Just piecing together some traces of Charles Ralph’s framebuilding work I’ve come across.

A picture gallery of a bike very like mine, and by the parts, of about the same age, at uncommonwheel

This thread starts off with pics of one Alves bike, then someone chips in with a story they found somewhere about the process of a frame getting made, then the guy who wrote the story shows up. The kind of thing Internet forums are for 🙂

Here’s a thread with an Alves tandem. In fact if you use the search field on LFGSS you’ll find a few Alves bikes.

An Alves bike starred in an adventure and book by Kate Rawles, The Carbon Cycle, and later made it into a museum in Glasgow. There’s a picture of Charles and Kate and the bike in the book. The rest of the book is a great read too. Oh, here’s a picture gallery with a couple of pics including Charles.

A character I came across on Twitter, Reg Stuart had a bike shop in Forres and often supplied Charles with parts. Maybe even some of the parts I ended up getting. Reg retired a few years ago. All the best, guys.

Charles is mentioned here in connection with the League of Cycling Purity. The description of how to get to his house is accurate.

Here’s an Alves rebuild story from 2014, in German (with plenty of pictures).

Here’s a nice Alves mixte bike