le Summum - the Ultimate: Ideale 92 Diagonale saddle

Still wrapped in plastic

with Abandon

malvern star's marketing team back in '86
could never have known
how prescient the name of their new model

JPR decaleur

after reading JH's post on
"bump-proof" decaleurs
I had a look to see if I had posted a pic of the wonderful
jpr decaleur
made by Jo Routens' son
Jean-Paul:
hadn't
so here 'tis.

immune to bumps as the bag slides on sideways
the two steel sleeves are bolted to the handlebar bag's internal aluminium stiffener

sad to say
I've lost the lovely little occy strap that held everything in place
it must have pinged off without me noticing
but even so
the systems still works beautifully
and so much simpler than this.

Stephs' bike - update

still well pleased with how this bike came out
with aforementioned saddle
the shimano deer-head derailleur set
later known as deore
the sugino 5-pin, tiny bcd crankset from my viscount
the white 35mm tyres and hammered mudguard
not to mention the suntour ratcheting thumb-shifters
and custom artisanal leather mudflap

it's just a shockingly stylish build

100 points to your house if you can correctly identify the car in the shot above

Dubbin fetish

almost as much as I love leather saddles

I love Joseph Lyddy's Dubbin

it took this gorgeous Lamplugh spring leather saddle from this

to this 

in a matter of minutes

the top pic is how she arrived

about 10min after the second pic was taken

she looked like the first pic again

probably used about 10 separate applications before she kept

the lustre you see above.

a hairdryer on low is excellent for melting the Dubbin into the leather

Saddle from my favourite French charity

for my niece's beautiful Shogun commuter

(must take some up to date pics)

At the jeweller's

I call him that because he's not really a frame-builder

yet

and he's not just a mechanic

he makes stuff to fix or enhance bikes 

and has the tolerances of a jeweller or horologist

+/- 0.01mm is his definition of

close enough for rock and roll

he's also got a bit of a tool fetish

which I can totally understand

there's nothing better

than having the right tool for the job.

Parts organisation on a grand scale

mrs feelofsteel 

was impressed with my storage solutions 

and labelling.

been doing so much searching on eBay in French

that the words were starting to get into my head.

was also interesting to see the stuff that I accumulate most of

definitely drivetrain stuff 

Composants de Transmission

but also surprisingly brake stuff too 

Etriers et Leviers de Freins

and pedals.

Accumulation of pedals

or pedales, if vous préférez

experiments in speed

a beautiful little hymn to steel
and localness

Seat clusters

seat clusters are where the seat stays join the seat tube and sometimes also the top tube

there's a lot of different ways this can be done.

sometimes its integrated into a lug

the cluster also has to incorporate the action of the seat post clamping bolt

a tiny distortion of the seat tube of only fractions of a mm.

makers worried about rip-offs tend to put some kind of embossing in the seat stay cap

their name or logo

really good bikes don't care so much

but it's a lovely detail all the same

these are from Commuter Cycles 5th birthday Show and Shine

Diamond frame, handbuilt in the 50s in Geelong from 531

Centurion, lovely chromed, wrap-around stay caps

Dawes Super Galaxy

F.W. Evans

As the name suggests, with curly stays n'all

Elvin? Elwin? tarck bike

Michalo

lovely resto with complete Superbe Pro group

recently made bike I forgot who by

immaculate Concorde with gold-plated stays

fancy chromed cluster but somehow 

not as lovely as when they wrap to the front of the seat tube.

Beausage

I still think this word should rhyme with
sausage

new drivetrain for Jo

Roads

some of the roads of the north-east

Natural wonders