OK, now that's cleared up, it's back to reminiscing about Paddington CC...
TBH, this thread has been great, it brought back a lot of old memories which I thought I'd consigned to the dustbin of my brain.
I used to drool over Colnagos as well but the reality was very different. I remember going on my first club run, meeting at Kingsbury circle in north London. My bike was a ratty old Sun on which I toured England and France. I also didn't have any proper bike kit. Still, I managed to keep up and when I got home, I checked the map - we did 90 miles that day - no wonder I was so tired.
I also realised I had to get a proper road bike and some proper bike kit. The next day, I found a second hand Mercian bike in the local paper which was mine for £90. That was my racing/training/touring bike until I could get enough money for buy a second hand Condor frame which I built into my race bike with the Mercian consigned to training and touring.
The next upgrade was to a brand new frame, a first for me, a lovely Woodrup which I bought from Whisker's cycles in Kilburn Lane (does anyone remember that shop? - proper old fashioned bike shop was that place), which I would probably still today have if some scrote hadn't stolen it (along with a pair of Campag record wheels) - would have made a brilliant fixie, which is where we came in ....
So, what happened to Paddington CC? What brought on its demise? I can see that loss of the track and of John Austin would be major factors? Is John still alive? Has anyone seen him recently ? Not sure how old he would be now but in my teens, he seemed very old, but probably was only 40 or so.
OK, now that's cleared up, it's back to reminiscing about Paddington CC...
TBH, this thread has been great, it brought back a lot of old memories which I thought I'd consigned to the dustbin of my brain.
I used to drool over Colnagos as well but the reality was very different. I remember going on my first club run, meeting at Kingsbury circle in north London. My bike was a ratty old Sun on which I toured England and France. I also didn't have any proper bike kit. Still, I managed to keep up and when I got home, I checked the map - we did 90 miles that day - no wonder I was so tired.
I also realised I had to get a proper road bike and some proper bike kit. The next day, I found a second hand Mercian bike in the local paper which was mine for £90. That was my racing/training/touring bike until I could get enough money for buy a second hand Condor frame which I built into my race bike with the Mercian consigned to training and touring.
The next upgrade was to a brand new frame, a first for me, a lovely Woodrup which I bought from Whisker's cycles in Kilburn Lane (does anyone remember that shop? - proper old fashioned bike shop was that place), which I would probably still today have if some scrote hadn't stolen it (along with a pair of Campag record wheels) - would have made a brilliant fixie, which is where we came in ....
So, what happened to Paddington CC? What brought on its demise? I can see that loss of the track and of John Austin would be major factors? Is John still alive? Has anyone seen him recently ? Not sure how old he would be now but in my teens, he seemed very old, but probably was only 40 or so.