Behind the Scenes – Argos Racing Cycles 💯

Join Paul on a trip to visit Argos Racing Cycles in Bristol. The UK’s best Bicycle Restoration Experts (in our professional opinion).

We go behind the scenes to look at some of the history of this company as they reach their 50th year trading and take a look at some of their restorations and beautiful bikes.

You can find out more about Argos here: https://argoscycles.com/
or on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/argos_racing_cycles/

We also undertake restorations and you can find out more here or see some of our previous work in conjunction with Argos: https://www.veloworkshop.co.uk/vintage-bikes-for-sale

We are currently restoring a vintage Moulton APB and part three (latest) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5snLsf21cc&t=85s

We are Paul and Sarah of Velo Works and we love all things bikes including hand built wheels, Bromptons, vintage bike restorations, bike touring, gravel riding and more.

Hi I’m Paul fromex and today we have an exciting video for you where we go and visit Argos racing Cycles come join us come watch this video where Argos have given us access to their workshop and builds that they are currently doing or they’ve done it’s great if you love

Vintage bikes if you’re do cycling you’ll love watching the video even if you just want to see how some craft people do their work another side of an industry that maybe you’re not aware of so ouros racing Cycles are a bristol-based company and they’ve been going for almost 50 years it’s December

2023 and 2024 is their 50th Anniversary they’ve been involved in the bike industry for all this time originally they started producing frames and after nidom started the company and his son Gary Needum still works there my myself and Sarah our family have been involved with Argos racing cycles for decades

Upon decades having various bikes resprayed we use them for our resprays for the business and Sarah’s Granddad uh bought his bikes from them probably in the ’90s so Aros racing cycle started out making bicycle frames these days they do resprays on steel frames aluminium frames and carbon frames they

Also do adaptions to frame so something that we use them for a lot as part of our Restorations is adapting the frame to take modern components that’s tracking the frame adding bottle bosses taking eyelets away um we’ve got a molten away at the moment and it’s having lots of frame adaptions before it

Goes to paint so they’re a great resource they’re based in Bristol and I recommend looking them up or come and watch this video to see what they’re all about so here we have a fine example of the work from Argos racing Cycles this is the 1940s Claude Butler it’s been

Painted in a flamboyant purple underneath you have silver metallic paint and then it’s sprayed with a purple lacquer and it brings out this very rich color it has um water slide Graphics that have been lacquered over so when I rub my hands over here you can’t even feel the graphics just really

Really nice the water slide graphics it has fan pin striping and also lug lining this is a really fine example of the quality of the work here at Argos racing Cycles so here we have a tandem this bike came in for a seat tube repair so

This here was all rusted Mark said that actually they could put a screwdriver through here because it was so rusted so what they’ve done and what they can do with most bikes is replace this whole tube and it’s all been resprayed and set up nicely l so here we have a lovely

Build uh so it’s an original Argos bike made with 75 free metric tubing so the tubings a little bit thinner got some crazy Parts on it it’s got some tubular Wheels campag Hubs Don’t know what the spoke count is let’s have a look 1 two 3

Four 5 six seven 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 on the front on the rear 1 2 3 four 5 six eight 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 16 that’s crazy and then look at this block that is nuts so yeah really nice

Example of an Argos bike from 1995 love it so here’s another fantastic example of what Argos racing Cycles can do uh this is an as gillet from around the 1950s so this is what you call a Resto mod so the frame has been made in traditional colors and traditional look

But it’s been fitted with modern components so it’s a great way to take an old frame and make it super usable because some of the components especially from around the 50s if you use them now they would give you the best experience of riding so this is a really good way to

Do it so things like we’ve got a v orange Grand crew chain set I love these chain sets they’re really nice and that’s a modern piece believe we got some MKS silen pedals some MKS toe straps with some Kristoff straps lovely a sunx CD rear deria nice new Shimano cassette and the

Silver components look wonderful with this color uh the wheels are Halo hubs and halo rims it’s a really really nice retro feel we got nice Long Reach tekro brakes Brook saddle and then everything just looks wonderful so yeah really good example of using an old frame and then fitting modern parts

That look retro and in keeping with the bike so this is going to be a really nice bike for the new owner so Argos racing Cycles started trading in 1974 and this bike is really special it’s believed that it’s one of the first or the first bike ever produced so

That’s 1974 so now it’s 20 23 next year is argos’s 50th anniversary and this bike was made for someone who they sponsored at the time it was gifted back to Argos and they’ve put it back to what it would have been when it was first made so a really

Special bike almost 50 years old and kind of marks the beginning of a 50-year run of a family’s business that’s you know in some regards that’s a bit unheard of these days so it’s got lovely campag components on it even kago oh tow strap that’s nice is it campag shifters is that a

Nuvo nvo record rear deria the only bit that is more modern is the free Hub which has to be done to make sure it’s usable bike lovely Brook saddle so yeah 50y old example what a treat to be able to see it look at it and touch

It here’s another fine example of a bike from Argos racing Cycles this is original paint 2008 this bike was made now it’s had the same owner from 2008 but it’s had it’s come in recently for an upgrade modernization fitting new parts so it’s had a Shram Force Wireless components hunt

Wheels and the whole group set’s been fitted so a great way to get a longevity out of a product so 2008 so we’re looking at 15 years old and then the customer’s been able to come in have it all modernized and basically have the bike that he loves made for another 10

Plus years it’s yeah and and it will go beyond that the frame but it’s a great way of reusing products in an industry that sometimes can be a little bit wasteful yeah great love it so that concludes our visit to Argos racing Cycles as a family so my me and Sarah

And Sarah’s Granddad we’ve been involved with Argos racing cycles for 40 almost 44 years and maybe even before so we love them and we love that they’re here as a resource one thing for us moving back to Bristol it’s really good to have them on our doorstep as shown in the

Video they do wonderful Restorations contact ouros directly uh chat to Mark or Gary and one of the team and they’ll be able to sort you out and create your project into do just a wonderful work of art and a fully functioning bike the frames go back to you pretty much with

Another 20 to 40 years of service life in them they come back as new frames so yeah always worth taking out that old Steed and giving it a new lease of Life thanks for watching please subscribe