My Specialized Roubaix, about to tackle Palace to Palace
Back in April, I picked up my latest bike, a Specialized Roubaix Expert. I loved my original, more basic Roubaix (as I noted in my account of my century ride in 2015) and had high hopes for its successor, with its SRAM Rival electronic gear change. Sadly, it has proved my most troublesome, unreliable bike ever. I’ve decided to blog about it in case anyone else is having similar problems with their SRAM-equipped bike.
I had a hint of the bike’s unreliability on my very first ride, just hours after collecting it from Dees Cycles in Amersham on Good Friday 2023. The brand new Roubaix was making a distinctive squeaking sound, rather than the smooth as silk ride you expect from a maiden journey. I had to take it back to Dees several times before that irritant was banished.
Far more seriously, the bike had a habit of shedding the chain when I changed up onto the bike chainwheel. As I pushed the dual gear change paddles, I would hear an ominous clanking noise as the chain went beyond the large chainwheel cogs, and flopped onto the outside of the chainwheel. I soon found that shifting straight back down would retrieve the chain and place it back onto the small chainwheel. Bizarrely, if I then tried another shift up the chain would move obediently onto the large chainwheel without incident.
Above: Dad and I watch Cardiff City reaching the FA Cup final, 2008
Fifty years ago today, I went to see my first football game, aged 10.
Dad told me at lunchtime he was taking me to see Cardiff City play West Bromwich Albion at Ninian Park. It was my sister’s 20th birthday, but I imagine she was spending the day with friends. It’s poignant to think she would have been 70 today. (She died far too young in 2017.)
We made our way through the Grangetown end tunnel to the Bob Bank (so called because it once cost a shilling to stand there). It wasn’t the most entertaining experiences, and about 10 minutes before the end Dad decided he’d had enough. Or was I the one? As we made our way back through the tunnel to the exit there was a cacophony of stamping feet above us. West Brom had scored a late winner.
My second game of football, 1974
Dad obviously decided that the experience hadn’t made me a football fan, as he didn’t take me to another game that season. But almost a year later I accompanied him to my second game, curiously also against West Brom. This time the West Midland side won more convincingly, 2-0, and Cardiff were relegated from the old second division for the first time since the war.
City bounced straight back, and that promotion season in 1975/76 was my favourite. Cardiff struggled at first, and struggled against the likes of Grimsby, Halifax and Port Vale. But as autumn arrived, we were enjoying ourselves, and I watched a thriller on my 12th birthday, as City beat Chesterfield 4-3 in an autumn night game. It was my first experience of the unique atmosphere of a floodlit game, and I noticed how even Ninian Park looked glamorous under the lights. It was also unusual as my two uncles and cousin Wendy came with us.
Six months later, I saw an even more dramatic night game as second-placed City beat leaders Hereford United 2-0 to move closer to securing promotion. We were amongst a crowd of 35,000 that night, which even in 1976 was impressive for a third division game. A few weeks later, we heard that Cardiff had beaten Bury away and were back in the second division. Dad gave me a glass of martini to celebrate – that wouldn’t happen today!
That promotion season I was lucky enough to watch City from the Ninian Park directors box, as Dad had been given a season ticket. We enjoyed a wonderful buffet at half time each game – it was a contrast to the old Bob Bank!
Buchanan scores the winner against Wrexham, January 1977
The following year saw an unforgettable FA Cup run, with Cardiff knocking out first division Tottenham Hotspur with a wonder strike from 35 yards by Peter Sayer in the third round. The next round was even more spectacular, with City comfortably poised at 2-0 against Wrexham. After getting a goal back, our Welsh rivals stunned us by equalising in the 89th minute, and a replay looked inevitable. But John Buchanan won it for us in the very last minute. It was a treat to watch the highlights on Match of the Day that night. I was convinced Cardiff would go on to win the cup exactly 50 years after we became the only club from outside England to win it, but we lost narrowly to Everton in the next round.
Dad at Wembley, 6 April 2008
It was another 31 years before I saw the Bluebirds reach an FA Cup final. On a bright but snowy April day in 2008, Dad and I went to Wembley for the semi-final against Barnsley. We went ahead early on, and never really looked under threat. It was an unforgettable day, and we enjoyed chatting to the Barnsley fans. Sadly, Cardiff lost the final 1-0 to Portsmouth, and a few years later lost equally narrowly in the League Cup final to Liverpool.
Five years earlier, Karen and I had the unusual experience of watching Cardiff win a play-off final for promotion to the Championship in Wales’s national stadium. The Millennium (now Principality) Stadium was standing in for Wembley during its six year rebirth, hosting the FA Cup final, League Cup final and playoffs. We were lucky enough to have hospitality tickets through Nationwide Building Society, hence the smart look! It was a very long way from standing on the Bob Bank at Ninian Park as a 10 year old 50 years ago today.
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