A few weeks ago when beginning to make the plans to move my collection to the flat I saw this being offered up. IDK if I have had time to mention what I have been up to? god knows. Nothing a 50 year old man should be up to any way. First step was getting rid of my old double bed that was too low, and really bad for my back and shoulder.
Better. Much, much better. I also realised that I have never even watched the TV in there. I think it is more a of a thing kids do, but I have a 75" in the living room so I literally go there to sleep.
The plan was always to host my tank collection in there. Meaning only minters. Such as the STA, the T1, the DBNG and the Morales (oh and the Pork obs). They will all fit in there with ease. So it was time to get rid of a couple of bikes I built to ride. One was ridden quite a lot, this one.
And one I built to ride, but didn't want to shit it all up.
So basically the plan was to sell those, and invest in one more tank.
Quick backstory on the Hercules.
By 1999 I had ridden my STA for nearly 3 years. But, it had an achilles heel. See, my party tricks were drops and gaps. Nothing technical, more of a stunt man than a trick rider. So it would be one big trick each time I rode, then leave it. As such every time I did something like that on my STA (I would climb onto something and have someone pass the bike up) the back wheel would move. Look closely at the rear drop.
That is not marks from a peg. It is where I tried absolutely everything to keep the back wheel from moving, but failed. I even snapped chain tugs. So at the end of each session I would have to kick the back wheel back out and ride home carefully. All because it was 10mm. If you tried to do the nuts up anything even approaching tight? they would shear or snap. So I was getting sick of that, so I started looking for a frame to replace it with. Long story short? the hitlist was the Hercules, the Curtis DSR or an Australian frame that looks just like the Eastern that was prototyped in Ride but never made and released. My ex wife #1 talked me out of all three and I sold the STA and stopped riding for a while....
So, I have always been on the lookout for a Hercules OR a DSR. Sadly there is only one of the latter known to even be in existence, so that is not going to happen.
So yeah, initially I offered up the Cam Wood as a swap, but the guy wanted a 21" TT. And it isn't. So, as soon as the idea hit me? I just gave him both. I took the expensive parts like the Fly brake and Paul lever off the kink and it only owed me very little. The frame (Whip XL) was ?50 and I had every bit of it in stock apart from the cranks which I got on special for ?90.
So, he was very happy. He gets one bike to abuse and beat on, and another very rare and collectible bike to hold onto. Winner winner chicken dinner
And I got my Hercules, without paying the toss bag who has two NOS ones on Ebay ?550 for a frame. Which he will never ever get in a million years for what is now basically a completely non rideable bike.
