Is a Bicycle a Political Symbol ... or Just a Bike?

 

I was amused to see this headline. 

The conservatives apparently thought that this was just a way to make a political point, to show "environmental cred" ... instead of, say, the only place to store a bicycle out of the way, dry and safe, while inside.

Well, when I do a Zoom meeting at home from my Zoom cave ... my background looks quite similar to his. 

The bike, the bookcase, the photo, everything in view pre-dates the pandemic and the beginning of the Zoom era (though I did get the Gokiso wheels out of storage recently -- when my previous wheel wore out).  This is the only way to store multiple bikes on the first floor of my house (the others are on the floor out of view). It is possible to blur everything so that there is only the outline of a bicycle/wheel visible -- I usually do so. But the Canadian parliament probably has a rule against that too.

Biketown ... or Beervana

Portland, Oregon, now has a cycle rental/sharing program like New York, London, Paris and many other cities (and some wards of Tokyo).  It is sponsored by Nike, headquartered in the Portland suburbs, so the bikes and stations are the same orange as Nike shoe boxes.  Of course, official Nike stores are called "Niketown" so the bike program seems to go by "Biketown."

I did not see many people using the orange bikes, since most Portlanders who want to ride a bike ... have one of their own and use it daily.  But I was glad to see a news report this evening (Aug 31) that the program exceeded its first month target, with more than 59,000 trips recorded.

The "Biketown" name is a bit lame, whether for a bike sharing program or a city. After a visit to one of Portland's 65 breweries for some craft beer yesterday, I think "Beervana"is the winner.

The Idaho Stop becomes the San Francisco Stop?

One interesting factoid from Cycle Oregon:  in Idaho cyclists do not need to stop at stop signs.  These are "yield" signs for cyclists.  No cross traffic -- roll on through!  So the law has adjusted to fit the behavior of 95% or more cyclists.  What a great idea.  Besides, well, in Idaho how often is there actually cross traffic at a stop sign?

But now, according to an article in today's NY Times online, San Francisco is considering the same thing.  Incredible.

Famous People in Cycling Accidents - Kerry, Bono

Today the news comes that 71 year old U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has broken his right femur while cycling on his custom Serotta (made in U.S.A. -- essential for a politician, and custom -- justifiable for someone as tall as Kerry, even if you are not married to a billionairess) during a trip in Switzerland.

What a great job -- negotiate with the Iranians about their nuclear program, then hop on the Serotta for a spin in the nearby hills.  (Note the Olympic rings in the background of the photo above -- just a spin by an IOC office on the way out of town?  And he is accompanied by paramedics when riding, so in case of injury, just a quick airlift back to a hospital in Geneva, then another airlift home to a doctor in Boston.

Still, one does need to be extra careful when cycling with jet lag ... and this accident is a reminder to all of us.  Easy to hit a curb when your head is in a fog and you just changed continents.

And those guys riding with him ... do not really look like much fun as cycling buddies.  Maybe Secret Service in disguise.  Or Swiss security (it is a BMC bike, after all) on loan.  I guess the guy with the backpack maybe has some weapons or communications gear.  I guess the next time I miss a curb and go down hard I will be happy it is not "breaking news" on CNN.

Meanwhile, after a cycling accident in Central Park last fall that shattered his arm in 6 places, resulting in some serious "hardware" -- 3 plates and 18 screws -- it is good to see U2's Bono back on the bicycle.

Bike Sharing Programs in Japan

Recently in getting around Tokyo, I have noticed some large scale rental bicycle stands.  First, there was one in Minato-ku, with red-colored bikes and a clear Minato-ku sponsorship.  Then I passed one in Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku.  I picked up one of the pamphlets for "Chiyo-kuru", the Chiyoda-ku "community cycle" program.  Then I was out near Tokyo Big Sight last week (in Koto-ku), lamenting the lack of any official bicycle parking (ironically, at a massive conference on energy conservation and renewable energy!), ... when I happened upon another large bike sharing/rental station.

What was going on?  Has Tokyo been implementing a massive "Boris Bike" or "Citi Bike" or "Velolib" program on a stealth basis?

I decided to investigate more, and with the assistance of my crack research team, entered the Chiyoda-ku program name, ちよくる, into my secret "search engine".  All was revealed.  These programs are run by NTT Docomo in conjunction with the localities.

Chiyoda-ku bike rental station near Jimbocho

Explanation of the program and user guides.

Indeed, there are now quite large trial bike sharing/rental programs going on in the following locations:

Koto-ku (which includes the Odaiba and Tokyo Olympics 2020 area).
Chiyoda-ku (Tokyo central business district)
Minato-ku (Tokyo central business district and commercial/residential mix)
Sendai (in Miyagi Prefecture, NE Japan)
Yokohama (2nd largest population city in Japan, just SW of Tokyo, port and tourist focus)
Hiroshima (major regional city and the #3 tourist destination after Tokyo and Kyoto).

The Chiyoda-ku program's website is here, and it has menu tabs for all the other Docomo programs as well.  English pages are available as well as Japanese.

Chiyoda-ku's stations

These programs each appear an order of magnitude bigger than the program in Marunouchi a few years back -- which was doomed to fail lacking critical mass.  I am not likely to ever use them (the bikes are too d#mn small!).  But if they can achieve critical mass, they will be a great resource.

Any obvious issues?  Well, other than the small bikes, I should note that these are only trials and they are very localized.  There is nothing that would allow someone to rent a bicycle to get to/from Setagaya-ku, where I live.

The Koto-ku program has been going since Nov 21, 2012, and will end March 31, 2015 ... this month!  Chiyoda-ku's program runs for another two years, to March, 2017.  Sendai's "Da-te Bike" program runs 3 years in total, to March 2016.

Minato-ku's trial is only 6 months ... I just noticed last week that it had started, and it will end on 4 weeks, March 31, 2015!   What a waste ... if in fact the program terminates after 6 months!

Yokohama, on the other hand, started in April 2014 and will run through March, 2019.  Hiroshima runs for 3 years starting this month (March 2015 to March 2018).

Let's hope these trials are successful and result in permanent programs. Thank you, NTT Docomo!

This got me thinking.  Where are Kyoto and Osaka?  Especially Kyoto, a major destination for foreign tourists, would seem an ideal place for a bike share program.  So more crack research reveals -- there IS a community cycle program ... just not sponsored by Docomo.  And no end date listed on its website!  You can find Kyoto details here.  And Osaka also now has a small "HUB Chari" program, with 19 stations.

Yokohama's bike share stations

Cyclemode Talk - DGL with Shigeki Kobayashi and Chiaki Sakai

My longtime friend Shigeki Kobayashi of the non-profit Bicycle Promotion Study Group asked me to present at Cyclemode.

I followed Yukiya Arashiro (who moved on to another session on the "main stage"), and preceded Wataru Watanabe, the creator of hit manga "Yowamushi Pedal" about a high school outcast who joins the school cycling club.

So there were lots (several hundred?) who heard my session, most just trying to get good seats for the following session with Watanabe-san.

It is a bit hard for me to listen to my own casual Japanese ... "ano ...  ano ... ano ...." but here it is.



Otherwise, I got to say hi backstage to Yukiya and Miwa-san, his wife and business manager, who joined the Bouhets and Litts for a memorable Jerome-arranged dinner last year-end.  All in all well worth the trip out to Makuhari.

Bicycle-Pedestrian Accidents in Japan

I opened up a local English language paper on Saturday morning and was surprised to see a FULL PAGE devoted to the issue of bicycle-pedestrian accidents.   It highlighted a recent court judgment awarding 95 million yen (almost $1 million) to an elderly lady now comatose as a result of head injuries from a bicycle accident in which she was struck by a 5th grade boy zooming down a hill and around a corner.  The boys parents were held legally responsible -- nothing unusual for other countries such as the U.S. or Europe, but a high verdict for Japan.  The article also notes that there were 5 pedestrians killed in 2012 in Japan by cyclists.

An online version of the article is here.

The article was not directly anti-cyclist in tone, and highlighted educational efforts, the need for bike lanes, etc. so that people can continue to cycle without threatening pedestrians.  I could not agree more.  Indeed, I used to ride out the Tamagawa bike path, but now stick to the parallel streets on most stretches since I would rather not be in potential conflict with pedestrians (or other cyclists).

And only last week did someone recount to me the story of a cyclist who was riding around the area near Jingu Stadium and passed through a red light, misjudged the progress of an elderly pedestrian and ended up knocking him down (with a resultant serious injury).  Unforgiveable.

But I also could not help but wonder, where is the full page article highlighting each cyclist who is the victim in an accident with an automobile, truck or motorcycle?

A quick check of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police statistics page revealed that yes, there were more than a few cyclists killed in 2012.  Indeed, 563 killed in traffic accidents nationwide, of whom 34 died within Tokyo.

Where are the newspaper articles highlighting their fates?   How may were injured and lie sick or comatose?

And what is this? 1634 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in 2012 in Japan.  Presumably 1629 of these were caused by vehicles other than bicycles ... as opposed to 5 caused by cyclists.

Maybe the bicycle-pedestrian accident was newsworthy because such accidents are, indeed, so rare?

NYC's Bicycle-Promoting Totalitarians!

Here is the link to Ezra Klein's take on this WSJ fumble (and you can view the video there) -- both he and James Fallows used the comparison to The Onion  ... somehow the embedded video seems not to work from blogger.com ...

No, this is video is not from "The Onion".   It is from a WSJ editorial board member who knows that she represents the "majority" view.

Those UGLY bicycle racks.  Bike parking racks are a fire hazard ... cars, not so much.
 4 wheels good, 2 wheels bad!
Over the past five years in NYC, 597 pedestrians hit by cars and trucks. None killed by cyclists. ... But everyone "knows" that cyclists are the real threat, even more so since they were empowered by the mayor and his ideologically maddened traffic commissioner!
Didn't the Chinese ride bikes when they were really communists?  Don't those Dutch socialists ride bikes?  Don't you see the connection?
A cyclist was killed by SUV in the first week of bike sharing program. The answer -- punish the victims.

Portland Reclaims #1 Spot -- Most Bike Friendly City in the U.S.A.

News Flash -- May 21, 2012.  


Bicycling Magazine's 2012 list of the most bicycle friendly cities in the U.S.A. is out. Portland, Oregon reclaims the number one spot on the bi-annual list, with Minneapolis (#2), Boulder, CO (#3), Washington, DC (#4) and Chicago (#5) rounding out the top five.

Read more here or here.  And you can see the full list here.


Separately, "Walk Score" Internet service that ranks real estate for walkability, has added a city wide "bike score" feature.  Minneapolis tops Portland (#1 vs #2) on that measure among larger cities, I think primarily because the "bike score" methodology detracts for hilly areas, and Portland has hills all over its west side.  Of course, those hills give the city much of its character, and give you a nice view of the snow capped Cascade Mountains.


Maybe some group should start a similar list for Japan?

Lilac Angel for Larissa

Over the last three weeks I assembled this bike for the girlfriend of a cycling buddy in Bremen. He wanted his girlfriend to start riding and she asked for something that looks good and suits her personal taste.

Tobi (the guy) was able to buy an old OLMO Speedy Gonzales dated from 1990 or 91 with a complete Shimano 105 7-speed setup for less than 20.000 Yen. It took me two weeks to deassemble the whole bike, grease all parts, spot-repair some rusty patches and scratches, grease, lubricate and adjust headset and bottom bracket as part 1 of this project.

Larissa wanted to have some combination with black and lilac as the dominant colors and chrome and white in the back. As they are still young and work in poorly paid jobs (hospital, kindergarten) they didn't wanted to spend too much money. As opposed to professors working in poorly regarded academic institutions that regularly poor thousands of Euros into the garage equivalent of Greece.

We decided on the main components and technical specs and we purchased the necessary spare parts such as chain, cabling, handle bar tape, brake pads, new saddle, Look pedals and new Schwalbe Ultremo tires. In the end we spend less than 35.000 Yen in total on this bike which was somewhat within the budget.

I think the result is a good looking, feminine bike with a sensible design. The main color is black with lilac cables, saddle and tires outlining the contours of the bike. White is the second colour within the triangle of the upper, lower and saddle tube. Design wise everything fits together.

From a technical point of view the bike is now in good shape and the Shimano 105 components work very well. Shifting is smooth and the braking is now super-aggressive. During the project I found out that the outer chain ring had to be exchanged but I was able to buy a NOS Shimano one from the Eighties as replacement.

As the original components were used there were hardly any compatibility issues. Only the truing of the rear wheel took quite along time in order to get the right mix of tension, torsion and trueness in both directions.

If there is one thing I love and hat it is the glossy black handlebar. It looks very good and very sexy - the combination with black leather would be perfect. However it is a pain to wrap the handle bar with this tape from Fizik and I would recommend to use it only with "pure" handlebars, in other words, don't try to wrap brake or shift cables with it.

Larissa was happy when she picked it up on Sunday and so was her boyfriend. I had fun doing the consulting and assembly. Having done previously the Pescarolo and the Kotter, this has been the third bike I assembled for someone else. This will never become a work to earn a living, however the combination of doing something with my hands and making people happy is a quite satisfying one.

More pics are here.

Union Fixie

Just completed yesterday the built-up for my first fixie, just in time for a test ride on the weekend. Red theme on a blue basis.

More photos here.

In September I bought an old Union frame from the Seventies at a very good price, an opportunity too good to be missed. As nevertheless I didn't want to spend too much money I thought that a fixie would be a nice and inexpensive project. As usual the right parts accumulated slowly over the course of time. I had no previous experience with a fixie drive train so I had to ask some experts for help and naturally I also made some stupid mistakes. Note in case you don't know: Track bike cogs and BMX cogs have different thread diameters.

Union used to be a large Dutch bicycle manufacturer in the same class as Gazelle, Batavus and Sparta. The company is defunct now, but they made mainly Dutch shopping bikes just as their competitors. Tom probably knows precisely what I am talking about. For marketing and image reasons Union sponsored a racing team in the Seventies. But as they were not able to produce racing frames by themselves, they asked Motta in Italy to weld the frames and labeled them "Union". This is the story I was told about the frame I bought.

I assembled quite a mixed bag of components. I got some mid-priced Campa Record brake levers and Campa Gran Sport brakes as well as a NOS Chorus crank from 2006. I also found some beautiful Mavic 500 hubs and Mavic clincher rims.

Again, as usual I saw some nice parts that I desperately wanted to have and which made the whole project expensive beyond reason. The red saddle is brand new, a replica of an old version and while it is still much more affordable then a carbon saddle it is still way more expensive that it should be. I also bought new hoods for the brake levers which cost about the same money as the levers itself and a NOS 3ttt Gimondi handle bar. But I just love the Gimondi handle bar shape which is a hybrid bewteen a classic racing bar and a track bar. And when I saw the red Veloflex tires at an internet shop in Toulouse I wanted to have them too. Luckily the tax return came just in time to pay everything off.

The weather was miserable today so I just took the bike to the Universum. This was the first time I rode a fixie for a longer distance. David and david gave me the chance to ride their fixies for a few meters in Tokyo but today was very much different. As could be expected I am too stupid to ride a fixie and I need a fixie training camp. So lets see if I can get used to it.

If not I am working on my new Chesini winter bike. Life has alternatives.

Olmo Evolution One

Well, today is my birthday. Thank you David & Ludwig for your good wishes. I took half a day off from work and my new white Olmo out on a longer ride in splendid autumn weather as a kind of birthday present to myself.

After fiddling and tweaking for weeks on the white Olmo I feel now very good with the (almost) final result. The original idea was to built up a Eighties aerodynamic craze bike (a good example is here) with "aero dynamic brakes", slim seat post, shifters on top of the down tube, internal cable routing, Recessed spoke holes on the hub and a complete Shimano 600 AX group.

Although I am now the owner of a complete 600 AX group set, I encountered some problems: First, the Olmo frame doesn't provide for shift cable routing on top of the chain stays. This used to be the standard for older frames, but this Olmo frame is just too new.

And second, the Shimano 600 AX crank set with 1'' pedal connectors isn' really a thing of great beauty. I gave up on this idea and as I had already bought Campagnolo Super Record brake levers with Olmo pantographs I thought it would be nice to buy some Campa parts for the drive train as well.

The Olmo is now equipped with a Super Record front derailleur and a Gran Sport rear derailleur as well as a Gran Sport crank set. Gears are shifted by Shimano 600EX Arabesque frame shifters, friction type which I believe are the most beautiful baroque shifters ever made.

One problem I always encounter with friction shifters is, that the threads in the braze-on adaptors are worn out so that the screws to connect the shifters to cannot be tighten hard enough. Friction shifters work with ... friction .... so the tighter they are screwed on, the more friction can be provided. If there isn't enough friction available, they tend to slip and this results in unintended gear shifting. The original M5 screws from Shimano are not long enough so that they interact only with a few convolutions. I bought some cheaper screws which do not look as fancy but do the job. But I wonder if there is any better solution?

There are a few things left to be done: I will give up on the aerodynamic idea in terms of bottle holder and buy a nice, old looking bottle holder for standard bottles. I also need to think about the cable routing for the rear derailleur again. And finally I would like to have rubber hoods for the Super Record brake levers. But as vintage spare parts they sell at 40$ a piece if at all.

The Olmo rides beautiful. It is fast and accelerates well. I had no problems to keep up with modern racing bikes on the Wümme trail. I had to get used to ride on the lower part of the handle bar only. With the track style handle bar it's almost impossible to have the hands on the upper part. It is certainly not possible to brake with the hands on the upper part. At first I had some pain in my back but now I got used to it. It is also new again to get used to clip pedals but now I can fairly quickly get in and out of the clip pedals. The braking performance isn't good at all but it is enough for standard situations.

This is a nice bike to ride distances of 50 - 100 km. More than that will be painful. I can also use It for commuting to work.

Having spend all this words of praise or my new white Olmo I need to add that I am currently working on two new bikes:

This is the basis for the first Fixie bicycle I am going to built:

And a good friend from Japan-days asked my to built up an old Cinelli bike for him. This will keep me busy during the long winter months in Bremen.

The Blue Olmo

Some photos of the new blue Olmo which will replace the blue Gazelle as my new commuting bike. Come summer, come winter.

In honor of David Litts epic Paris-Brest-Paris adventure that just ended unfortunately, it will get a small sticker reading "Frenay-Sur-Sarthe - 1.039km" on the toptube, overlapping the "San Remo" mark.

This was a tricky built-up. Uwe from Studio Brisant did some repair of the paint work and I had to ask for assistance with Velosport for the headset and the bottom bracket. I am still not happy with the pedals.

The origin of most of the parts is the Peugeot Galibier that I built-up in winter this year. Most of the parts are Shimano Golden Arrow (105 level of the Eighties) but I decided to exchange the brake calipers with Shimano 600 6200type which are much, much better in terms of brake performance. The Peugeot frame is now sold and I know it in good hands.

This bike has a lot of stuff attache to it, like speed meter, bottle cage, saddle bag, pump and some is going to be added additionally: lights and mud guards. This may not be looking good on a classic bike, however this is a commuting bike and I will be in need of all this stuff.

If anyone is interested to buy the Gazelle "en bloc", please let me know.

Pescarolo sold

Yesterday I sold the Pescarolo bike. No, not to the guy on the photo. This was the first sale of a bike I built up new completely as opposed to single frames and components I have sold before. The Pescarolo isn't a top of the line bike, neither does it fit my size (55 cm), but still I was a little bit sad. This could become a repeated process in the months to come. I am currently building up a blue Olmo bike that will become the replacement for the blue Gazelle I bought last year. And then we will see.

New Wheels

It such a nice past time to come home after work and built-up a wheel. In the office one has worked with paper on abstract processes but here the end result can be touched and looked at.


For the past three months I have worked on the built of a new wheel set for the Olmo frame. It took a while to acquire the right components and as usual I made some mistakes. During the last week I started to built the wheels after work. It is nice to sit in the evening on the balcony outside the kitchen with a glass of red wine and work patiently on the truing. It very much helps me to relax and after a wheel or so I am much nicer to my family. One glass of red wine although is enough.


Both wheels (the second set I did on my own) are now completed and I took some photos in front of the "Ajisai" in our garden. In Japan "Ajisai" are blooming during the rainy season., however in Bremen they tend to bloom between April and October what is equivalent to the rainy season here.

The hubs are Shimano 600 AX from the mid-Eighties, the time of the first aerodynamic cycling craze. In the next photo you can see that the flange of the hub is not flat but has little cut-outs to accommodate the spoke heads. 

This has been designed to prevent the spokeheads from protruding from the flange, thus making the whole component more aerodynamic. It also defines which spokes run on the inside, and which on the outside of the flange.


The spokes are standard off the shelve Swiss revolution 2.0 mm spokes, with 1.5mm main section.


The rims are from new Rigida, type DP18 in silver with braking surface. Today the variety of new rims offered in the market is surprisingly low. There are a bunch of Mavic types, notably Open Pro, Open Sport, CPX22 and CPX33, some DT Swiss, some Rose and some Rigida but not much more. The same is true for spokes. Apart from DT Swiss and Sapim there isn't much left in the market. Riders and OEM manufacturers today tend to buy System wheels which is a pity.


I included (invisible) standard blue Schwalbe rimtape, my favourite one due to the color, thickness and flexibility and Continental race tubes. Tires are again from Schwalbe, type Durano which is available in many colors and not that expensive. The valve caps are eloxy type which brings luck - my personal "o-mamori".


The total cost for this is about 180 Euro, including the tires. This isn't exactly cheap, one can easily get a Shimano system wheel set for the same amount of money. But the pride and the opportunity to fully customize the set makes it worthwhile.

Here we see the 5-speed Uniglide cassette from Shimano. This used to be the predecessor of today's Hyperglide system which is now widely adapted. The Uniglide was only popular for a short period when makers shifted from screwed cassettes to freewheel bodies.

Next week the Olmo frames will arrive at my house and I will work on the new bikes with the new wheelset. I hope they will be ready for riding next weekend.

Pescarolo: A former 問題児 fixed again

Another bike project ready to be ridden: The Pescarolo. I bought this one by mistake last winter and parked it at my parents house for occasional rides. Finally I had the time to fix it.


Henri Pescarolo is the name of a French racer.You never heard of him? Well, that is because he used to be a car racer - attending 24 hours of LeMans a record 33 times - and not a bicycle racer. For some reason a bike in the early nineties was named after him. And for some other reasons I thought that this would be a fabulous Italian steel bike. 


Well after having now some experience with bikes I have to confess that this isn't a very good bike. Well it is size 54 cm which doesn't fit me at all. The frame is made out of Vitus 999 tubing, quality wise two notches up the standard of water pipes (say: Reynolds 501 or Columbus Aelle). Non butted, plain gauge. So the bike is pretty heavy with 11.1 kg.  The components are mostly Shimano Exage 300; this is the Nineties equivalent to Sora and Tiagra. From the stamping one can see that the bike was built in 1991. But I like the Biopace chain rings, as I had them on my first Panasonic racing bike and also the old, shining Alesa 913 rims are good looking things. The handle bar is from a now defunct German company called Friko. 


I completely de-assembled the bike with the exception of the headset and the bottom bracket as they were still in good shape, in order to clean the frame. That was one messy and filthy piece of heavy steel and it took me quite some time and massive amounts of brake cleaner to get the job done. The amount of brake cleaner used today has destroyed more of the ozone layers I would guess, that one can ever use this bike to make up for automotive traffic. Never mind. However, below all the filth was rust and it wasn't possible to get rid of that, neither to repaint the frame, so I left it as it was. Now I think that it has some nice patina which resembles the general state of affairs in the city of Bremen.

I then started working on a new handle bar tape (I ran out of orange bar tapes), new brake and shift wires (Jagwire) and replaced the aging brake pads with good Shimano new ones. 
I worked on the drive system and spend another spray can trying to clean the chain but it was impossible. In the end I threw it away and bought a new one. Then I worked on the drive system.

After cleaning the rims and greasing the bearings and trueing, I assembled everything without tires and started to adjust brakes and derailleurs. To give the bike some nice and individual touch, I added red end caps to all wires and one red chain ring screw. 

I had to make some additional purchases at Stadler bike shop in Bremen so I drove there and discovered some cheap tires and a cheap chain or replacement. I also found some nice toe clip straps, originally I had planned to use simple and plain platform pedals, but the original Shimano 600 pedals were still in good shape and with new white straps they look well.

After more cleaning and adjustments the bike was ready at 6 PM today and after making a short test ride, I invited my son to ride around the block.

Both of us are very pleased with the result. Henri however prefers his Giant bike with rapid fire shifters, mainly because he isn't used to use downtube shifters. I told him how to shift but he cannot remove his right hand from the handle bar for fear of falling, so he tried to shift the rear derailleur by using his left hand - which looked incredibly dangerous.

Today I had thousand more important things to do than to fix this bike. I also spend about 90 Euro on the original bike purchase plus another 90 Euro on components plus about 8 hours of time and it is rather unlikely that somebody will buy the bike for more than a 100 Euro in Bremen. But I immensely enjoyed the day, concentrating only on one task, working with my hands and my brain and having a perfect result of a day's work ready in the evening. Within half a year Iearned all this bike mechanic stuff and that is much more than I expected.

If you want to buy it: 200 Euro may be much but you will get a very solid bike with all consumables newly installed. There are also fixation points at the rear and in the front for mudguards, so the bike will bring you through bad weather as well.


It's now a nice bike. But with two Olmos coming back from the paintshop soon, I need some space in the garage to built up the next projects.

Mob's big box of small wonders

I have started to buy, repair, restore and sell old bicycles just a few month ago, mainly as a hobby to spend the long cold winter days in Bremen doing something meaningful. But even in a few months quite an assortment of interesting bike parts has gathered.

Shimano's Golden Arrow series, the predecessor from the Eighties of today's 105 series is one of my favourites. So is the Shimano 600 Arabesque series, which is slightly older and influenced by arabic design elements, something not that much in vogue today. Generally I prefer Shimano over Camapgnolo: Less model changes, cheaper and easier to get and better functionality. "Cheap" is important, as I repair the components and assemble them on my frames, making a lot of mistakes. So if something goes wrong, I don't loose a lot of money on the spot. Today, for example, I learned that a 1'' cone for a headset that is mounted directly on the fork can be different depending on the type of fork. There goes another headset.

I bought also some components from lesser know brands. My Lyotard pedals are a good example, my Maillard and Normandy high flange hubs, a Modolo Stem (with the Mosburger Logo) and a very nice ITM stem.

Before I repair, adjust and clean all of this stuff, I keep it in a box which is the big box of small wonders.

Now one of my recent purchases has been a complete set of Shimano 600 AX components.
Shimano launched the 600AX group in 1981 in response to the aerodynamic craze in cycling. In many respects I feel it is the equivalent to the Japanese bubble economy era: Bold, gaudy, baroque in design, expensive looking and not really useful. Take a look at the bottle cage for example: This one is designed for a special aerodynamic bottle that is much higher than wide (not a circular section) so that it offers less wind resistance.

(By the way, if you own such a bottle, please let me know).

Nice. But basically useless. And of course Shimano wasn't able to set a new standard. The same is true for the crank set. Shimano tried to set a new standard for a new, bigger pedal thread. They failed to convince the world. Today it is extremely difficult to find matching pedals.

In theory this would allow me to completely retrofit a frame with Shimano 600 AX with the exception of head set, bottom bracket and chain, as there were no 600AX parts developed in their cases. Theoretically, as some of the components are in bad shape (rubber hoods of the shifters for example) or not that practical. Take for example the brakes. These are probably one of the most beautiful bicycle brakes ever designed. Some people say this about the Campagnolo Delta brakes but I would disagree, they look comparatively bulky.

Both, Shimano AX and Campa Delta brakes have two things in common: They are incredibly difficult to mount and to adjust and, even worse, they tend not to brake too much.

Here are some more nice components. Some of them I will use to built up two Olmo frames I have purchased recently. These are replacements for the Moser Leader AX evolution frame I wanted to work on some month ago but that turned out to be too small for me. Yes, Olmo is the brand of choice for the time being.

But today the weather is beautiful an daylight until 9 PM allows me to go riding after work and early dinner.

The love for new things old and old things new

During the dark and cold winter months in Bremen I developed a love for old bicycle parts. The magic letters are N.O.S.  the abbreviation for "New, old stock". 


It seems that people or history tends to forget small things.. And that suddenly, these small and insignificant things from the past turn up in the present and now they have become significant for some of us. Well, perhaps not to the same scale as we would welcome the return of the original amber room from the palace in Petersburg that went missing in 1944 or 1945. And our previous girlfriends (3 or 4 in my case) will not return in their original shape and age. Luckily. 
However, there are batches of batches of old cycling parts somewhere out there  and it is rather tempting to buy them like pieces from an old puzzle and hunt for the remaining puzzle pieces. And finally one will be able to see the complete picture.


Here are some examples from recent purchases.

Lyotard pedales. Not sure which type or year.

Lyotard was one of these French companies. They invented a special pedal (Marcel Berthier) in the twenties and basically continued to produce the same designs well into the eighties until they went belly up. This will be a nice addition to any of my old steel frame commuting bikes.

An older Olmo stem from 3ttt with the Italian flag engraved in the upper side. Italian brands are my favourite. Not Pinarello or Colnago, but smaller steel frame builders such as Botecchia, Chesini, Ciocc, Somec and many others. I still have an old Moser frame in area 51 and wonder what I should do with it. The handle bar clap on this stem can be completely opened, so one doesn't need to fiddle the bare handlebar through the hole. This allows also for different handles with premounted brake levers to be assembled on the same bike. I love this piece so much that I am going to assemble a bike around this stem. 

A Shimano 600 AX series front wheel hub. This is a piece from the first aerodynamic craze in the Eighties. It is set that the arrangement of spokeholes which determinates which spoke has to be on the inside and which on the outside is made in such way with the wave shaped rim, to allow for minimum air resistance. What nonsenses, but it surely looks good.
In addition to the hub which I am thinking to use to built up some extreme aero wheels, I have purchased a complete Shimano 600AX group set last week.

And last but not least one of my favourite, a clamp type shifter from the Shimano Golden Arrow groupset the predecessor of the 10-5 series.