About Vintage Bicycles UK

Where it all began

I started the group in November 2014, just for a friend and me to share our vintage bicycle projects. It has grown and grown since.

I've been around bicycles since the 1980s, out in my grandfather's shed watching and helping him fix them in any spare time I had, until around 2001. So I've always been around pre-1990s bicycles.

Garry Gregory, founder

The groups and this site

From that first group for a friend and me, Vintage Bicycles UK has grown into a family of Facebook groups: the main group, For Sale / Swap / Wanted, Retro Mountain Bikes UK, Events and Vintage BMX UK.

This site is the groups' reference library. It has a guide to the bikes themselves: 352 model pages across 41 brands, 197 of them backed by a maker's catalogue. Every fact links to where it came from, and where sources disagree we show both. The guides cover buying, cleaning and servicing old bikes.

Vintage Bicycles UK is run by Garry Gregory, trading as Nedtara. Collingwood Buildings, 38 Collingwood Street, Newcastle, NE1 1JF (post only: we can't accept parcels). It isn't connected to Raleigh or any other maker.

Bikes and parts I've had

A few of the bikes and parts that have passed through my hands. Photos: Garry Gregory.

Green Hercules gents' bicycle with a sprung saddle, upright bars and chrome mudguard stays, seen from above — The green Hercules, with Balmoral on the top tube.

The same front and rear lamps, now bright and clean, with a dynamo beside them — After: the same lamps, cleaned with kitchen foil and polished with Autosol. The dynamo is on the right.

Black BMX with red tyres, red saddle and red grips on a display stand — The Scimitar BMX on show.

Orange Gary Fisher mountain bike with Gary Fisher on the down tube — The Gary Fisher, with Wahoo on the top tube.

Orange Sunbeam small-wheel bicycle with a white saddle and a rear carrier — Orange Sunbeam small-wheel bike.

Raleigh Vektar with a red frame and white body panels on grass, with a black ladies' bike behind — Raleigh Vektar at a show.

See all 160 photos

Get in touch

Email [email protected], or post in the main group.