Storm on the way home

Spacemaster on the train

it's a spacemaster and it's on a train.

next, a well-aged happy meal.

Modak

my favourite visual merchandising in the
whole wide CBD.
since 19-oh-something
it's Ollivander's for motorbikes.

not a customer, since she's italian not british.
but a lovely bit of chrome that.

Ken Oath. Bloody hipsters.

seen in flinders lane
beautiful Ken Evans road frame and forks
Columbus tubes
Campag dropouts
internal top tube routing
beautiful sloping fork crown
short wheelbase
darling brake bridge
and the shittest wheelset and drivetrain
imaginable.
may the owner one day know
enough about bikes
to fully regret this build.
at least he hasn't hacked off the braze-ons. yet.

Spacemaster on the tram

one of Melbourne's very green trams.

they don't like bikes very much.

Jeff Buckley playing Hallelujah

nothing to do with bikes, but
everyone needs to be reminded from time to time.
he was supposed to be our generation's Dylan.
rufus apologised for even attempting Hallelujah.

fluffed chords and improvisation
god bless him he plays it live.

Hooray! Jubilee!

the glorious inconsistencies of a Jo Routens head tube badge

a fruitful couple of hours on illustrator
led to this.
routens had a few different typefaces and logos in their time.
this one is based on the headtube decal
on my own bike.

one thing's for sure
they could make bikes
but they weren't typographers:
main text is britannic bold
sort of.
heavily modified.
roundel text is eurostile
(manually extended and emboldened)
which by itself prob dates the bike to the 70s.

the "j" of jo had to be constructed from scratch.

remaking this logo reminded me how
people once upon a time had to draw such things
using pencil and ruler.
which in the hands of amateurs
leads to the glorious inconsistencies you get here.

if they had illustrator back then
this font would have been far more perfect
and far less interesting

Clouds

as a cyclist
one pays attention to clouds.
especially apocalyptic ones.
these particular clouds confirm that
classical chinese painters were working
from observation
not imagination.
airliner included for scale

Julio

got caught in the rain on the way home
so stopped at julio
the café of the lovely Michelle in
nth fitz
waiting took some pics

the shop was closed but the verandahs were welcome.

not many cafés have food as good. go.

Spacemaster 2 - champagne tastes

eleswhere I've said I suffer from
champagne tastes
so the universe saw fit to reward them with a
champagne bike.
some daylight shots to show
the amazing condition of this little beast

still with the plastic cap over the gear chain link

still with the 3-way cable clip
for the brake and gear cables

still with the rubber grips on the seat post
and handlebar release levers

and of course
the obligatory supermassive
bedroom wall size pic below.
click on and click again...

Rain

a few weeks back

I arrived to meet up with a local morning group ride

normally very well-attended

but no-one showed 

I can only assume because it was raining

so this dirt from the road 

and shit from the brake pads

must be badges of honour

New Viscount

purchased this evening for the grand sum of

forty-one dollars.

garaged all its life by the looks

still with original mini-pump.

dare say original tyres too.

nothing perished or torn.

so much lighter and easier to ride than the Stowaway.

people say these bikes were a bit flimsy.

good thing we're the skinny family then.

very happy.

Hetre Roads 4 - lushness

 

one thing about this post-drought australia

there's a lot more sogginess about.

hetre roads 3 was your more typical dry corrugations

 

this is more

lord of the rings

 

Hetre Roads 3

 

the third in an installment of landscapes

featuring roads 

that you really need grand bois hetre tyres 

to deal with.

bass coast

back roads 

victoria

 

 my wife's instagram fetish is having an influence

Nagasawa - the effing business

again from vintagebikeblog

not really old

but really special.

this is real pro.

not looking pro or fantasising pro but

'don't-even-think-of-getting-on-this-bike-unless-you-are-capable-of-winning-money-with-it pro.

people who ride these bikes in the street call them tarck bikes.

but this bike is too hard for the street.

my legs would snap off if I even tried to get on it.

look at that tiny smidgin of fork rake.

more beautiful pics here.
the fucken business.

How A Bike Is Made

I reckon Melvyn Bragg is doing the voiceover
thanks Tim

first encounter with high-end crabon

coz it was new and didn't have any pedals

they had to put mine on

hehe!

well amateur, that is.

verdict: meh

didn't rock my world

The most beautiful thing I've seen in a while.

an internet mate

has just come into a lovely piece of old scrap

he has a few other nice bikes too.

go look at his blog

they're the biggest bike pics on the net