Ridge Racing Bournemouth

oldskoolkool

Does anyone know what happened to specialist bike shop Ridge Racing on Holdenhurst Road in Bournemouth?They used to sponsor a club called CS Purbeck.
Ive comeback into cycling and racing and was wondered what happened to this shop,it was always packed with gorgeous frames and equipment and usually had Sky sports on a tv showing many of the classics.

Airwave

Yes i used to get stuff in there quiet a lot in the 80's. It's been gone for a good few years now.Someone might put me right but i seem to remember Luther Blisset taking it over as a sports shop.Your right though i was like a kid in a candy store whenever i went in there!

oldskoolkool

It was run by a guy named Roger,can't remember his surname,n I used to race against his son.It was an excellent shop,id luv to know why it closed.

Rob Sallnow

Isn't Ridge Racing the one that moved from Holdenhurst Road to somewhere else in Bournemouth? Or was that Primera? :? I bought my first Assos gear from one of the bike shops in Holdenhurst Road.

tabmaster

An interesting topic I was talking about the other day!
Here is an abridged version of bike shop history in Bmth over the last 15 years or so.
Ridge racing was run by two chaps initially - Roger Slade and Paul Wilkin. After a time, I believe there was a falling out of some kind which lead to Paul leaving and starting his own frame building workshop in Sturminster Marshall.
This left Roger at Ridge Racing, where he employed a number of others who I am told he did not pay properly. This lead to 3 of said employees starting Primera Sport on Ridge' doorstep in Holdenhurst Road. Initially, many ppl said that they would continue to shop at RR but he was gone within a few months (presumably due to Primera matching any reasonable price).
Since then, 1 of the 3 founders of Primera left to start is own cycle clothing emporium which is Prendas another left due to 'personal reason' and the third has retired to France. It did move to Charminster about 9 or 10 years ago but is not the first bike shop to be on the premesis - the Big Bike shop was there in the 80's I am told.
Since moving to Charminster, Primera was bought by Bill - previsously a wrench in Horswills (a local competetor) and continues to do very well to this day.
As for the RR shop.... is now flats. The Luther Blisset shop was a few doors further up the road.


Paul.

STEFANOS4784

Crikey, well look at that for an answer :shock:

Bravo 8)

Airwave

Flippin' heck sounds like an episode from Dynasty or Dallas!Yes The Big Bike shop used to be on the now Primera site. I used to go in there quiet often in the 80's.Safe to say it's a much better shop now than it used to be then.

Basso

I worked in Ridge Racing for a couple of years in the early 90's. Roger closed the shop and opened a unit on an industrial estate in Wareham. His primary focus was to sell high end frames (I think Lemond was one of his top brands at the time) although the business fizzled out I guess due to the fact that there just wasn't the demand back then. The other main reason he closed the shop was because he wanted to move away from the bread and butter of selling inner tubes etc, as his interest was more aligned to the elite road scene. Roger was a lovely bloke, he had a huge heart and loved the sport probably more than his business and due to this, was taken advantage of by a number of people. I'm not sure what he is doing now. Ridge Racing was certainly the pinnacle of bike shops back then.

Gillottfan

Roger Sadler died last October. My interest stems from a Gillott frame I have which has Ridge Racing transfers on it. Its a late 80's Ron Cooper build from back when the company was relaunched by Mark Joynt. (now Mark Reilly) There is a nice Cooper on ebay at the moment March 14 \17 with Ridge Racing markings. If anyone has any history or frames with Gillott/Cooper markings I'd be keen to hear from you.

fat daddy

tabmaster wrote:

An interesting topic I was talking about the other day!
Here is an abridged version ....................... stuff .......................... up the road.

wow ... as an encore I don't suppose youknow where my locker key is do you ? .... its not on my chain this morning, clearly fallen off

capt_slog

fat daddy wrote:

tabmaster wrote:

An interesting topic I was talking about the other day!
Here is an abridged version ....................... stuff .......................... up the road.

wow ... as an encore I don't suppose youknow where my locker key is do you ? .... its not on my chain this morning, clearly fallen off

It'll be in the last place you look, so try there first.

sungod

Gillottfan wrote:

Roger Sadler died last October. My interest stems from a Gillott frame I have which has Ridge Racing transfers on it. Its a late 80's Ron Cooper build from back when the company was relaunched by Mark Joynt. (now Mark Reilly) There is a nice Cooper on ebay at the moment March 14 \17 with Ridge Racing markings. If anyone has any history or frames with Gillott/Cooper markings I'd be keen to hear from you.

i suggest repost your question in vintage bikes forum...

viewforum.php?f=40119

pinno

Can someone explain why a 7 year old thread has:

A) Been resurrected and
In BB ?!

pinno

As an aside, the purple relic is what is being discussed: