History 1924 to 2012
|
History
Northwood cycle depot was established in 1924 by Mr. E.L. Boxall on the same site and is now in the third generation of the Boxall family. The shop has always been called Northwood Cycle Depot but is known locally as "Boxalls". In the early days we sold motor cycles, car accessories, toys, paraffin, petrol and electrical goods as well as cycles. We have a collection of old cycles and memorabilia from an original 1840's Penny Farthing through to a Raleigh Chopper, Itera plastic bike and a shaft-drive Fent. |
 |
|
Old cycle collection
Over the past 80 years four generations of the Boxall family have been serving the residents of Northwood and surrounding area with new and used cycles & have also been collecting old and interesting cycles as a hobby. Many of these cycles are on display in the shop and represent the trends and development of the bicycle over the years and with contributions to the collection from all four generations of our family we have a wide and varied range of classic cycles. |
 Ordinary "Penny Farthing" made by Singer 1890's |
 Raleigh Chopper mk1 1970 |
 Fent Chainless "Shaft drive" 1980's |
 Raleigh Chopper Mk2 1977 |
 Strida belt drive folding bike 1980's |
 mk1 Raleigh Chippy "Steel wheel" |
 1969 Raleigh Roadster very rare 28"wheel chrome plate model only made for export to East Africa & fitted with a 1940's Watsonian side car. |
 Raleigh Chippy mk2 "Plastic Wheel" |
 Raleigh Budgie 1970,s |
 Raleigh Tomahawk mk1 1970's "Stitched Seat" |
 Raleigh Tomahawk mk2 1970's "Molded Seat" |
 Raleigh Chipper 1970,s |
 Moulton De Luxe 1965 four speed, front & rear suspension, hub dynamo lights, front & rear bags. Classic shopping bike. moulton Mini in back of picture. |
 Rare RSW16 "Raleigh Small Wheel" Folding bike. Very early Raleigh folder 1966 |
 RSW16 mk111 One of the last 16" RSW range 1973 |
 Itera plastic bike imported from Sweden in 1980 by Falcon cycles. |
 Raleigh Boxer 1980's smallest of a family of three |
| RALEIGH STRIKA ?????????????????????? Do you have a Raleigh Strika sitting in your loft or shed? We could give it a new home. Call 01923 824174. |
 Raleigh Grifter 20" 1980's big brother to the Boxer & Strika. |
 Raleigh Burner fitted with Skyway Tuff 2 wheels. Mk1 round tube. |
 Raleigh Ultra Burner Mk2 Aero tube |
 Classic style 1930's BSA Fitted with Dunlop War Grade Tyres. |
 Sold by us new in 1961 and purchased back from the owner in the late 90's this BSA shopper is all original |
 Micro bikes were very popular in the 1990,s. About the size of a bike for a three year old these bikes were ridden by adults for fun. |
 Raleigh Mini Trike 1980's |
 1947 Raleigh sport with a 3 speed hub & 3 speed derailleur gear giving a 9 speed gear system. |
 Raleigh Thor scooter with balloon tyres & rod rim brakes 1960's |
 Raleigh Tiger trike, Fitted with new wheels, rear box & mudguards found in our store of New Old Stock parts. |
 A true sign of the computer boom of the 1980's The Raleigh Vektar has an on board computer "speed, time, distance" A radio and sound synthesizer. |
 Sinclair Electric Zike another failure from the man behind the C5 and spectrum computer. |
 Sinclair c5. was going to be the answer to green urban transport Read the facts below. |
 Classic signs from Dunlop, National Cyclists Union, BSA Raleigh & The Raleigh sponsored Burghley Horse Trials. |
Sinclair C5 A short history. The C5 was launched in January 1985, Initially for mail order sales at £399 plus £29 delivery, a total of £428. By the summer of 1985, Comet were selling c5's for immediate free delivery at £399 By September of 1985, when it was obvious that the c5 project was failing, Comet slashed the price of the c5 to £139.99 delivered. After Sinclair Vehicles closed a company in Liverpool bought the last remaining 4,500 complete C5's for £89 each and sold them for £699 plus vat a total of £821 each. Sinclair Vehicles was initially financed by Clive Sinclair's sale of some of his shares in Sinclair Research, Raising some £12 million. After production stopped, Hoover the assembler of the C5, was still owed £1.5 million by Sinclair Vehicles. THE FACTS £8.6 million initial investment £5.9 million additional cash from Clive Sinclair £6.4 million debts at liquidation £1.5 million owed to Hoover at liquidation 4,500 C5's sold at liquidation at £89 each raising £400,000 That's a total investment of around £22 million 12,000 C%'s were produced in total, and the project cost £22 million. So each C5 cost £1,833 to make. |
|
Super Stars
In the 1980s, the BBC ran a program called Super Starswhere athletes from various sports came together to compete in a range of sports they did not usually do. These included archery, kayaking, and cycling. We ran the cycling and took the bicycles around the country, set them up and serviced them, we also held the competitors on the start line in many of the races. The photo on the right is Mr. D Boxall checking over the bikes between heats. We all remember when Kevin Keegan fell off at Bracknell and Jeoff Capes bending pedal cranks with pure leg power at the Bath event. Brian Jacks "judo" was a real power house on the bikes and the gym test. After the filming the bikes went back to the Raleigh factory. Where are they now? & what would they be worth? |
 Dave Boxall of Northwood Cycles at Superstars
  Kevin Keegan &
Brian Jacks
|
| Off road in Kazakhstan In August 1999 Andy Boxall joined a group of cyclists from England, Belgium, Australia, Alaska, & Switzerland to cycle the Silk trade route through Kazakhstan, along the border with China and over the border in to Kirghistan. The trip went over the Celestial mountain range and we covered 360 miles on old Jeep roads and horse tracks & miles of grass land. With single hill climbs of over 17 miles up to a height of 4000 meters and a maximum speed recorded of 43.4 miles per hour this was an eventful trip. |
 |
AlmatyWe flew with our bikes to the City of Almaty and spent the first night in a hotel,In the morning we unpacked our bikes and assembled them before hiring a six wheel ex army bus, a canvas back truck and a back up team of two drivers, one mountain guide, one translator and one camp manager. We loaded our bikes on to the truck and set off to the foot hills of the Celestial mountains, here we set camp for the night and checked our kit for the week ahead. |
|
Full days in the saddleWe soon found out how hard the week was going to be as the first hill climb on the first day was an eight mile climb with a height gain of 1155 meters but as we came round the last hair pin bend on the old jeep track our guide led us over about half a mile of grass land so we could see the valley that we had just cycled up, The view was stunning. We rode 30 miles the first day and the camp was a very welcome sight with most of the tents already pitched. |
 |
The going was toughThe terrain could not have been more varied from short rough tar roads to the rough jeep tracks that made up most of our trip, long deep grass open planes and single tracks made by horses, we also had to cross rivers, some fast flowing and waist deep as well as boulder fields like the one pictured here. |
 |
There could be trouble ahead.We had to over come a variety of dangers and problems along the way such as the extremes of temperature from searing heat of the mid day sun to the sub zero night time temperature in the mountains.The bureaucracy trying to cross from Kazakhstan in to Kyrgyzstan when we had to sit in the open, under the sun for over two hours while our translator tried to get us access in to the country. WE spent one night camping at the base camp of Khan Tengri and Peak Podedy when a violent argument broke out between some climbers and the locals, which ended up in gun shots being fired, we rolled up in our tents to make our self's as small as we could and in the morning the spent gun cartridges were on the ground about ten yards from where we were sleeping. We also had an encounter with the snake pictured here as well as dogs guarding the villages along out route. |
 |
HelibikingHalf way through out trip we had two days of pure indulgence by hiring a helecopter to take us up to the top of the mountains and ride back down all the way to camp starting in an area with no track to follow at all and then on to sheep and pony tracks, then rough rock covered Jeep tracks and finally on to the unmade roads of the silk trade route.One decent went on for over twenty six miles with out a single hill climb and we reached speeds of over forty three miles per hour on one part of the track. WE did not count these days in our total distance or total altitude gained. |
 |
|
|
 |