Rourke / Brian Rourke Owners Club (post your bike)

Haven't heard anything back from Rourke so any more information still great received.

Rourke 52cm
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332149471059

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Just a blast

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^ so hot

Nice.... looking to get mine resprayed in black. Almost exactly the same paint ideas..... great minds...etc

Just picked this up. Varnish is a bit odd, but paint under it is v sparkly.

Getting in early on the winter build :)

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Nice, some shiny bits too

Yeah, Chrome work is good, now struggling not think about dressing it up too much as supposed to be winter/mudguard/general Scotland bike....

And here's my other Rourkie.

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Here's my Rourke. Built with 853 oversize in 2014 as a direct size/geometry copy of my race bike but to take mudguards and use a Record group/Neutron Ultra wheels I had from a previous bike.

It's now due a respray, new fork and a rear brake bridge mod to run longer drop calipers/larger tyres and will update the decals at the same time. As my racing days draw to an end, and Audaxes look more appealing, I reckon it'll make a nice fast Audax bike with pro-compact gearing.

The ride from 853 is superb with very similar handling to my Pinarello with it's 70/74 angles. I've even won a 9 mile TT on it (minus the guards). Before I had a carbon flyweight bike my previous race bike was an alu Principia. They weren't renowned for comfort but Jason's frame equals it for chainstay stiffness and is far more supple filtering out road vibrations.

Now I just need to decide who's going to do the stove enamelling as Blue Whippet's paintwork isn't hardy enough for a training bike.

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Nice.

If you're looking at long drop calipers - I've got TRP RG957's fitted to my Rourke and they are awesome.

That's what I'm going to use, with a Columbus Hiver fork.

Why not rourke themselves? They do great finishes.
Otherwise there is also Mercian and argos that do excellent jobs.
I'm tempted to go down the powder coating route myself.
But will see when the time comes

Rourke's finish is good but it chips too easily. And Argos is 8-10 weeks turn around! Powder coating is tough but the colours are limited. It's going to be stove enamelling on mine...

Keep us updated. Id like to see how it goes. And where u get it done.
I'm looking a lot of masking as it's is 953 and I want expose a lot of it.
Especially the rourke decal.

got this frame up for grabs if anyones interested.

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Just switched my forks, stem, bars, headset, saddle & seatpost. Geometry is tighter, and the bike lighter. It rides really well.

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Now, I'm positive this isnt a Rourke- but its stickered as one and I'd like to know what it is...

Has raleigh seatstays, but the frame number doesn't match up to any of the Raleigh codes that ive seen on the internet. Will get better photos once I've been down to get it;

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Could be a Rayleigh USA with those seat stays
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/catalogs/1985/index.html

Seems like that could be the case, it has rear rack mounts on the frame and the forks don't match anything from the catalogues. Proper confusing.

more photos, also- it's stupid light

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Rourke often resprayed bikes but strangely added there own decals if required..
Raleigh special products used some top tubesets and were very good frames so it may be one of those they were made outside the main factory in worksop I believe.
Only those with the distinctive wrap around will be proper rourke bikes.
Holdsworths and other also did this but they were nearly always the linking of top eyes rather then just the seatstays.

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New winter ride. Parts bin build with frame recently bought from the forum. Reynolds 653, frame number 2262, not sure of the age - anyone? Think I can squeeze in 35mm full guards with 25 tyres or 28 tyres with raceblades.

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My Rourke 853 struggling to get up Ventoux as the power unit is worn out

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