The bike on which Ray Booty broke the four hour barrier for 100 miles
Booty is a legend of the British scene, in part thanks to the amazing achievement he ticked off on this bike
It’s inconceivable that in the late 1950s, Ray Booty covered 100-mile distances on this bike in times that most modern riders, aero-optimised to the nth degree, can only dream of. The bike looks so ordinary, you could imagine commuting to work on it, which, apparently, is what Booty did – hence the tape protecting the rear stays from saddlebag rub.
On Bank Holiday Monday, 6th August 1956, Booty broke the RTTA 100-mile time trial record with an 84” fixed gear, posting a time of 3h 58m 28s. He was the first person to ride a sub-four-hour ‘out and back’ century.
Weeks later, he surpassed the RRA 100-mile ‘straight-out’ record, switching from the fixed gear to a close ratio, three-speed Sturmey Archer AC51 hub, as pictured here. His time was 3h 28m 40s, a record that stood for incredible 34 years.
None of the components on this bike are particularly noteworthy, but the frame is. It’s a 1955 Raleigh Record Ace (RRA) built in Raleigh’s ‘special build’ workshop by either Billy Blackamore or Ted Silverstone, perhaps both.
In a Nottinghamshire factory that spanned 78 acres and employed 9,000 workers, it was just this duo of master frame-builders who crafted frames for a select few pros. Famously, these rare frames are stamped with an ‘RP’ identifier – Booty’s TT bike is RP117.
Booty, who died in 2012, won many titles and accolades in the 1950s, including gold in the 1958 Empire and Commonwealth Games, but he declined to go pro.
“He was a modest fellow who enjoyed his cycling and didn’t want to turn it into a job,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of Velo Pages. “I imagine if he were around today, he wouldn't be propagating notoriety from social media. He'd just be letting his pedals do the talking, which is why, to me, he's the ultimate amateur.”
