Wednesday, October 26, 2011

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.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

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

Friday, October 21, 2011

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)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

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

Thursday, October 13, 2011

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.



Sunday, October 9, 2011

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!