# A little bit of what classes as British vintage/retro ..



## jerky (Mar 26, 2007)

Hi guys,

I am sure many of you will have seen various bikes from my fleet over on Retrobike. However never one to miss an opportunity to flash them around the web I thought I would try and share my passions with a forum whose bias is less Euro-centric.

My collection essentially consists of two manufacturers, Pace and Chas Roberts. My pace collection spans theyears from 1988/89 through to 2002, however I see the collection as an evolutionary path of their square tubed frames, once they went round tube, I went off them.

Chas Roberts are famous on these shores for custom build high end steel frames, my two date from the early 90's.

I appreciate the dates of these bikes are positively modern by the standards of many on here, however the early Pace in particular was a genuine innovator with the standard use of Magura brakes and the threadless steerer set up that predated the ahead-set system, although ultimately proved to be less well thought out!

*Pace*
I'll start with the Pace and from the earliest.

Pace RC100 Trials Prototype
This bike is the rarest in my collection of rare english metal. Believed to be the only one made, and I suspect made and owned by one of the founders of Pace, whose back ground was in motorcycle trials before launching the company. This bike dates from 1988/89. Although having a lot in common with the first RC100 XC bikes, the trials features some unique details, the enourmous nylon bash guard and 24" wheels being the obvious. Modified short trials stem and custom never quite finished forks are key to the bikes appeal. It rides like a BMX and is fantastic for nipping across to the pub, however any distance and you are better off walking from a speed point of view.




























(Yes the saddle is wrong)

3 RC100 XC bikes. I understand less than 1000 of these were made.
This is the bike that made Pace's reputation in the history of UK mountain bikes. Designed for the conditions of the country the bike featured for the time large mud clearance, easy to care for grease nipples and the stopping power of magura hydrostops as standard. The stand out feature of the bikes however was the externally butted square section aluminium tubing, and the proudly stickered statement of the involvement of CAD in the design process... a novelty amongst all but the largest manufacturers at the time.

This was the 1st Pace I purchased. It is too big for me so generally sees action as a road/rough weather commuter in the winter.










The Pre ahead-stem/steerer threadless setup









And with my other two, in various states of renovation.









RC200
After the RC100 came the 200. This was a refined frame and through its various revisions (F1 thru F8) it accounts for the most frames produced by pace, although in total it is reported that this still amounted to a couple of thousand frames.

My example is a 1996 F6, and following the by then long established rules of Yorkshire square it is fitted with Pace forks and Middleburn cranks. The build is not 100% period instead I went for an aesthetic but sympathetic approach...alright I blinged it.



















Pace RC250 T
Very much an evolution of the RC100 trials prototype. This frame was commercially released in 1998 and was a fairly respected model amongst its target audience and a good seller for the company. I am yet to do anything with this frame as I m not exactly a trials rider.








Please note this is not my bike, but an image representative of the frame borrowed from google images.

Pace RC300
The ultimate incarnation of a square section pace. Through the F1 to F8 RC200 revisions the frame lost its square section seat tube and the 300 sees the tube turned carbon. This frame dates from 2002 and represents the end of the line for externally butted square tubing with Pace.

Pace RC500 F1 DH bike
Probably my most expensive bike to put together but I am proud of it. Rumour has it that 24 frames were made, most of these going to sponsored riders and being written off over 2 seasons. I am aware of a total of 5 remaining bikes however this is the only one I am aware of that is in as new, never used condition (I dont think I could call it NOS since I built it up, but before then...it was) This bike dates from 1998 and represents Pace's only commercially available square tubed full suspension model.



















As I mentioned, I appreciate most of these bikes are positively modern by comparison to the average of this site however I wanted to show the progression of a brand and a square way of thinking.

*Roberts*
Chas Roberts is well renowned for custom frames, with a long history in road and racing bikes. However in the late 80's/early 90's Roberts were one of three prominent frame builders to take to the Mountain biking scene. 
-Dave Yates produced the D.O.N.K.I.S.N.O.B, An acronym for "Daves Overactive No Kompromise Independant Suspension, Never Otherwise Beaten"
-Dave lloyd came through with the C.A.T.S.W.I.S.K.A.S, Which stood for "Cycle All Terrain Systems With Integral Suspension Keeping Alignment Static"
- Roberts response was called the D.O.G.S.B.O.L.X or "Dirt Orientated Geometry System Bidirectional Ovalised Lateral Xtra"

All terms are applied to indicate "the best" amongst certain classes in the UK.

Essentially it was a load of tosh but showed a certain level of humour amongst the competitive builders.

Roberts D.O.G.S.B.O.L.X
My Mutts nuts isn't in the more familiar black/white paint but I find it rather fetching and didn't have the heart to respray it losing the detail and effort that had been put into achieving the finish. The bike dates from 1993.









Keeping a common theme in my collection, this bike was built using a custom sprayed Pace RC30 fork. The stem is a Roberts custom jobby.










Genesis
The Genesis was an off the peg answer produced by CR following the success of the Dogs wotsits and its race only stablemate the White spider. This was my first Roberts and was treated to a bare metal period refurb. Again featuring forks from Pace.










Well that will do for now, I'll return to this post to flesh out some more details as and when I can.

Once again sorry to those whom I may offend through the modernity of my collection, but I hope it proves of interest to some.


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## proto2000 (Jan 27, 2007)

Some really cool info to match those bikes. I don't get over to Reto too often so I've never seen them. I really like the DOGSBOLX. Great stuff.


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## MABman (Oct 5, 2008)

I bought a columbus tubed e stay frame and fork in white with neonish green speckles Roberts off one of my reps in 88'. Built it up with a dark grey Campy Euclid group that I got off the same rep. It was shown at Interbike that year according to the rep, who was from Maine and I can't remember what company he worked for.....

The frame and fork are in the Rockies now collecting dust in a collection.


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## bushpig (Nov 26, 2005)

I like the classic design of Roberts. I saw a touring bike in the LBS recently. The Pace bikes don't do it for me. I can see that they were inventive though. I think some of the design choices look a lot better on the trials bike. Just my opinion.


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## sandmangts (Feb 16, 2004)

bushpig said:


> The Pace bikes don't do it for me. I can see that they were inventive though. I think some of the design choices look a lot better on the trials bike. Just my opinion.


Whats wrong? Are the welds to clean for you?


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## colker1 (Jan 6, 2004)

Really cool ... but imo you should replace the thomson parts on the Pace w/ period, british parts.


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## LeicaLad (Jun 5, 2010)

I find these quite interesting. My own tastes lean towards the CR builds, but the Pace are clearly very inventive.

Thanks for sharing the photos and descriptive details.

Happy New Year, too!


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## GonaSovereign (Sep 20, 2004)

Very Nice! I love those Pace bikes.


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## GMF (Jan 10, 2004)

I can definitely see the appeal to the Pace bikes. I've always enjoyed the ingenuity that came from early mountain biking, and Pace seems to have that in spades.

Thanks for sharing


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## chefmiguel (Dec 22, 2007)

Thanks for the informative post.


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## uphiller (Jan 13, 2004)

Thanks for the post, those are some really cool bikes. I especially dig the forks- they are really had what every telescopic should have had back in the day- maximum overlap between inner and outer legs; all of the offset in the dropouts (minimizes rotating weight); tubular steel brace that attaches at all kinds of different point for max rigidity. Basically, the best of both Rock Shox and Manitou. Cool stuff.


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