and I couldn't afford to take it to a shop.
Then shit got real. Year 11 I landed a Macca's job and wandered into a bike shop. Wandered out with an Apollo, size 2-sml, but with full bull horn bars, and wait for it, suspension forks. Only one in the school bike rack with those suckers. Rode my first century on it. Morphettville, up the Torrens to Cudlee Creek, over to Handorf, Bridgewater, back down to Morphettville.
End of year 12 brought me an apprenticeship, the first pay packet of which started paying for an metallic Blue Trek Y3.
And the games began. Brought it home with Indys, v-brakes and whatever shock that is. 3 months in to owning it i took it on a 3 day guided riding tour between Tumut and Jindabyne. By the time I had finished with it, it had Bombers, Fox Vanilla Air and Magura HS-11s.
Then my first custom bike.
This frame was actually a complete bike at the time I bought the Y3. A couple of years down the track the bare frame was sitting forlornly on the floor. So, I put the original parts back on the Y3, and sold it to my brother, who later fuckwittedly thought it would be safe in an apartment block communal shed. He didn't have for long. Anyway, took the Bombers, shock and Maguras, and had some Velocity Deep V rims built onto a no-name front hub and a Sachs Rear hub (ripped that to shreds too). Spinergy Xyclones brought Juicy 7 disc brakes. The thing looked fucking impressive. It will be resurrected.
Then, 20 years and three roadies later.......