Neil McGowranMy site has taken over all of my spare time recently. I’ve been expanding it so I can let people in, creating an area that…
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My previous post turned up a couple of surprises about SB1995. The first, smaller surprise, was the owner’s initials on the fork. The bigger surprise…
“Never assume with the SBDU”. That is a phrase I say a lot. It is a mantra I repeat when I’m assessing SBDU frames and…
Recollections are a funny thing. Could you remember details or be precise about a specific date from maybe only a month ago? Could you remember…
It was a Thursday evening a couple of weeks ago, and as usual I was sitting in front of the laptop, half watching TV half…
I’ve been collecting for years. I can go for what seems like a lifetime without a new addition while at other times I seem to…
A lot has happened since this bike last graced my workstand. I’ve just checked through my posts and I last mentioned it in July 2017.…
SB518 is the third frame I have lined up this year to be painted in the TI-Raleigh colours (it’s nice to start the year with…
While I’m patiently waiting for the final few Dura-Ace 7400 series 6 speed components to arrive, I’m going to begin the paintwork restore on SB6560,…
SB6560 arrived in terrible condition with missing gear lever bosses and poorly applied transfers. It is a frame that has always been overlooked and put…
I’m gradually working my way through the snagging list on SB4059, all those little jobs that I know about and that require attention are slowly…
It has been a long couple of days but I’ve finally completed this small and difficult project to bring SB4059 up to spec in terms…
I think I must have been slightly bonkers to start this project but the desire to get SB4059 looking correct was too much! That morning…
I’ve recorded and blogged what seems like an amazing amount of detail relating to SBDU frames over the years and I’ve always strived to make…
Sometimes when I see a bike that someone else owns I feel a little pang of jealousy, I can’t help it. And that is exactly…
I currently have six or seven or maybe even eight or more projects and builds happening at the moment. But lots of projects means lots…
I wasn’t planning to do this job today, it just happened. I’d been thinking for the past week about how to tackle the task of…
It’s just over six years since I fastened the first component to this frame and four or five years since I completed the first build…
SBDU frames and the TI colours have become hugely popular. More people are seeking to buy an SBDU frame and recreate the red black and…
Following the change of cables on SB4059 there is now only one thing that I need to do, one more thing to sort out, one…
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about this bike. SB4059 is my original bike, number #1 in the collection, the bike that started…
I’ve started a few blog posts recently with the words “I received an email…”; and this story is the same. Late on a Sunday evening…
If I ever get the time and opportunity, I’ll take bikes into my wife’s photography studio and pick up the camera to capture the details…
The SBDU seemed to stop stamping their H reference on frames towards the end of 1979, meaning the frames coming out of Ilkeston at the…
I’ve been itching to bring the original paint on this frame back to life ever since it arrived last week. And even though SB3505 is…
The process of purchasing SB3505 was super smooth… a late Friday evening email, additional images on the Saturday, deal done on the Sunday morning, packaged…
Sometimes my plans for builds go smoothly and sometimes those plans stall and start to back up. I started the rebuild of SB1861 a little while…
Finding bikes built by the Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) that aren’t what they appear to be is part of the appeal of bike hunting…
After selling one of my frames a few years ago (SB447), I promised myself that I wouldn’t sell another. These frames are sought after and…
The last time you saw this frame, it was dirty, greasy, dusty and covered in spider’s webs. The parts were rusty and some were even…