See you there...

Click on the photo for big.

BMX, Wine & Food

On Sunday, CTB and I took a jaunt via Swanson and Riverhead, to watch some BMX racing at Albany, and finishing up at the Devonport Wine & Food Festival.

My day started on the train from Otahuhu to Newmarket, whence I rode to CTB's subdelux bachelor accomodation at Waterview.
By 9:30am, CTB was out of bed, dressed in appropriate gear, his Hillman fixie was suitably festooned with baggage, and the coffee machine was warmed up.
Our route took us along the North Western cycleway to Swanson, where CTB dropped me like a stone on the climb up Birdwood. So much for his assertion that he was handicapping himself by riding the fixie.
At Riverhead, we stopped at Hallertau for a beer before climbing Ridge Rd to the top of Highway 18. Descending into Albany, the boot was on the other foot as CTB ran out of legspeed while I coasted.
We spent long enough at the BMX watch a few races and inhale a hotdog each, then headed to Devonport for the Wine & Food Festival. There we ate yet more, sampled a few glasses of wine, the highlight being the Thornbury Pinot Gris, and were entertained by Hello Sailor and The Lady Killers.

We returned to Auckland on the ferry, parting at Britomart where I caught another train home to Otahuhu.

Toei 'British Lightweight Model'

Found during my daily websurfing routine:

A Toei British Lightweight model, on Mr Akuta's 'My Cycle Touring with Toei' website (here mangled by Babelfish).

As you can see from Mr Akuta's own steeds, and those of his friends, most Toeis are in the French style, so an English-inspired Toei is something of a departure.

This bike features the bilaminate construction and lug design of an early 50s Claud Butler Avant Coureur, with the 'Greatest Hits of the 50s, 60s and 70s' component choices that are almost compulsory on English frames.

More NAHBS

Rich Pinder has put the show catalog online: http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~rpinder/Show08.pdf

NAHBS 2008

Burn up a few hours of corporate broadband ogling some pix from the 08 North American Handmade Bicycle Show:

Bike Portland's Flickr album

Clockwork Bikes downloadable NAHBS album, is now also at Wooljersey

Alex Wetmore's photos

Pegoretti Luigino photo from Clockwork Bikes

Italian Mystery Frame, part 2

In between the various annoyances and outright calamities of last weekend, I did manage to finish painting 'Esposito', the mystery Italian frame.
Its obvious that lug lining is not one of my natural talents, but I have seen much worse.

I'm not sure what to do with this frame.
The demise of the Holdsworth calls for a new fixie, which would probably be the sensible outcome, but I have a hankering for a 60s style Italian road racer.
I already have most of the parts for such a bike, including the 1968 Nuovo Record rear derailler that came with the frame.
Campag bar-end shifters and Universal 61 centrepulls would definitely feature.
Although they are a few years older, I have a pair of Campagnolo Gran Sport hubs that are too nice to keep on the shelf forever.
It could be just the ticket for a return to l'Eroica

Please email if you have any thoughts as to the identity of this frame.

Swings and roundabouts

The Auckland Anniversary weekend started with promise, when Dave from Wellington opted to Buy it Now, relieving me of my long-neglected GT I-Drive.
This was possibly my full allocation of good fortune for the holiday:

My plan to fit Mafac Top 63 centrepulls to the Hurlow foundered when I discovered that the brakes don't have enough reach, even though the bizarre sliding whatchamacallit appears to have plenty of adjustment left. It is possible to get the brake shoes lined up with the rims, however the lefthand anchor point for the straddle wire fouls the arc of the front brake arm. I think that swapping to 27" rims might solve the problem, but that's not an option.
Despite buying new bushes, and spending a few hours polishing, this is but a minor irritation, unlike the next calamity which really pissed me off.....

The seat tube on my Holdsworth Whirlwind cracked. I was intending to restore the frame this year, so I guess its a good thing that it happened now, and not after I had spent hundreds on nickel plating and new paint.
The frame is repairable, so I may yet grind out the old tube and braze in a new.

Brave words

Received today by email, from one of the Retro Ride regulars:

Hi Dave,
I should be able to attend all of the rides this year as my new year's resolution is to avoid all illness and injury. I shall laugh in the face of the common cold and walk away from train crashes with no more than a scratch.
The wife putting her foot down is another matter, I shall try to laugh in her face, and see if I can walk away with no more than a scratch.

Name withheld

Velo Swap

Summerofcycling.com is running a Velo Swap at Orewa on February 24th, in conjunction with the Seaview Classic Criterium.
Gates open to the public at 8am, vendor setup is from 6.00am - 7.30am. All vendors must pre-register and pre-pay.
More details and entry forms HERE on the Summer of Cycling website.

Shiny

My Vittorias, polished up for today's Retro Ride.

Unfortunately a test ride showed that the cleat adjustment would have crippled me in only a few kilometres, so I swallowed my pride and went clipless.

Italian mystery frame

This frame, seen above in my delux spraying facility, has been on the inventory for nearly 18 months without much action. I decided to make it presentable and use it as a road fixie instead of the Holdsworth which is in dire need of refurbishment.

Except for lack of an Italian thread bottom bracket for TA Cyclotouriste cranks it could be rideable by the end of the week. Now that the summer weather has packed up, I have already polished up a set of Universal 61 calipers, and the weird Nitor seatpost that came with the frame.

Despite an appeal to the collective wisdom of the CR List, I don't know anything about this frame, except that it is Italian, probably mid-50s to mid-60s.
A number of Italian brands of the period used a similar seatlug, including Frejus, Olmo, Torpado, Galmozzi, & Girardengo but the headlugs don't match any of these.
If I don't get a positive ID soonish, I'm going to call it Esposito.

More details and photos are at my Wooljersey album.

Please email if you have any thoughts as to the identity of this frame.

Thanks to Robert S Broderick for the Nitor seatpost image, which I stole from his excellent gallery of catalog scans on Wooljersey.

The CBAD chronicles- remake/remodel

One of the symptoms of chronic CBAD is when you start seeing your existing bikes as a source of parts for other projects.

This is no big deal if you only cannibalise your own fleet, but once you start coveting widgets belonging to your Significant Other you are living dangerously.

The situation became critical recently when I took the Zeus seatpost off Donna's road bike as part of the ongoing pimp-my-Hurlow program.

There was nothing wrong with the original clamp that came on the Ideale No.90 alliage legere saddle, but a recent saddle swap on my Holdsworth Whirlwind had liberated a set of Zeus-for-Ideale saddle clamps that cost too much to leave unused.

These also fit Campagnolo Nuovo Record posts, but, nah, it wouldn't be the same.

Luckily, ebay provided a NOS Campagnolo Gran Sport post for Donna's bike before my stuff got put out on the front porch.

The Hurlow didn't just get a gratuitous seatpost upgrade- the 12cm Fiamme stem, though a thing of beauty, was just too short, so I swapped it and the Ambrosio bars for a 13.5cm TTT Record stem and a pair of Fiamme London bars.

Taking some care, I even managed to reuse the bar tape.

The crusty looking Mafac Racer brakes got a polish and a set of Matthauser brake shoes.

The seatpost that started all the trouble. I outbid a Japanese collector for the Ideale seat clamps, which should have made me realise that I'm not totally rational about this bike collecting thing.

Thanks to Robert S Broderick for the Zeus catalog page.

Tried and liked in '07

Nitto Noodle bars- though not unreservedly.

I like to angle the drops a little for a more natural wrist angle, but doing so on the Noodles puts the ramps at an uncomfortably flat angle. I guess this really makes me a Dream bar customer (right).

Nitto bar photos from www.rivbike.com

Brooks Swallow
For years, Brooks saddles had such short rails that I was unable to get my preferred rearward seat position on any frame with a seat tube steeper than 72 degrees.

Furthermore, their sportier offerings such as the Pro and the Swift lacked saddlebag loops.

In 2006, Brooks introduced a ti-railed Swallow that met both criteria, but was too expensive for anything except your very best bike. Despite the outrageous price, I got one for my Ritchey since it was the only solution for my ergonomic and bag-carrying requirements.

The new steel-railed Swallow Classic which I saw at Interbike this year has long rails too, so there is a glimmer of hope that Brooks will eventually fit longer rails to the rest of the range.

Photo: 2007 Swallow Classic with long rails (left); original Swallow restored by Tony Colegrave (right)

Lycra-free commuting

After years of commuting dressed for the increasingly-unlikely after work training ride, I started commuting in my modified Nzo 307s or knickers from MUSA or Bicycle Fixation, worn over NZo Cruiseliners.

Ibex Duo shorts

I have had these for a couple of years, as well as a pair of the excellent El Fito knickers, but only recently I realised that the Duos are the most comfortable shorts I have ever worn. The first pair that I bought seemed fairly short, but the pair I bought late in '07 are, lengthwise, more like a normal cycling short. www.ibexwear.com

Rapha Grand Tour Gloves

Despite my my irritation at Rapha's lack of pre-Christmas communication, these are by far the best gloves I have ever had. Most road mitts annoy me, with sloppy fit, lumpy and inappropriate padding and poor grip on some types of bar tape.

Rapha recommends that you order their mitts a size small, because the leather will stretch to fit your hand, which it has mine. The 2mm padding, apparently made from a high tech material used in British Army sniper's gloves, is imperceptible in a good way; and the leather palms grip both Fi'zi:k microtex or cotton bar tape securely.

Carradice Camper Longflap saddlebag- holds everything you could possibly need for faux-Jobstian credit card touring.

When I went to Italy in 2006, I took a Carradice Nelson Longflap, plus a Rivendell Hobo bag, and they were barely big enough. This year the Camper carried the same load with room to spare.

If you are wondering what to put in in it, take a look at Jobst Brandt's Packing List.

Ritchey Breakaway

Given that I'm deeply implicated in the distribution of Ritchey products in New Zealand, you're welcome to take this with a grain of salt, but my extensively modified Breakaway has completely relegated my other 'modern' road bike to a dusty corner in the back of the shed.

I can't wait to get my Breakaway fixed/singlespeed frame in a couple of months.

The fatwa is rescinded

If you have been honing your machete to a razor edge or turning you dad's old deer hunting ammo into dumdums, save them for the revolution, because my Rapha order arrived today.

I'm still frowning upon them slightly, due to their non-functional order tracking webpage and their inability to answer emails; but the parcel was mailed one day after I placed the order, so the fact that it got here too late for Christmas is solely down to the postal service.

Rapha are one of the most interesting brands to come on the scene in the last few years, and I hope that they can get their systems sorted in future.

Bad Rapha

After the worst e-commerce experience that I have ever had, I'm calling a fatwa on Rapha Racing Ltd, the English purveyors of upmarket cycle kit.

Rapha guarantees that they will ship standard delivery orders with 48 hours and a maximum ten day shipping time. They also claim 'Rapha makes buying online a risk free and painless process, wherever you are' which must be intentionally ironic.

I placed an order with them on 6/12, for a Fixed. track top and a couple of pairs of Grand Tour gloves, for which they speedily debited my credit card. As of today, according to the 'order history' on their website the order is still 'awaiting shipping'.

In the last fortnight I have sent seven emails to Rapha inquiring whether the order has, in fact, shipped, and if not when it will do so.
I received a reply to the third, wherein one Laura Etherington wrote "Apologies for not replying earlier. I’m looking into this and will be in touch shortly."
Since then, not a word.

I would like to think that this is down to some glitch in Rapha's email system, however they have not responded to three voicemail messages either.

UPDATE: go here for the more or less happy ending.

Re-purposing

I thought that I had a done good job of reconfiguring my Ritchey Breakaway (here with a Schmidt Dynohub for the Summer Solstice Ride) from 19lb race-ready travel bike into an all weather commuter and credit card tourer, but CTB has blown me into the weeds with this quick and dirty touring bike conversion of his EMC.

The Fixers

An exhibition of fixed gear bikes at the very interesting Sydney motorcycle shop Deus ex Machina.

Some goodness from the Blogosphere

These will be old hat to dedicated internet sifters, but deserve a mention regardless:

Dylan's new bike by Curt Goodrich, would be the perfect fast road bike if it had mudguard eyelets, but maybe Dylan already has a rain bike.

Every 21st century household needs a town bike like this one by Ira Ryan.

At Cyclofiend, there is almost nothing to quibble about (except the wrongly positioned flint catchers) on Tom Truong's Della Santa fixie. This is perhaps the best fixed gear road bike that I have seen on the interweb.

Wellingtonian Steve Dorrington's Bob Jackson is damn cool too. The frame came from the same Christchurch bikeshop as Donna's Bob Jackson frame

Another one that got away

This 1952 Gillott frame, which was on ebay a couple of weeks ago, would have looked good in my collection, but a Japanese collector got up in the middle of the night to add it to his.

I wasn't heartbroken, since I already have a lifetime's worth of projects in my shed, but this frame has an interesting feature that sets it apart.

At first glance this looks like a lugged Fleur de Lis frame like my '69 Gillott, but the seat cluster tells a different story.

Instead of using a lug, a fleur de lis patterned sleeve is brazed to the end of the top tube, which is then fillet brazed to the seattube.

The headlugs are made in the same way, with an obvious fillet when compared to the lugged Fleur de Lis models on the Classic Lightweights UK Readers Bikes page.

Lugged frames also have cutouts in the head lugs.

This style of building was used by a number of English builders during the 40's and 50's, notably Paris Cycles, and Claud Butler who called the process 'bilamination'.

Later, Tom Ritchey used the same process on some of his top-end MTB and road frames as in this photo from the Bob Brown Cycles blog.

Photos: Alexander von Tutschek, ebay auction #260182570977

Doing things the hard way.

A couple of weekends back I decided to swap the Cinelli model 64 bars on my Gillott for a pair of deep drop model 66s, and while I was at it, replace the gold anodised Univesal brake levers with the ones that originally came with the bike. This should have been an easy Sunday evening job, until I decided that it was also a great idea to strip the anodising from the Cinelli 1a stem that I planned to use.
There is plenty of information on the internet about how to strip anodising easily with common household chemicals which I didn't have on hand, so it made perfect sense to do it with some strips of 120 grit emery tape. I got the anodising off in under 30 minutes, but rubbing out the marks left by the 120 grit took a couple of hours, using 280, 400 and then 800 grit wet & dry, before finishing it off on the polisher.
I'm pretty happy with the result, but next time I'll go to the supermarket and get me some industrial strength oven cleaner.