This has to be the best bike collection in the UK

This has to be the best bike collection in the UK
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In this video we visit Graham Weigh cycles in Deeside to show you what could be the best collection of bikes in the United Kingdom.

Graham Weigh has been involved in cycling nationally, and internationally for over thirty years. He started racing in the Welsh School Boys championships and worked up to the top competing and winning silver, not once but three times in the World Championship Indoor Track races. He has also been involved with professional cycling teams and has been in retail for many years. With a wealth of knowledge and endless cycling industry connections, Graham has so many facts and interesting stories to tell. This collection of bikes has come from a lifetime of collecting and show’s Graham’s commitment and passion for the cycling industry. The bikes shown here are just a small snippet of his larger collection, and yes we will be revisiting to see some more.

Timecodes
0:00 – Intro.
0:35 – Introduction to Graham Weigh Cycles.
1:12 – How the bike collection started.
2:21 – The first bike that started the collection.
2:54 – Bicycle wall art.
5:34 – Rob Hayes actual Brite team bike. Built by Paul Donohue in Reynolds 853 tubing.
9:03 – Sean Kelly 1983 Vitus 979 series one Sem France Loire team bike.
11:33 – Look KGSL with Mavic Mektronic groupset. First electronic bicycle groupset.
13:44 – Colnago Master Piu with Campagnolo Record groupset.
17:07 – Gios Torino Super Record road bike built personally by Alfredo Gios for Graham’s wife.
19:40 – Contini bicycle with full Zeus running gear.
23:12 – Graham’s Lapierre personal bike.
24:40 – Graham’s personal Cipollini track bike.

Why not visit our website for hints, tips and free downloadable vintage bicycle catalogues to give you reference and guidance with your own bicycle restoration. : http://www.bikeituk.club

Graham Weigh Cycles website: http://grahamweighcycles.com

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Hello we are on the English and Welsh border 
in a place called Deeside by the river Dee but we’re not here to see the 
river we’re here to see, possibly the best collection of bikes in the UK so 
put the kettle on and make yourselves a brew. We are here at Graham Weigh cycles, 
some of you may recognise the name because we have actually restored 
one of his bicycles on the channel Graham even has his very own race team and I am 
super excited to be sharing with you his beautiful vintage road bike collection which is all tucked 
up inside here. Graham has also been involved nationally and internationally with the cycling 
world for over 50 years and has some fascinating stories to tell so what are we waiting for let’s 
get inside meet the man himself and Crack-On. Well Graham thank you so much 
for allowing us into your beautiful vintage road bike collection 
there’s so many bikes to go at and we will be covering them all but can you tell us 
exactly how you got into collecting bicycles. In the late 70s when I first opened the shop 
it’s called Deeside cycle exchange right and we were quite successful and we started the 
cycling team and so on, but in the early 80s I turned to wholesaling as the natural 
progression so I was supplying other shops and the natural progression from 
that of course was to import various brands and I was fortunate 
enough to get some of the top brands and this collection is just a reflection 
of my business career in cycling and also it shows some of the people that I had great 
respect for, people who were my idols people that uh that i’d like to look at a bike and think 
oh yeah and i can think about that person people who’ve now passed on you know so it’s a it’s it 
has a lot of significance to me. Can you remember exactly which bike was the first bike that started 
the collection off. Oh yes definitely I mean in those days I had a warehouse just down the corner 
from from the shop and I thought it would be nice to have a bike on the wall so when i was at 
the Milan show in the early 80s I bought I was buying some Somic bikes and they were they 
were beautiful bikes with all the pantograph on and everything I thought one of those would be 
nice to hang on the wall and I still got it, so that was the first bike here. I have noticed that 
on the wall you’ve also got a couple of beautiful frames within frames can you tell us a little 
bit about the frames because they are absolutely stunning and uh yes I would not mind one of them 
on my wall to be honest. Well the concept of wall art didn’t exist when I when I when I hung 
the Somic on the wall but then later um when I started to help collect Colnago’s yes yeah he has 
pulled me up in the past regardless to Colnago’s and we are going to actually cover this subject 
uh regards to pronunciations and stuff because you have got so much history with all these brands 
so we will be shedding some yeah i know it’s okay so when I started to collect Colnago’s they 
were they are masterpieces there’s no doubts about that some of the paintwork paint jobs 
are unbelievable I mean they are ironic they are classics they are old masters new masters 
and i just thought i wonder whether i could put one in a in a picture frame a rococo picture frame 
yeah and then how would I do it and my other hobby that very people very few people know about is I 
make furniture right that’s my hobby so it kind of went inside and i saw i got a picture frame and 
I made a box and a hunger frame in it right and i thought well that’s wall art yeah it’s absolutely 
stunning how about the Peugeotthe Peugeot is beautiful and is an interesting story regardless 
uh yeah well when Bernard Chaminade won the tour in in the late 60s the the uh he was riding on 
a silver Peugeot and because everyone remembers that Peugeot’s are white Tommy Simpson rode on a 
white Peugeot that you’ll discuss in one at some point later on i’m sure okay um and Peugeot 
but this was done in silver right which was the first one i’d ever seen like that and then 
my art brought out the gold anodized group set which I like to think was because to celebrate 
his win in the tour I don’t know that it was it wasn’t but i acquired the group set i made 
up the made up the bike and got a very large picture frame it fits in it no wheels but it 
fits in this and it’s a piece of significant wall art again yeah which uh people when they 
walk into the shop it’s there as they walk up the yeah right okay well what you’ve all been 
waiting for is some of these bikes we’ve got so many to get through so what we’re going 
to do is we’re going to scale it down to for now as i say we’re actually 
going to be revisiting this place so what are your five most significant road bikes and 
can we have a look at them could you go and get one of those is that okay of course well this is 
one of the bikes Andy okay it’s a Reynolds 853 aerodynamic tubed frame built by Paul Donohue 
and obviously used by the bright team in 1998 the name on the frame Rob Hales most people have 
heard of rob the next world champion i was lucky enough to be involved in the team um my job was 
finding the equipment sorting out the clothing all the nice logistics stuff I was the sort 
of technical director and i had a fantastic year the team was very successful the success 
of our British cycling started with team Brite right the concept of team Brite it was that 
Brite was the managing director of Brite there’s a guy called Stuart Hallam his brother Ian Hallam 
everyone will know again an international champion world champion many times over uh he and I were 
friends because we raced together as as juniors so uh Stewart spoke to me and we both agreed that 
the basis of any strong professional team would be a team pursuit squad okay and that was the basis 
of the team the team pursuit squad for Great Britain was in the Brite team along with some of 
the so not using the pun but the brightest riders Russell Downing, Chris Newton, Chris Walker who 
won the tour of Britain, and John Tanner right that was the team uh along so and then we also 
found in Australia Colin Sturgess wow and we brought him back you know again the next world 
champion so we had a fantastic team and we won race after race after that it was fantastic some 
great memories there fantastic memory brilliant this is here just to remind me of those great days 
wonderful absolutely stunning okay it’s obviously full Dura Ace and yeah i won’t expect anything 
else now well this was the this was the team bike all the latest equipment which at the time was the 
Dura Ace the Mavic Helium wheels had just come out and and so on when you say Paul Donnelly actually 
did the frame that does come up that name comes up in certain forums regards to obviously frame 
building or something linked to yourself yes well I mean one thing probably people are 
aware of that i’m no friend of right you know i’m no frame builder I was sort of the agent 
that put Graham Weigh on frames which were built by amongst other people well Paul Donahue right 
he was in the Northeast of England he built a lot of frames for me right you’ll have heard of 
other people who who uh built for me Terry Dolan for instance right in the early days built frames 
for me Mick Cowell, Bill James built frames for me so you know we went to Paul, Paul was very 
innovative this frame has has on it some extremely significant concepts these were stainless steel 
fork ends right which were made by Mid-Regender engineering okay in the Northeast which again 
some people know his name is Jackie Wright right he made those these chain stays were not 
actually made by Reynolds but they were rolled by Paul Donahue really right thats interesting 
Reynolds basic Reynolds tubes we bought the tubes and made them into our shape and we 
called this the millennium end right it was coming up to year 2000. So that was the that was that was 
his airing ability not mine right you know okay wonderful right okay well um next bike 
next one yeah let’s do the next one okay. Okay what’s this so this is Vitus 979 series 
one right look which which type it is but this is a series one right sorry the seat post 
lug so seat lugs vary right okay if you just tell the viewers regardless yes indeed they 
started off with with this standard seat bolt okay and then they changed to the grub screw yes 
i’ve got the good screw on so what was that mark two was a mark two so this is a mark one 
okay the significance of this frame is that in this disguise this was the frame that 
Sean Kelly used when he first rode for Vitus. He was riding for Sen France Loire right France 
Loire was obviously the region within France and this has got a full Mavic group set on which of 
course is what they used yes at the time so indeed yeah okay well when when he first started riding 
these bikes I wasn’t importing them but they they caught my attention and I made an effort and was 
lucky enough to secure the agency yes because if you’re not aware as well we did mention a few 
frames that obviously the Graham Weigh name was on it was also on the Vitus frames as well and 
there’s so many beautiful Vitus bicycles which we will cover in a separate video and cover 
that brand because you’ve got an absolute beautiful one in your office i’ve noticed but as 
I say you’ll have to hang around for that one but yeah it’s absolutely beautiful so yeah I mean 
a lot of the Vitus bikes you would see would have Graham Weigh on and when we were lucky 
enough to get a front page on cycling weekly and in the monthly magazines and so on you’d see 
Chris Boardman or Ben Lockwell or Peter Longbottom or Tim Hall riding on bikes with Graham Weigh on 
yeah but of course they were Vitus bikes because at the time that was absolute cutting edge yes 
that was the bike that people wanted to use and subsequently many of the pro’s had Vitus 
bikes painted to look like their team bike yeah okay guys it wasn’t actually a wasn’t 
actually a Concorde it was a Vitus painting to look like a Concorde they are really nice 
to ride the one I had it was it was really beautiful compared to the other bikes i’ve ridden 
the steel bikes to be honest it was a lovely bike it was yeah all the great great track and still 
super light yes still amazingly light you know absolutely lots of stories about that as well yeah 
okay well okay next one next one there you go. So this this isn’t really a vintage bike but 
this is a bike of real significance so what age would you put this out this is uh turn of 
the century okay yeah now it’s a carbon frame because it’s a Look frame it’s easy to see but 
it’s the SL version which in itself is very rare but what makes this significant is that this 
is the first electronic group set wow Shimano didn’t come up with the idea of Di2 it was it 
was Mavic this is what was called Mechatronic so there’s and this is a full working group set 
with the I mean the gears to be honest they’re pretty ugly right yeah it’s quite large in that 
restaurant yeah and then and then obviously was all the gear changing on the display display 
yes and the gear levers uh it’s only the rear gear that’s at this electronics right the front 
gear is just mechanical okay at that stage and I think when they went when they first went into 
it that was what they wanted to do and i’m sure had it been successful at the time yeah that would 
have been the next step but it didn’t meet with great uh great approval from the market right 
maybe it was too expensive or maybe before it’s time a little bit more it’s time maybe but this is 
here for that reason that it’s it’s it’s a it’s a significant bike with with a massive jump forward 
which now people assume was all down so nice yeah its absolutely like new it’s 
like bran spanking new this beautiful it is one bike that i’ve not actually managed to 
uh to do yet uh but yeah the group set well they did well they did do steel bikes yes I mean 
yeah and in fact we’ve got one which we’re about to do some work on at some stage okay 
you know there are always a number I mean these are all the finished bikes but there are 
always a number of bikes which are due to be to go through renovation yeah I’ve noticed there’s 
quite a few frames all around the place you know there’s even some hanging up here but uh yeah 
brilliant okay like that it’s fascinating so there we go okay right so oh yeah Graham how about 
we do a Colnago Colnargo do you say that right Colnago Colnago, Colnago how about we get a 
Colnago out, yes why not brilliant hard to choose really but yes so many i think my favorite 
just in terms of aesthetics would be this one okay you good with it? yep Wow well they really are like pieces of art it 
is a masterpiece yes there’s no other way of describing it yeah Colnago Master Gilco tubing 
Gilco that’s Gilbert Columbus right his name is Gilco okay it didn’t actually appear like 
this the wheels came from a different source to the bike the frame actually I got the 
frame first of all and it was so beautiful that it it needed a contemporary group set i 
was lucky enough to find a virtually brand new Campag record group set which went in it I 
had amazingly I had this is a modern bottle cage I must admit yeah but it just went so well 
absolutely perfect yeah absolutely perfect and then I found the wheels in Germany ship 
them in and there we go there’s a bike it is it’s so beautiful I mean the lug work and 
the thing is it’s not until you get close to these bikes I can’t help touch the tubing because 
you notice there’s something different about them yeah that’s one of the things about that being 
very tactile well yeah it’s it’s all the detailing on the look work and and the paint work as well on 
this is it’s phenomenal it’s uh yeah what always amazes me as well going on what always amazes me 
is that you ever find a frame in this condition if i had that this bike i’d be riding it yeah it 
would be it wouldn’t be tucked away I’d be using it because it’s so beautiful yeah it really is 
beautiful and sunny day nice so sorry you got you got the wheels with these yeah i found the wheels 
online in Germany right they are Campag wheels but but this colour this colour was already on 
was it wow it was an it was an incredible i mean when you see these things you just go i’m having 
them you can’t think oh I wonder what i could do should i do should I you just gotta buy jump 
yeah and there was like oh my you know I know myself when i’ve been looking online and you see 
something that you’ve been after for so long your heart starts racing he’s like that’s it i’ve 
been looking so and you kind of have all these things in the back of your mind regardless of 
putting the jigsaws together and when they when they come along like that then yeah let’s say 
it must have been a nice moment exciting moment yeah well one of the things I don’t have in the 
collection is an electrophoresis white Vitus 979 and amazingly last night I found one online 
really yeah right okay so and I’m trying at the moment you’re trying to buy at the 
moment okay we are definitely going to do a dedicated video for Vitus so maybe that would 
be an intro hopefully not so hopefully fingers crossed i hope yeah fingers crossed yes 
we’ve got so much to talk about regardless to Vitus and about Colnago and so many others 
are going right i’m getting there i’m definitely getting there right brilliant okay uh right so 
one last bike should we get one last bike out. But this one has a an emotional connection for 
me because this was made especially for my wife, really okay this was the issue was she’s not very 
tall and to put in full-size wheels and to fit it all in in the right geometry uh was it was a a job 
of an engineering job i was fortunate enough to uh to meet uh Alfredo Gios we discussed it and uh 
this was this was the outcome uh it’s a very small smallest the smallest it could possibly be these 
the lugs are joined here right uh it’s obvious it’s all Campagnolo equipment the leather that’s 
not contemporary uh i did i did this i’ve been uh there’s several of the bikes have got the leather 
leather finishing number look on the on the handlebars and it’s a technique which i’ve learned 
I buy the by the leather sleeves and sew them up it’s hard work the uh the twine is very hard and 
it cuts into your fingers when you’re tightening them up but nonetheless it looks it looks 
fabulous absolutely beautiful that’s what i’ve done one of these on the channel Gios Torino i 
mean the the forks are very significant they’re really focusing on them in in the early days this 
was this was a unique feature Gios had the hole in the fork crown with the plastic insert right 
which made the fork crown a bit lighter because the fork crown is a very heavy components in the 
frame right you know after the bottom bracket it’s the next heaviest part so because obviously 
the tubes themselves are all quite light you know so that was the idea unfortunately I 
don’t think structurally it was that good okay in the running gear we’ve got a little dot it’s 
all contemporary Campagnolo from the from the uh from the time that we built the bike but uh and 
of course the with Gios at the time it was any colour you wanted as long as it was blue yes 
definitely and then they they subsequently did other covers yes but at that time if you when you 
went onto the stand in Milan everything was blue beautiful I love this frame I love the bike 
yes do you know I could stay here all day I know I’ve said five can we have one more 
can we have one more we can have ten more no we haven’t got time we really haven’t got 
time let’s say we will be definitely making more videos definitely we will be returning but 
yes let’s move this let’s have one more bike. Well this is this is a quite rare bike it’s a it’s 
a make which probably people very few people have ever heard of it’s a Spanish manufacturer only, 
only made friends for a very short period of time and there are things on the frame which 
would make you believe it’s something else yes for instance on the uh engraving on the 
fork crown would make you think it’s Cinelli yes definitely but actually Contini pinched 
their logo okay uh so they were made in Spain and obviously the curved staves were a 
feature as was the dual co tubing yeah. Such a nice paint job very very rare made with a full Zues group 
set i mean obviously they’ve been influenced over manufacturers and kind of either took all the 
little best bits and put it all together and uh well the thing is that all of the cast 
parts yeah were unique to Contini all right with the with the grub screw at the back 
and the bottom bracket is very unusual yeah and and they’ve used obviously the Italian 
colours there on on the Cineli as well which is yeah um yeah well in turn and i also thought it 
it was essential as it was a Spanish bike and a lot of people thought it was Italian right that 
it was built with Spanish equipment right okay and there was a manufacturer in Spain at the 
time called Zeus who made equipment which was just like Campagnolo yeah it’s very similar i 
think in those days there wasn’t quite the same copyright patent uh thing going on and and 
a lot of the things that they made look just like Campagnolo yeah but it said Zeus on 
it right and so this i thought it was Wow yes no of course definitely and again that’s 
a really interesting by mentioning the fact that i’ve got a white uh 979 coming i’ve just 
found another Contini in Spain right so just as we speak being shipped earlier okay yes you never have enough never having 
no well. You can never have enough hay. there are not every one of the bikes 
is amongst my favorites sorry that that was one of the questions how many approximate 
how many bags would you say in the collection I know you’ve got quite a lot of frames so it 
was over 100 really right and then bikes in transit in the process of being made good enough 
to to go down to display right whilst I’m not a great lover of the pristine never been used 
I mean I say that having said that about that lovely Colnago but i like to think that the bike 
has had a life yes we can have them here and they’ve been ridden all this equipment’s 
been used and they’re here at being uh for posterity i suppose in some respects because 
time will pass yeah everything will be carbon and disc brake and and before you know there’ll be 
no cables well i’m I’m fully aware of all that these bikes will be here longer than we will 
oh absolutely okay so that in itself is we’re preserving that history definitely and the other 
thing as well I mean don’t mind how old are you now 73, 73 and still cycling to this day and 
he’s got a Zwift race i’m sure this afternoon can i ask you what are your go-to bikes 
can we can we have a quick look at you guys yeah sure though okay brilliant 
okay yeah okay okay wow okay stunning Well for all of the all bikes the classic bikes 
I ride a disc brake di2 bike right okay with oval chain rings i mean hardly a classic 
saddle no it’s not at all so you know so i mean i mean the thing is i ride a couple of 
modern bikes i’ve got a Canyon myself and I say you are active you ride this quite a lot then 
don’t you. You still racing? No. Just on Zwift I’m trying to get back into shape back to how 
I was so yeah yeah covered quite some miles on this thing yeah oh yeah yeah well i do what I 
did before lockdown was was obviously training full-time for racing right and uh yes but i have 
no emotional attachment to any of these bikes yeah because I’m in the bike business right at 
this time of year the bike is in the shop it’s on display if somebody comes in and wants to 
buy it they buy it and and Keith just gives me another bike right and i go out on that a lovely 
position to be in and the only thing that will come off this bike is the saddle right that’s 
been my saddle I mean it’s a bit rough looking yeah but it’s been on the bike for quite a while 
okay and those are the saddles I use I noticed as well on the wall you’ve got a track bike on there 
what was the track is that your track bike that’s my track like awesome absolutely that’s beautiful 
so yeah yeah because you did obviously you won medals right? uh yes yeah so i’ve got a 
little bit of track cycling. You won Silver? I’ve got three world championship 
silvers wow okay so so is Keith as well yeah well Keith he’s actually working in a minute 
and i’m hoping to get to know Kieth a little better and introduce you guys soon because i’d say 
this place is a wealth of knowledge and there’s so many stories to come out if you have any questions 
to ask I know i’ve got a million questions still to ask Graham um please leave a comment below 
what’s your favorite bike been what you’d like to see more of questions you’d like to ask Graham um 
just like to say a big thank you to Graham thank you very much for allowing us in and to have 
a look at such a beautiful collection of bikes I hope you’ve enjoyed watching thanks so much for 
watching like share and subscribe and bye for now!