At the Retrobike Show and Shine at the Malverns Classic, this yellow and red bespoke racing machine was on display. It’s one of Isla Rowntree’s own personal bikes, built to meet her precise ideas about what makes a good race bike, and a bike that fits. For those familiar with her children’s range of Islabikes, you’ll see how she carried these features over to the kids’ range.
It’s new owner, Alex, talks us through how he came to own it, and the many features on it.
It looks like there’s a lot of weight saving measures going on in here and some really nice components as well. So take it away and tell us about this bike!
It’s a race bike from 1993. It was built by Andy Thompson who built the frame, forks, stem and chain set. Yeah, it’s all original. There was a magazine feature on it and I used that to recreate it.
Ah, so was there much recreation to be done?
Yes, Isla gave the frame and forks to my family, and then my sister raced on it for years and years. It was in a real terrible state by the time I got it and I had to get it to where it is now and source all the parts.
There are lots of little details on here that are weight saving or size specific. Do you think you could talk us through some of those deep nerd details?
Yeah, the chain set, she couldn’t find a chain set that was short enough or light enough. So Andy Thompson built the cranks from tandem fork blades and they are 155mm long and they’re super light. It’s a two piece chain set so the bottom bracket is on the left hand crank and the chain rings are EGG, made in Wales.
Right, and you’ve got a Mavic derailleur on there as well, that’s pretty unusual.
Front and rear Mavic derailleurs, which was what she used back in the day. Suntour XC shifters and they are a Hope Ultralight front hub and Hope screw on rear hub. 28 spokes and Mavic rims.
That’s quite the block on the back there, those sprockets. There’s a lot of close difficult gears going on there.
Yep, but the chain rings are so small that you can get away with it. I think it’s a 20T little ring. So, an easy enough gear on there.
I noticed even the seat post has had some shaving going on, the skewers, that’s been whittled down to save some weight. Have you stuck it on the scales?
I haven’t, no, but I think it was 24 pounds, that’s what the magazine feature said.
And is it going to stay like this or is it now going to get ridden and taken back to its racing condition?
No, it doesn’t get ridden. I think Isla said there’s a weight limit of about 8 stone on it before it disintegrates. One of the other ones did! She gave us four bikes and one of them, the forks snapped under my sister, unluckily in a race, and she had to be airlifted away.
Oh, crikey!
Yeah, so we don’t ride them anymore!
Fair enough. Is this the only bike you’ve got in the show or have you got a few?
I’ve got a Cannondale, but there’s nothing special about it in comparison to this!
Well, thanks very much, enjoy the show!
