What he would do if his trusty Touriste were stolen or crippled had long been a concern to the scout and he had many times looked fruitlessly at what might replace it.
In 1997, his second Freddie Grubb (1978 ten-speed; the first was a 1974 five-speed) was taken from outside a shop in Exeter’s Fore Street, while he had briefly let it out of his sight. He was without a bicycle for months, until he saw the Touriste in the window of Cyclerama, which then had a shop in Cowick Street.
One night, after again poring through the catalogues and finding none of the modern tourers in the least appealing, the scout had a quick look for secondhand Raleighs. There happened to be two for sale: a Touriste and a Royal, being offered at £200 and £250. The Raleigh Royal had the same frame as the top of the range Randonneur—a bicycle still much admired by steel-frame devotees and coveted by the scout—but with less expensive equipment.
The question of which to buy was solved by buying both.
Albert Finney played a young machinist at the Raleigh works in the 1960 film, “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” which was based on the novel by Alan Sillitoe. Here, former Raleigh workers, some of whom knew the author personally, speak about what it was like to work at the factory.
The scout’s Royal is seen in the window of Hardy Cycles (right). Rob said that it was admired by several of his customers. The Touriste has been left unlocked not far from where his Freddie Grubb was stolen in 1997.
Africabikes for Hire
Carrier Bicycle
“They don’t make bikes like that any more.” And it’s a jolly good thing they don’t, in the scout’s view. It can’t go uphill because there are no gears; it can’t go downhill because there are no brakes; and whatever you do, the stand will stab your shins.
