So Tired

On Saturday, Jerome and I rode a Shizuoka 300 km Brevet.

We saw lots and lots of neat rows of tea bushes, a Shizuoka specialty.

There is a restaurant on the 7th Floor of the Shin Marunouchi Building (where I work) called 'So Tired'.  I prefer the food at three or four other restaurants on the 7th Floor (Sawamura, Rigoletto, Jiyu ga Oka Grill, and Kihachi (soba)) as well as the food others on the 5th and 6th Floor, and so I rarely eat at 'So Tired'.  But the name also has steered me away. Why would anyone want to eat at a restaurant that reminds them of their fatigue?  Don't we go to restaurants to escape from such thoughts?

The view up the Abe River, as we head toward the turn around point in the headwaters, at Umegasaki Onsen.  Another rider ... must have been from the earlier, 6AM start group ... heads back down river, an hour or two ahead of us.  We traveled several other attractive valleys that looked pretty much the same, with broad/flat river beds, plum and cherry trees just starting to blossom.

Jerome, on top of today's longest climb,
Fujimi Toge (not to be confused with other
passes bearing similar names).

But today, I am so tired.  So tired I could ... lie in bed and sleep all afternoon, get up for a quick dinner with the family at our local wine bar (including much of a nice bottle of red wine), then sleep all evening as well (now up for a quick blog entry, then back to bed).  It is the best kind of tired I know -- my body completely relaxed, my mind clear and alert, and with the slight buzz of satisfaction from having completed a goal -- very  different than the kind of tired one gets from working too hard  (at a desk job) and sleeping too little.  And this time the sense of satisfaction is all the greater given the protracted lead-up to this event.  So tired indeed.

1200 meters, but a gradual
climb, for Japan

Anyway, when Jerome had inquired last week about weekend cycling plans, I told him I could not join him since I had a Brevet ... but he was welcome to show up at my house at 2:45AM Saturday for the ride to Shizuoka and a 6:00AM or 6:30AM start.  Not a very attractive offer, I thought, but he called me Friday evening from work and told me he might show ... Another call ten minutes before my planned departure told me he was leaving his home.

After a two and a half hour drive, we got to Fukuroi City, grabbed breakfast from a convenience store, and were at the start on time for the 6AM "briefing" -- it was the same start area as for the January 9 Brevet I had joined.

The course this time was a bigger loop that extended much further into the mountains.  All-in-all it was a very nice course, quickly entering the hills and only re-emerging into the more crowded cities again after 200 km, at dusk.  As with the January route, there was a return leg along the sea into a headwind, but this time we headed all the way South to Omaegasaki, and only about 30 km was ridden facing directly into a stiff wind (and at that point Jerome was pulling me).

At the turn-around point, Umegasaki, 170 kms into the ride (176 km for us)

Looking North at the turn around point -- not much here, but at least we could look forward to a very fast 20 km, heading downhill, downriver and downwind as we retraced our steps.

Only 130 km (for us 135 km) left to go.  A short rest, then I'll need to put the shoes on and get back in the saddle.

We did not push the pace, and ended up finishing about an hour slower than the 300 km Brevets I did last March and April.  Then again, we did have plenty of excuses.  We did ride an extra 10 km (5 km and 2X over a little hill on an early detour caused by a combination of poor signage and my overconfidence), and we did pull off for a sit-down dinner in a tiny Izakaya in an older lady's home on the shoreline of Shizuoka City, a few hundred meters from the sea wall where I rested in January.  And I did leave in the car the bananas I had brought for early-ride fuel.  And we did start the ride without nearly enough sleep.  And the front fork/headset on Jerome's trusty but old Peugeot did start to wobble noticeably on the first leg, until I figured out how to tighten it by hand at the first checkpoint.  And I did suffer two flat tubes, each of which took longer than usual to fix -- the first due to an incompatibility between my valve extenders and one of the replacement tubes I was carrying (Vittoria), and the second due to darkness and fatigue.  Next time (April 23 -- 400 km) we will do better and try to complete a bit faster.

Good night.

Powered by Mosburger

I took Friday off to clean my bikes and bring law and order to my garage


It has been a long winter and still during the night temperatures are dropping below freezing point. But the weekend surprised with some sunny days. I started to clean all my bikes and remove the true winter grit. Bad Boy and Gazelle are looking better now and with some oil, grease, new brake pads and adjustment of the rear derailleurs they are running fine again.


Finally I had all parts together to re-fit the Peugeot Galibier. As the Galibier will never become a fast bike, I bought a new stem, handle bar, grips and the most beautiful brake levers and assembled the whole thing on the bike on Saturday.

I am not sure why, but every time, I look at the front of the Galibier I think about Teriyaki burger. How I miss that stuff!


I bought also a nice "Bremen type" vintage Dura Ace cassette for the Galibier. Instead of the almost "compact-like" 12 - 19 5 speed cassette< I mounted a 11 - 15 one which combined with the 53/39 front crank provides optimal choice for Bremen and surroundings.

Looking at the Peugeot I realized today, that I learned a lot about cycling parts in the last weeks and that I am able to do many things on my own with the help of a rather extensive collection of tools. Nevertheless, there are still many things that drive my crazy: The handle can still be turned in the grip of the stem, despite the fact that it is tighten to the maximum. No idea why this is so, I can only assume that the diameter of the handle bar is too small. I can also not install bar ends, which would support the conclusion in the last sentence. And after exchanging all brake wiring (I left the old handle assembly with stems and wires as it is, so it can be mounted easily on another bike) I cannot properly adjust the rear brake. The only way to tackle all this problems is to sleep one night over it and do it again some other day. In the worse case I have to ask for help at the LBS.


The biggest problem with the Peugeot is, that it is too small. One day when I have found the perfect 58 to 60 cm frame, I will remove all parts and reassemble them on the new frame. Of course this will not work out, as the new frame will have Italian thread bottom brackets and other useless features. So I have to spend heaps of money again


I sold my trusted Zonda wheels which I have used on the Cervelo bike for three years and perhaps 25.000 km. The alu rims would probably have not survived the ups and downs of the Transalp. And now, living n Europe, I thought that some European flair would be nice. So I bought a pair of conventional DT Swiss wheels in white. Of all colors. Standard rims R1.1 and standard DT swiss spokes: 32 in the back and 28 in the front. That should be bullet proof for a rider like me. Replacement spokes are cheap and one can true the wheel on a ride in case one spoke breaks. A safe option.

Ultremo Z1 tyres, in case you wanted to ask. As this would most likely be my setup for the Transalp, I mounted the Ultegra 12-28 cassette from the Zonda wheels. Another surprise was waiting for me: The Campagnolo lock ring doesn't fit on the standard Shinao rotors. I used one from my Bad boy wheels for the time being.

Please note the orange valve caps.
As Sunday was a really beautiful day, I took her out for ride at noon. But this is another story that will be written tomorrow.

I used the remaining time on Sunday morning to work on Project X. This will be my secret weapon for all kind of ambushes and I am sure it will become as famous as the King Tiger, the F104 Starfighter and the Porsche 911 Carrera. By punishment of exile and death it is not allowed to make photos of Project X, but from time to time some daredevil nevertheless manage to take some blurred shots.

First Ride Galibier

Finally I could pick up the Peugeot Galibier from the LBS. I must say they did a very good job AND left my bike out on the yard in the rain.

The nice white handlebar, so Euro stylish, is gone as the the brakes needed to be rewired and I had only an orange spare left.  Already in the shop I noticed that the shifting was very smooth when I tried it. The guys gave me some warning, as the rear cogs were already pretty much used and that might result in some problems. And they said nasty things about the brakes, being so much inferior compared to the brakes of today. So I was warned.

After lunch break I dressed up in full cycling gear and took her out for the first longer spin - but still only 30 km. The first things that I noticed was, that the bike is very comfortable, much more so than the unforgiving Cervelo or even the Gazelle. I am not sure why, but I guess it is because of the wheels with 36 spokes that absorb much more vibrations. I built them up myself, and asked the bike shop to check them. Them said I did basically a good job in truing and dishing the wheels but the applied tension was way too low. They told me that they gave every spoke another two turns until the wheels were ready to be ridden.

The whole bike feels very comfortable, also thanks to the wonderful Charge Spoon saddle which really surprised me. I thought plastic or artificial leather saddles would be out of the question for longer rides, but this one is really comfortable - and priced at only the third of the cost of a Arione or Gel Flite saddle.

The disadvantage about a bike being comfortable and "soft" is, that it is harder to accelerate as some of the power goes into the frame  and spokes and not into driving the bike forward. Compared to the Gazelle and Cervelo the Peugeot is a slower bike. It is still fast enough though to be raced in the flats in the 30 - 33 km/hr bracket which I find most comfortable over long distances (not that I could maintain that range for long time anyway).

I was a little bit scared of braking after what the guys in the shop said so, but no, the brakes are doing well. Sure they don't have the power of today's Ultegra brakes and they behave completely differently, but once one is used to them they are doing fine.

Also the drive train behaved nicely. Shifting is so smooth (and silky). Yes, in the world of bicycle riding the words "and silky" must be added to the word "smooth" if the topic is shifting. Like nook and cranny: "Books were stuffed into every nook and cranny of his office." Isn't it possible to stuff the bloody books only into the nook?

If only 140 years ago bicycles would have had 44 gears (Campa Super Record with 4 cogs in the front), I am sure the phrase would have made it into le dictionaire des idees recues by Gustave Flaubert.

I continued to ride along the river Wümme while the sun started to set early. The only somewhat negative surprise that I had was, that the bullhorn bar isn't as comfortable as I thought it would be. Steering is somehow strange when the hands are so far in front of the fork axis.

I have ordered another set of cogs so that I can replace the worn one and a new Golden Arrow rear derailleur. Now I have a Shimano Arabesque derailleur fitted and that is just a gross breach of style which cannot be possibly kept undetected by the knowing eye for much more time.

Summary: Very happy, very proud that I was able to realize somuch of my own bike. I like the look and style and it is also a good ride. Due to its softness it is hard to imagine that I will do longer rides on the Galibier, but for a ride up to 50k it is a good alternative. I can also think of further modifications.

Of course, until the Faggin is ready.

Project Galibier - Status Update

Snow, New Year Holiday Season and the family out for figure skating training in Düsseldorf. The perfect time to work on Project Galibier.

In the meantime some more parts have arrived. To built-up an old bike is a tricky thing and I paid the price. Some of the parts I have ordered will not fit on the frame, others fit but don't work properly. Sometimes I am a loss what to do, but doing a lot research on the web, asking friends for opinion and sleeping it over helps a lot. One needs a lot of patience.

The upper part is my tribute to Euro-cyclism: New,old stock Shimano AX brake levers with white gums and white handle bar tape. I shall never touch this bike without gloves or dirty hands.

To adjust the brakes is a real nightmare and it brings me back to the time, 35 year ago, when I tried that with my first bike. Technology has come a long way and today it is so easy o adjust, say, a pair of Shimano Ultegra 6700 brakes. But Golden Arrow? One hand hold the calipers in place, another one pulls the wire and the third hand tightens the bolt. The third hand? Yes, that's the problem.

But the result so far looks good. I don't know why, but I always wanted to own a bike with a bullhorn handlebar. It seems so logical for my style of riding. I almost never use the lower part of a drop handle, all the weight, so needlessly attached. And of course, I like the design, it looks so much more sportif. Vintage fans will kill me most likely for that, but never mind.

Here we can see thee historically correct setup (except for the wheels). Shimano Golden Arrow front derailleur paired with a Golden Arrow crank set and chain rings. Beautiful - also with the label "12 vitesse". The bottom bracket which you cannot see is from Shimano as well, but brand new. After I assembled everything I found out that the chainline is not correct. The smaller chain ring is too much on the inside so that the front derailleur position does not match. I will need to de-assemble everything again and buy a new bottom bracket with a longer axle. Paid.

Again beautiful and historically correct. Golden Arrows shifters (although on later Shimano 600 sockets) and Golden Arrow front brake. A nightmare to adjust. Brakes poorly, compared to today's standards. Still not sure about the correct wire routing. But it looks perfect and nice with the chrome fork and the Peugeot pantograph on the crown.

The Gravity Zero wheels look nice but I am still working on the pair of Maillard 700 hubs. I gave up to remove the cassette and asked the bike shop to do that for me. Then I will order spokes and new rims for clincher tires. Old tubular tires are just to messy.

I couldn't resist to buy this brand new Charge Spoon saddle. Design-wise it fits perfect and apart from the chain, tires, the spokes and the rims it will be the only new part on the bike. It is also cheap but then it is only artificial leather. Please also note how the seat stem is fixed in the frame: This is a quilted stem and the nut for adjustment is located just below the saddle.

All of this takes a lot of time. I was working in the garage yesterday night and when I looked at the watch it was already past midnight. But it's fun and I hope that spring arrives soon and the bike will be ready.

Minus Fourteen

That was the temperature in Bremen when I checked the weather forecast before I left for work. 


Nevertheless I opted for Bad Boy to take me to the university where I arrived much later than usual because I had to ride slow and carefully over large patches of exposed ice on the road. That is still much better than being left stranded at Frankfurt or Heathrow airport. Winter salt is now much in demand but also useless at this temperatures to unfreeze the ice.


My Assos early winter gloves are also now useless: Being designed for down to six degrees plus, their protective value doesn't last for the 15 minutes ride to work.


Surprisingly enough the German postal system is still working and another batches of parts for the Galibier project arrived on Sunday and today.


I cheaply bought a set of wheels, consisting of Maillard 700 high flange hubs and Mavic rims with glued-on old tubeless tires. I am not a big fan of tubeless tires, to cumbersome in event of a puncture on the road, so I completely de-assembled the front and rear wheel. Then I de-assembled the front wheel bearings. There were only eight balls instead of nine on one side of the bearing so I will need to look for an replacement. Nevertheless I greased the bearing and started to polish the chrome of the which now looks pretty good. Supported by a red rubber bear.

I will buy some spokes and a new rim and try to built my first wheel. Well at least I will give it a try and complete it as far as I can but most likely the truing needs  to be done by a pro from a bike shop.


The same for the rear hub. The spokes on the side of the cogs couldn't be removed so I cut them with a cable cutter. Then I went to the local bike shop and asked them to remove the cassette, which is old-style, screwed on cassette with integrated freewheel. They gave me a big laugh and told me that it is impossible to remove the cassette without the complete wheel: Opposed to modern cassettes, where only the last and smallest cog is screwed on to hold all other cogs in place and where you need to counter the against the stripping tool with a chain whip on any other cog, here need to unscrew the complete cassette with the freewheel that is screwed as one piece on the hub. So you need to counter with the lever of the rims. So it could very well be that this hub will never be usable any more at is neither possible to put new spokes in nor to remove the cassette. I should have read the Sheldon Brown advise before starting where all of this is described in detail. So let's see if I perhaps cannot find another way.

By the way, this thing is pretty heavy, perhaps more than a set of lightweight wheels.


I also have now a almost new Shimano 600 Arabesque front derailleur. Design-wise that was my first choice for the Galibier and I am happy that I could buy one rather cheaply. I still need to de-assemble, grease and polish this baby. These derailleurs are still working friction-based and not indexed so it depends on the rider to adjust it properly while riding. It can be used with index shifters nevertheless, so I will have a wide range of options. I will probably end-up with a strange mix of components, so the re-sale value of the bike will be rather low as real connoisseurs will not be interested. But I would like to use the components I think will look best, regardless of epoch-correct assembly.

During assembly I found out that I am really a poor mechanic. For me, perhaps because of my academic-theoretical background, if a problem is intellectually solved, I am not much interested in the implementation. I guess my marriage may serve as a prime example. I am getting really impatient when the bloody handle bar can be fiddled around the bloody handle. Or the rust cannot be polished away on the hub. So perhaps by doing this kind of mechanical work I can learn to become slightly more modest, patient and thereby by also nicer to my wife.

The question is, will she be nice to me, when in due time even more nice bike that bought will arrive on our door steps. Ah, the temptations are so big in Germany and the winter is so long. So I better start working patiently on this beautiful piece of Shimano 600EX Arabesque rear derailleur. Again, this one was produced between 1978 and 1984, as the FD. The cage is open, so it is possible to remove the chain from the derailleur without opening the chain. I am not sure what this is good for, but I like this small, useless engineering details.


The Galibier, however will need some more time. I will keep posting pictures 
of it's progress.

Winter Goals

The morning after another day with heavy snowfall in the Bremen flatlands.

On Monday the sky was blue and the roads were dry so I took my Cervelo out of the garage for a 80 km standard spin. I made it just up to Worpswede, about one hour, when it started to snow again. There must have been some very well blue-camouflaged snow clouds somewhere up there. I had to ride about 25 km back to Bremen against the snow and the roads were slowly becoming white. The snow was rather dry and while there wasn't sufficient quantity accumulated on the surface, it formed in small hurricane patterns. When I came home it was snowing heavily and when I left for work an hour later on the Gazelle, I was hardly able to steer through the snow.

I rode to work early in the morning the next day on the Gazelle through the snow. It is a little bit tricky to ride on a racing bike with 700 x 23C tires as every little bump below the snow forces a sudden and unexpected change of direction. I thought it as a good exercise to learn how to control a slippery bike. I was probably just thinking that and how great I was handling the steering already and how fast I could go, when I came to a crossing where I had to brake a little bit harder. I did it too hard, so that the rear wheel went to the right and me down hard on the road.

After that I thought what a bloody stupid prick I am. I am not 26 any more when I rode home in the rain on my Motebecane on a bicycle lane than was separated from the pedestrian walk by a line of randomly spaced bollards and I crashed directly with my right knee into one without seeing it. That hurted very much but I survived, nothing was broken and there were no consequences at all. Now I am 48 and every time I fall it takes weeks until all of the pain is gone and I really should consider this when making cycling decisions.

So after spending a day in the office, trying not to move at all and after another night at home, trying not to move as well, I went into the garage and refitted the Bad Boy with the winter Schwalbe tires (700 x 30C). I was reluctant to use Bad Boy in the winter, first it is very messy to clean the bike, second the paint is very sensible to scratches (strange spec for a MTB or urban hybrid) and third it has no mud guards. And forth, the last time I crashed really hard was riding down from Yabistu Toge to Hadano on Bad Boy with winter tires.

But winter in Bremen leaves me no other choices than to ride on fat tires:  The Bad Boy was placed just behind the Cervelo and the Gazelle and the electric shopping bike of my wife and the new green Giant of my son and the Peugeot Galibier frame I am working on. Which stands in front of the old Pinarello frame which I am polishing and the beautiful Peugeot I have bought recently for fun and just leaves enough space for this super cheap Pesacarola racing bike I incidentally bought and the beautiful Gianni Motta I could not resist to buy. If performance really depends on the number of newly acquired bikes, I should be ready for Paris - Roubaix.

In other words, I took me some time to get the bike out, mount a saddle, pedals, tires, saddle bag, speedmeterand lights, which took another half an hour. All of this for 15 minutes of riding to work.

After having done the commute now three times I have to say that it is actually much more fun than on a racing bike. It is also stimulating not to been overtaken by grandmothers on their sturdy Holland-bikes while trying to stay upright on the Gazelle.

On the weekend I will utilize my newly rediscovered cycling courage to ride through the white planes on the Bad Boy.

And after coming home an having enjoyed a cup of hot instant coffee, I will go to work on the Peugeot Galibier frame. I am still waiting for parts to arrive at my home and I am excited how some of the purchases, like the charge saddle, the Maillard 700 high flange hubs will look like. Although I have to admit that assembly of a bike is a tricky business, even if one has most of the tools. I wasn't able to remove the crankset covers from the Pinarello frame and had to ask for assistance at a bike shop. I am also not able to mount the Shimano 600 rear tube shifters properly. And it was an absolute nightmare to fiddle white handle bar tape around a bullhorn handle bar. Well, this must be the fate of the Euro-cyclist, I guess.

I will post some pictures once the wheels have been mounted.
Meanwhile have fun in the snow, if you have snow.

Shimano Golden Arrow

There was a time not so long ago, when the rank order was not Dura Ace, Ultegra and 105, followed by names serious cyclists spell with the same intonation as "leg cramps" or "Daily Yamazaki". Yes, that was the time of Dura Ace, 600 and Golden Arrow. Golden Arrow was the lowest (serious) road racing group set produced by Shimano between 1983 and 1986. 


Still I believe it is one of the most beautiful designs done by Shimano ever. An arty touch, but not too much, so much nicer than the apparently pure functional parts of today. Although, while writing this I think of these ugly Hollowtec crank sets of Shimano from today.


Of course, if you really love to have pieces of art on your bike, the Shimano Arabesque series is even better. Unfortunately it is politically incorrect to use them these days. If you are more interested in such details, there is no better place to look than Velo Base , but be careful, if you like that stuff the site is highly addictive.


I was looking for some old parts to built up the Peugeot bike under the working title "The Galibier Project". I have spend thousands of Yen for bike mechanical services, mainly with Nagai-San from Positivo and given the long winters in Bremen I thought I could learn to do this as well. I think this is a habit of people lively in harsh environments and  I am just happy that I don't have to polish and paint wooden nutcrackers.


For very little money (less than 700 Yen, to be precise) I bought a pair of shifters, a front derailleur and a rear derailleur for the Galibier. The parts were anyway in good shape, but nevertheless I spend some time to de-assemble them, clean each of them thoroughly, greased and oiled them and assembled them back into shape. They still looked used, but for me they are fine enough.


The wonder word in vintage cycling is: "N.O.S", meaning New, old stock: spare parts that were never used before but produced in the seventies or eighties and kept in stock somewhere when inventory level was not equal cash flow equal financial performanace equal quarterly report for the share holders. I just bought another set of Shimano 600 AX shifters in NOS conditions. Not sure what I will do with them but they were too cheap (550 Yen) and too beautiful to be ignored.


These are racing components from the first aerodynamic-crazed wave, long before Cervelo jumped on the train and compared aerodynamic adavantages against weight advantages. 35 seconds overall on one of the hardest stages of the Tour de France for an average rider. Thank you very, convincing. Already in the eighties components were constructed in such way as to produce minimum drag. My Golden Arrow shifters, for example are located on a clamp above the lower tube instead of left and right on the lover tube for precisely that reason. 

An even better example to eighties aerodynamic design are the Dura Ace AX brake calipers which sell today in the range of 20.000 to 60.000 Yen a pair.


So I will continue for a while to buy stuff here and there and hope that I will be able to learn to fit all pieces of the puzzle together in the garage later.

I also bought a nice piece of tableware from the Edo-period while visiting the Maeda mansion in Komabatodaimae with Juliane some time ago. On the left we see a cyclist engaged in stretching exercises for the forthcoming stage of the Transalp, while his wife to the right is urging him to stay home and play with the kids. Heartwarming. 

Peugeot Galibier

Steelframe, Reynolds 501 tubing. About 20 years old but still in mint conditions. This will be my winter project and I will try to built up a complete bike with used parts. As temperatures are down to minus nine today that sounds like more fun than riding. And perhaps a more meaningful activity than traveling to London to see Peter Pan.

Proven ways to improve performance levels

Lately, mainly because I am focused now on academic achievements rather than physical ones and perhaps because it isn't much much to ride a bike on wet roads, under grey clouds, threatening to pound merciless tons of icy water on barely prepared riders in minus temperature. And all of this in the flat lands of Bremen and its surrounding. I had to think of ways how to get back into better shape and survive the winter season.


Veteran riders know that there is one method commonly applied when performance levels are following the function curves of y (level) = 1/x(time). The nice thing about this method is, that you don't need to overdo yourself on the bike, something that is rather unpleasant as described above. It is very simple: Buy a new bike. And what can be more pleasant to buy a new bike in the country of Germany where it seems that every cellar and every attic is filled to the very top with vintage frames from Italy, France and England. I am not a big fan of petroleum-based frames, even my dear aluminium Cervelo is out of favor in the harsh environment of North Germany. However the Reynolds 531 tubing of my Gazelle is performing well. So I thought that I need something similar. Now here it is:

First ride, properly dressed up in Japanese construction worker pants.

A beautiful Peugeot racing bike from the seventies in grey, pimped up with some orange accents in the form of Schwalbe Ultremo tyres and new orange handle bar tape. Everything else is right from the original bike: Mafac brake levers, Huret derailleur, Suntour shifters, Maillard high flanged hubs ...... 

This is just perfect to cruise around in the old streets of Bremen, parking in front of the city hall dating back to the 16th century or paying a visit to a friend living in an rundown art deco villa from the early 20th century.

And it is also perfect for the challenges that area awaiting me in 2011, in particular for the Transalp. David and me are pretty much ready and excited to sign up in December 1st for the event. I need a good bike to bring me over the alps and I thought a triple crank set would just be what I need to speed up the 20% slopes in Austria and Italy.


Of course this bike is much to beautiful to be ridden. It will be stored in our garage under a black tarpaulin and I will dare to take a look from time to time. In the meantime the Gazelle has to bear the brunt of snow, ice and rain in Bremen.


Some more bike porn pictures from the seller, a vintage pro shop in Muenster. I exchanged the tires and the replaced flat bar with the original drop handle.