A local bike shop is celebrating the immense success of their VIP re-launch party, which was unveiled by one very special guest.

M. Steel Cycles, based in South Gosforth, last night threw a lavish bash to mark the opening of their new, state of the art premises. The party was attended by over 150 people, including Geordie legend Alan Shearer.

Owner Joe Waugh, who is an Olympian and Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist himself, could not have been happier with the way the party went. He said, “I was so impressed with the turn-out and the place looked fantastic. We’re so happy with the new premises and the party was just the icing on the cake.”

M. Steel Cycles, which has been serving the cycling needs of the region since 1894, is a flagship store for bike manufacturers Specialized. They sponsored Alan Shearer in the Sport Relief Super Cycle challenge, when he teamed up with TV presenter Adrian Chiles to cycle 355 miles in 36 hours from Newcastle to London and raised an incredible £430,000 for Sport Relief.  The night raised an additional £205 for the charity.

Specialized also presented Alan with a new bike, as he now cycles up to four days a week. In his opening speech, Joe Waugh said to Alan, “Forget the caps, forget all the goals, forget all the accolades, you’re now my hero. You’ve discovered a real sport: cycling!”

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress (Councillors David and Margaret Wood) were also honoured guests at the event along with supporters of M. Steel Cycles during its 114 year reign in the City.

Guests were treated to delicious food, provided by Boldon Farmhouse Pantry and were bowled over by balloonologists from It’s Time to Party. One particular work of art was a giant balloon Penny Farthing to represent M. Steel Cycles logo. They also presented Alan Shearer with a mini effigy of himself made entirely out of balloons, complete with his number nine shirt on his back and riding a bike!

The new two-floor superstore is situated just around the corner from the old one on Bowsden Terrace, South Gosforth. Owner Joe Waugh can hardly believe how much the shop has grown: “As a local independent store, we really feel like we’re one of the big boys! We can offer so much more than the larger stores and people have trusted us for decades.

Joe concluded, “The party was a complete success and Alan was a great sport - the perfect ambassador for cycling as a whole!”

Check out the video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pU6YE82haEI

Check out the gallery at http://blog.msteelcycles.co.uk/gallery/?album=2

Our New Shop Is Now Open!! Come And Visit Our New Shop At 6-10 Bowsdon Terrace.  (Located around the corner from our old shop.)

M. Steel Cycles is now one of only 4 shops in the UK to incorporate the Specialized Store In Store and one of 15 shops to provide the Specialized Body Fit system.  We now boast over 1000sq ft of clothing and 1500sq ft of bikes and accessories.

Click to see more photos

Joe’s racing career spans some 32 years from his first event in a club 10 in 1968 to the present day. He is best remembered for bringing back a Gold Medal from the Commonwealth Games Team Time Trial in Brisbane Australia in 1982, and for his storming rides in the Milk Race. Joe was a superb stage race rider who could climb with the best in the world, pull out magnificent rides against the clock and drive a break as if there was no tomorrow.

As a former Olympic cyclist I know how crucial frame quality can be. When I create a racing frame my approach is simple…. ‘I ask myself would I be happy riding this?’ Only when the answer is ‘yes’ do I put my name on it.

He rode his first Milk Race in 1973 and is still not sure how he came to be picked ! He was the revelation of the home riders finishing 15th overall after a mature performance. He spent 1974 in Metz in northern France riding for the VC Metz but came home to win the National Hill Climb Championship on Holme Moss.

Most of 1975 was spent in France again but Joe returned home to ride the Milk Race and produced a storming ride to take the King of the Mountains jersey and 7th overall. 1976 was to be his best year ever in this event as a member of the all conquering GB team with Bill Nickson, Bob Downs, Paul Carbutt, Dudley Hayton a nd Phil Griffiths. Only 5 seconds separated Joe and Bill Nickson at the finish with Joe at the wrong end of them! This was also an Olympic year and in the road race at Montreal in Canada Joe started the winning break to be joined by eventual winner Bernt Joha nnson, future top pros Klaus Peter Thaler and Fons de Wolf and American George Mount. The dream was shattered when he hit a wet drain cover and came down. Johannson said afterwards that Joe was the rider he feared most. To finish his season he came back from Canada and won the National Hill Climb again.

Joe (right) in the 1976 Olympic road race

The riders L to R are George Mount (USA), Bernt Johansson (Sweden), Fons de Wolf (Belgium), Joe Waugh (GB), Klaus-Peter Thaler (Germany)

The following two years were a bit thin on the ground for international success but the National medals kept coming with a win in the Team Time Trial for his GS Strada team in 1977.

Back to his winning ways in 1979 he won 32 races that year including a stage in the Milk Race and another Gold in the Team Time Trial. He also went to the World Championships at Valkenburg in Holland as a member of the Team Time Trial squad. However the biggest disappointment of the year was a silver medal in the National Road Race championship to a certain Robert Millar.

1980 was an other Olympic year which saw him in Moscow riding both the Road Race and the Team Time Trial. 1980 also brought another Gold medal in the National Team Time Trial. But the best win of the year was the GP Felix Melchoir in Luxembourg, a five day stage race with a field containing six past and current world champions. This was the first win by a GB rider of a continental stage race for eight years. At the end of this year Joe joined Dave and Geoff at M.Steel Cycles, his accounting skills being an ideal compliment to the engineering skills already present in the company. Joe’s name was the logical choice for all the company’s racing frames and the Gold Medal model became synonymous with top quality. His connections with the top end of the cycling world resulted in many of the countries top riders using frames from the M.Steel Cycles workshop.

1981 saw his fourth and final National Team Time Trial Gold medal with the GS Strada, a stage win in the Milk Race, a win in the Manx International and a trip to Czheckoslovakia for the World Championship Team Time Trial.

1982 was to see the end of his international career with a second win in the Manx International making him only the third rider ever to have done this, a ride in the Team Time Trial at the Worlds at Goodwood in Sussex and that magnificent Commonwealth Gold Medal in Brisbane.

Time trialling has always been one of Joe’s specialities, a fact attested by no less than 13 RTTC national medals:

Within six months of retiring Joe was fighting for his life after being hit by a drunken taxi driver on his way home from a company meeting. His horrendous injuries would almost certainly have finished a lesser man. Thankfully, his will to win triumphed and he emerged from the experience as he puts it, “in one piece”.

After his recovery, active cycling took a back seat due to the demands of running the business. Joe is a qualified accountant and looks after the admin and retail side of M.Steel Cycles. However, old habits die hard and in 1995 Joe again started riding his bike “seriously”. Initially riding local time trials, by 1997 he was competing at national level. He won a team medal in the National 10 mile championship and despite only limited training has achieved a 10 time of 20.31 a personal best, a 25 time of 5 2.02, and a 50 of 1.54.38.

Although Joe’s racing has again taken a back seat due to demands of the business, he and his son completed the 180 mile Rievers Coast to Coast ride in October 2000 in a “magnificent” 3 days hard riding.

Joe has a wealth of experience to draw on and his contribution to the development of the company’s products has been priceless. This carries on today with his cont inued involvement in racing and ensures that M.Steel Cycles remain at the forefront of their field.

There has been an M. Steel in Gosforth since the late 1800’s. For at least 80 of these years the name has been associated with bicycles. The business was bought by Geoff Dobson in 1954 and he traded in various locations around Gosforth throughout the ensuing years. In 1980 Geoff and Dave Yates founded M. Steel Lightweight Cycles Ltd to manufacture high quality custom frames at a factory unit in Wallsend.

Joe Waugh joined the company very shortly after whilst at the height of his formidable powers as one of the best racing cyclists ever to come out of the North East. 1981 saw the purchase by the company of Geoff’s shop in Salters Road, Gosforth to bring all the M. Steel named operations under the wing of the limited company, and in 1984 the business was moved to its present location in South Gosforth. During 1981 to 1982 Joe acted as a mobile test bed for the company products. Just before the World Championships in 1981 his No. 1 race bike was damaged. Due to go to Belgium with the Great Britain team for two weeks preparation he took a standard 531 frame from the shop and gave it a thorough testing on the Belgian pave (cobbles!). The same bike was also used as a spare at the “Worlds”.

In 1997 the framebuilding unit moved from its location at Old Northumberland yard to a new site in two modern factory units on Point Pleasant Industrial Estate. The upheaval was huge but we managed to do it losing only a week of production.

The aim of the company was to produce frames of the highest quality. That we have succeeded can be judged by the fact that in 1988 we had no less than 11 National Champions in various areas of cycling, riding on frames of our manufacture and in 1989 we had our first full professional team equipped with Joe Waugh bikes. Since then our frames have featured regularly in national events with never less than two national champions in any year. Deb Murrell rode a frame of our manufacture at the Atlanta Olympic Games, and Harry Walker holds the current British 25 mile road record of 40 minutes 50 seconds on a low profile time trial frame built to his exclusive design.

Unfortunatley in a rapidly changing market where aluminium has taken over as the material of choice for racing frames M. Steel Cycles seased to build exquisite custom made steel frames in 2005. Nearly 11,000 riders have experienced the delights of an M Steel hand crafted frame since 1980.