Pedalitis

“It’s sad to grow old, but nice to ripen.” Brigitte Bardot

For most of what I know about Thanet bicycles, I have to thank Hilary Stone. Hilary, who lives in Bristol, and was a cycling journalist. I don’t know if he still writes about cycling but his book ‘Ease with Elegance’ subtitled ‘The Story of Thanet Cycles’ (ISBN 0 9512026 0 X) charts the history of the Thanet marque.

Hilary Stone’s little booklet traces the history of the Thanet marque. Produced as a limited edition of 1000, he still has a few copies for sale (£8.50).

When I met him, he confirmed that Thanet was the only bicycle manufacturer in Bristol in the early 1950s and it was he who told me that my Thanet, frame number 1533, was originally produced with a half-chrome, half-paint finish. The full chrome frame that it sports today was clearly part of refurbishment at some time in its history, probably more than 30 years ago.

Having discovered the existence of Thanet cycles, and the Silverlight model in particular, the next task was to find one. Hilary Stone had sold one just a few months before I started my search in May 2011. I thought that I may be able to buy it from the new owner but was dismayed to find it had been shipped to Australia, so the chances of that were very slim. It was very fortuitous that one appeared for sale on eBay just 2 weeks later. With 3 days of the auction to go, there were no bids. I contacted the seller, Bob Johnson, drove to Shepperton to see the bike and bought it on the spot.

Bob explained that the bicycle had previously been owned by his business partner, Jake Riviera (real name Andrew Jakeman), one time owner of world-famous Hetchins cycles, and perhaps best known as the co-founder of Stiff Records. Having stared making frames in 1934, Hetchins is still in the bicycle business today. On other aspects of the Thanet’s history, Bob was rather more vague. I got the impression that he had little interest in the bike, other than selling it for a good price, but for me it was a remarkable piece of luck to have found it. Only one other has appeared on eBay in the last year, and it didn’t look nearly as pretty, which matters.