Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Topic started by: hellymedic on 09 January, 2019, 08:19:51 pm
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I am sad to pass on the news that Derek Shackles of Roman Road Cycles, Ffarmers has died.
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That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I met him back in the 1980's, when I was riding one of the first mountain bikes back from the York Rally.
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I knew he shut down Roman Road Cycles last year but it is still a shock to hear he has died. His upright trikes and trike conversions employed the less-common (for sporting machines) two wheels front/ one rear wheel arrangement.
http://www.roman-road.co.uk
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Derek's wife, Margaret died about a year ago.
Austin has sold Ffarmers.
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I got to know Derek in the late 1980s/early 1990s as he was a regular on Swansea CTC runs. At the time he was developing his two-front-one-rear trike conversions. The first time he turned up he was on an otherwise normal Dawes Galaxy (I think) which had a square thing attached to the frame just forward of the bottom bracket - some sort of socket. When I asked him what it was, he answered rather coyly that it was a little experiment he was trying. Most weeks we saw successive iterations of his 'experiment'. I believe in the early days Harry Quinn (by then semi-retired in Pembrokeshire) had a hand in making the 'front bit' (essentially a replacement for the fork). See Trike Conversions (http://www.roman-road.co.uk/conversions/index.htm) for a picture.
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I'm trying to remember what I bought from him. Something obscure but useful, IIRC, long ago. Helpful & friendly service, I think.
RIP.