59cm Carlton/Sun Professional Team BMB Classic Racing Bike

Now this is a very special bike.

We bought this with the potential of it being either Trevor Bull or Bernard Burns' actual pro bike from the 60s Carlton BMB team. The reason being the combination of the livery & the serial number, which carries a B prefix and suggests a 1965 build date. Since then we've been on a long old journey trying to confirm its provenance.

The previous owner actually bought the bike from the 2nd owner in 1970 & used it for road racing & time trialing for some years. The history prior to that was unfortunately unknown, but what we do know is the iconic lagoon blue paint & current livery didn't arrive until a few years after 1965, which made this particularly unusual. 

After hours and hours (and hours) of research, and some fantastic help from Carlton enthusiasts, we believe this to have originally been built as a Sun-Truwell-Huret race bike and subsequently re-finished in the BMB colours in the late 60s. This actual makes more sense than you would imagine, as Carlton & Sun were both owned by Raleigh at this point, they were built in the same Worksop factory & the pro teams were very closely linked.

So this does actually leave the dream of it being Trevor Bull's bike alive, as he rode for both Sun & Carlton in the 60s, but as is the case so often, we have no concrete evidence to confirm this. If you scroll through to the last photo however, you will find a photo of Trevor Bull riding for Sun-Truwell in 1968.

It certainly looks like the real deal....

As with all our bikes, it's been fully stripped, inspected & professionally polished & re-built. The frame is straight & true without any dents or dings - please inspect the photos for cosmetic condition as we photograph the bikes so you can see the exact condition of the bike before purchasing.