Steph's bike 2

nearing completion.

not one but two bike shops' owners

shot this bike today with

their eyephones.

the ride

and looks

significantly improved 

by my favourite 5 pin Maxy crankset

last thing

to add these bits so she has some derailleurs

that work.

Steph's new bike

putting together a commuter for my niece.

needed to be comfy but light enough to commute a good distance easily,

strong enough to carry panniers full of books

and cheap enough not mind the rough and tumble of the school bike shed.

I think it's turned out just right

so,

an ordinary (albeit very clean and neat) shogun metro before...

 

some new bars

tyres and 'guards

replace those awful plastic pedals and added MKS half-clips

new chain but kept the old 18 speed drive system

 

bell, on the stem a la constructeur! :D

et voila! 

the white tyres and extra silver components 

really darken the frame in a beautiful way.

it's really light and easy to ride too.

much lighter than gary :(

still to come -- rear rack.

bike from Jack at melbourne used bikes

bits from human powered

mounting mudguards/fenders and rack on the one eyelet

use the "r" clips that came with your mudguards

if you bought Honjos

and buy a longer bolt

but it took a pro to show me this

thanks Lewis!

easypeasy

japanesey

back to the level of functionality Victor had when I bought him.

next–

pannier(s)

free ad: buy these bike tshirts

could 

not 

believe

there was a t-shirt available of the

very first Dura Ace group

so a hearty thanks to Chuck at velo-retro

who is silly enough to be a reader of this ramble.

go and look at his site

there is a lot of great stuff there for you 

and all your bikey crew

like a tshirt of this

and this

that spaceman has the best graphic iteration of a derailleur I ever seen

Blue Victor

another Victor!

and it went for only £26.00!

Handlebar bag

mudflaps vers 2, bigger

What I did on my holidays

i rode a gift-horse from shute harbour to airlie beach.

twas nice enough

even if it was a Gnati

with brrrrrrrrrrrrrrifters.

it got me there and gave me exercise

and

like i said

it was a gift horse

or rather a loan horse.

but still it was a surprise when I got home

just how much more alive the Victor was

to ride

than this stiff piece of aluminium.

and because all this happened in qld

here is the obligatory cane toad pic.

The beauty of fillet brazing

this wonderful jo routens frame (and assorted bits) recently sold for

$4800 on fleabay

the price jumped 2 grand in the last few seconds of the auction.

why?

rountens was about the only constructeur to fillet braze instead of lug his joins

technically more difficult to do.

the tubes flow into each other smoothly.

this is not why it went for so much

but it is why it is especially lovely

and the kind of frame that so rarely comes up for sale outside France.

shipping was only $200 btw.

the problem with fleabay is that its not an archive

so in 90 days all the pics will disappear

check it out, ebay item no. 170700884078

there's a good short history of the routens marque

and background info on the frame there too.

the lovely cyclo derailleur and its problematic intricate braze-on.

you can see the seller's website address on the watermark

unfortunately he hasn't archived any pics of this frame there either

the same seller auctioned this used rene herse crankset

which went for an astounding $2700!