Frank Ellingford wrote: "Now we come to the real 25 star in my eyes Alf Engers. He first held competition record in 1959 when he was in the Barnet. Aged 19 he did 55-11 on a fixed gear and I think he was the last man to hold competition record on fixed gear. Back he came in 1968 a sensational return to competition at the age of 28. Now using gears and modern methods he soon lowered the record to 51-59. Again later that year he lowered his time to another new record of 51-0. He was riding for the Poly then. Alf's record stood for nine years when Eddie Atkins took it down to 50-50. That same year at the age of 38 he finally achieved his ultimate goal of the 30mph 25 when he clocked 49-24 on the E.72. A star in my eyes."
Once Alf started using gears, he used very high gears: something like 115-120 gear inches for a 25. There's an article about him in an early '70's issue of Bike World that I'll try to dig up -- that issue also had an article on drillium, if I remember correctly.
Mordecai Silver
NYC