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.

Pre-Taupo fettling

Though I'm not doing Round Taupo on Saturday, there has been plenty of pre-Taupo action in the shed this week.
On Wednesday Chris Money brought his Salsa Casseroll for a tune up, and to fit a pair 700 x 30 Gran Bois Cypres tyres, which will decrease rolling resistance and increase his comfort.

Last night, Kate Mullarkey came by, washed her Fondriest and borrowed my race wheels for the womens criterium on Saturday morning.
This bit of grass will not need mowing again after being soaked with three years accumulation of toxic bike mung.

5th Anniversary Retro Ride photos

'True Adventures' goes Global

This blog is now available at the iBOB Metablog Aggregator, a collection of 'bicycling-related blogs, some of which belong to iBOB members.'

The iBOB Metablog is the third thing I look at every morning, after Fixed Gear Gallery and Cyclofiend's Bicycle Photo galleries. Like most things in the blogosphere, quality is variable, but there's plenty of good stuff to keep you from being productive first thing in the working day.

The pleasurable misspending of a Saturday

Went forth with CT-B, intending to tool over the Hunua Gorge and back to town by Sky High Road, but renegotiated the route once we were underway.

Climbed up Sky High Road from the Clevedon side, then headed south through Hunua to view some real estate that CT-B desires, then back to civilisation via Ararimu.

Stopped at the bottom of Pratts Rd to see the Te Maketu waterfall that is hidden in the bush behind the old cemetary, thence to Drury where I inhaled a steak & cheese pie, and CT-B knocked off a huge & greasy chicken leg.

Classic Road Racer Rally 2007

From the ever-excellent My Cycle Touring with Toei website, a report on the Classic Road Racer Rally 2007 in Yamato-Kogen.
Without understanding a word of the text, this looks like a great day out- a few like-minded geezers get together with a collection of stunning vintage bikes, go for a ride, and if the photos are in chronological order, stop twice for food.

Unrequited CBAD

Last week I got overexcited about this Ron Cooper that was on ebay, but not as excited as ebayer paradigmshiftingrev, who is now the proud owner.

Butter Chicken and other delights

Patch the failed pig dog did not get any of these fine bacon & egg sandwiches that Chris Money made for Ross Corlett and me after we rode the BCL on Saturday morning.
The plan was for me to get the train to Newmarket, but track maintenance there meant I had to get off at Sylvia Park and meet Ross & Chris at Royal Oak.
Once we got going, Ross cranked along like a small, masochistic locomotive, while Chris tried to cough up a lung which gave me an excuse not to attempt to match Ross' pace on the hills.

In the PM, we used a large carpenter's square to establish that Sam Money had outgrown his road bike.