Snob and the Shovel

I'd known Snob (Alan Fisher) since the early nineties when I used to take my succession of ratty Ironhead Sportsters to his shop in Ealing for advice and parts. So when I decided to put my swingarm Shovel into a Santee rigid, I turned to him for help.

Snob had built an awesome rigid Pan I'd always admired ... I remember him and the London HA turning up en masse at a bar in London; what an awesome sight! – and I reckoned he'd be sympathetic to what I was trying to do.

He's an intriguing and amusing man, and it's doubly interesting to me how he ended up in the club (must be 25 years now) considering his background and boarding school education.

These photos were taken outside the shop he moved to near the Ace Cafe on the North Circular.

I owned this Shovel for six years and it ended up being featured in The Horse and American-V magazines. And funnily enough I recently met a bloke who's a friend of the guy I sold it to in 2000... he still has it and it's running well apparently.