Woodrup

“We used to make team frames for ‘Bantel’ which of course had Hugh Porter decals. I know for sure Hugh won at least one of his World Pursuit Championships on a frame Steve made. The team was very successful with several wins, probably thanks to Sid Barras, and Danny Horton amongst others. Later on we built the Viking team frames for Keith Lambert, Dudley Hayton and the late Paul Carbutt who broke the Land’s End to John o’ Groats record on one.  Also individual frames for the likes of Sid Barras, Dave Raynor, and I also remember building a track frame for Mick Bennett.

Steve also built frames for Barry Hoban when he rode with the Calder Clarion. Even after this Woodrup still built his frames when he rode as a professional for Mercier! The frames were badged and transferred as Mercier so it is possible that a Woodrup frame won a Tour de France stage. One of my first images of visiting Woodrup cycles at their shop in Burley Lodge Road was one of Barry’s Mercier bikes on display. Barry used to bring certain original team clothing over from France … in those days it was impossible to get team clothing. I had a silk ‘Bic’ jersey which I believe once belonged to Luis O’Cana and Maurice Woodrup was often seen out riding resplendant in a coffee brown ‘FAEMA’ team track top [could that have once belonged to Eddy Merckx!?] In later years after both Barry and Hugh had retired it was always a thrill to see them both at the shop [never together] when they came to do business as reps……the enthusiasm from either of them was amazing and I usually ended up jumping on my bike after work and riding like ten men before ‘blowing up’! We made frames for several ‘dealers’ throughout the world, both Florida and Germany were big outlets for us; even Barbados was popular for Woodrup track frames.”