How many parts to your bike?

Check out this fascinating image from today's Grauniad G2 supplement. It's a photo of a 1980s Raleigh racer stripped down to all of its constituent parts - not gone to the trouble of removing the inner tube patches though.

...427, 428, 429... shit! 1, 2, 3, 4...

Its part of a series called 'Things Come Apart by Canadian photographer Todd McLellan - sounds more Australian to me like.
So there are 893 pieces to this bike including pedal reflectors but only one single front and rear wheel reflector which is some kind of oversight. 
If you look carefully you can spot the red Raleigh branded seat post nut which has just taken me back to the 80s and my Grifter.
I bet it was a bugger to break that chain apart...you can buy a copy of this on the Guardian website.

Sturmey-Archer gallery

Another evocative British cycling brand of yesteryear is Sturmey Archer.  Those of you who had a Raleigh Grifter or Chopper  will be used to the wonders of their 3-speed hub gear systems.
In a similar vein to the Reynolds post of yesterday, Sturmey-Archer has a wonderful gallery of old marketing materials to feast your eyes on.  You can read all about it here.

The Sturmey Archer brand survives to this day even though it has been owned by Taiwanese company Sunrace since the year 2000.
The new hub gears are really good stuff too and they've retained the wonderful thumb-shift selector design which I had on my Grifter - my better half now has one on her beautiful Pashley Princess.

Undercover

I count myself a as rather fortunate when it comes to parking my bike at work.  For years I had to leave my bike locked on the streets of Manchester City Centre, open to the elements and in the eyes of ne'er-do-wells.
A couple of years ago the inevitable happened and I had my bike nicked.
It was a really nice Cannondale and was, at the time, the first brand new bike I'd ever owned.
Even back to my royal blue Raleigh Grifter, I've always had second hand [pre-loved in current parlance] bikes.
So I was gutted to find my lock attached to a Sheffield stand with no corresponding bike.  The thing is, whoever took it must have cut through the rear triangle to get it free - buggerists.
So, following that episode, I made it my mission to seek out alternative accommodation and I found some under my feet.
My pride and joy now resides, safely I hope, in the basement car park of my work building.  I even have a rag and some GT85 next to it to give it a bit of a once over when it rains - which is every day.
I recently spotted some very enlightened staff bike parking which consisted of a perspex dome with coded entry and everything.
It so important to keep you bike out of the elements for extended periods, particularly when the roads have been gritted [September - May  in some parts of Greater Manchester].
Have a look at some of the bikes which are kept outside the next time you're walking around and check out the spectrum of chain colours - silver, black through to the full rust orange experience.

Ride safe