This extraordinary-looking TT bike was built in 1988 for the Raleigh Banana Team to compete in prologues – ultra-short time trials that opened a stage race - during the 1989 season. This is the only surviving example of a pair of complete team bikes, making it exceedingly rare. Its defining feature is, of course, its eye-catching banana-shaped sloping top tube.
Current owner Dave Marsh, of the Universal Cycle Centre, Rotherham, takes up the story. “I bought it from Arthur Gamble, Scott Gamble’s [a former British pro] father,” said Marsh, “thinking it would make an interesting display feature for the shop. Other frames may exist, but ex-Raleigh product manager Terry Blackwood told me that the only other team bike was stripped for its Delta brakes and other Campy components.”
