Finally, a mini-pump that actually works.

Bicycle tires, especially clincher tires, have greatly improved in the last twenty years or so. Back in the 1980s if you wanted a high performance tire for your high performance bike, you had to go with tubular tires, or sew-ups as they are called in the US. For the non-racing leisure rider this was a huge hassle and expense.

Today there is a wide range of performance clinchers to choose from, but a simple portable air pump to carry on the road, along with a spare inner tube and/or a patch kit. One that will put enough air in the tire to get you home in an emergency. Not so easy to find.

Most real bike enthusiasts have a floor pump (Track Pump.) to air up their tires at home.

But the full length frame fit pump, the kind one could use to beat off an attacking dog, disappeared when lugged steel frames disappeared.

Such a pump would pump up your tires, in fact in the old days it was all we had, and our pressure gauge was our thumb and forefinger.

The mini-pump has taken over from the full length pump, but if it won’t pump your tires up when needed, what use is it?

I have been struggling with such a mini-pump for at least two or three years. Like most of its kind it has a push-on air chuck that can be adapted (By reversing a rubber washer.) to fit either a Schrader or the smaller Presta road tire valve.

My first emergency road side flat, the pump was letting air out of the tire as fast as I was pumping it up.

Then I found I had bent the valve pin in the Presta valve. In trying to straighten it, it broke off and I had to start over with a second spare inner tube.

I then bent the second valve pin, but did not attempt to straighten it and got enough air in the tire to get me home.

After that I realized this pump was only good for putting a little air in the tube so it didn’t get pinched when fitting the clincher tire over the rim. I used a CO2 pump to bring the tire up to full pressure.

So when I was recently offered the “Road Air” mini-pump to try out, I was pleased to see it had a simple, ‘old tech’ screw on flexible connector.  The kind of connector pumps had from day one when the pneumatic tire was invented in 1887, and worked fine for the next 100 years. (Picture below.)

The built in push-on connector has been around since at least the 1930s and also worked fine with the full length pump. It was born out of necessity like the quick release hub because of racing. Even the professional riders had to change their own tubular tire, and pump it up, in races like the Tour de France. Picture below, Romain Maes pumping up a tire with a push on air chuck, in the 1936 TDF.

This “Deal with your own punctures,” regulation was still in place in professional racing throughout the 1950s. It was done in the interest of fairness because not all teams had a full support vehicle. In amateur races it went on into the 1980s, in all but the top races.

By the 1980s the Silca, frame fit pump was popular. It came in various lengths so you could buy one to fit your frame. Back in the day I painted many Silca pumps to match the frame. (Below.)

So a pump is no longer needed for racing, and the urgency to get a tire pumped up quickly is not the problem. The issue is, get the tire pumped up and get home. The built in push on air chuck is no longer needed on a mini-pump, and they don’t work anyway.

The reason. With a full length pump, one is pumping with long slower strokes. Because of the leverage it was easy to keep the air chuck firmly on the valve with one hand, while pumping with the other. Because a mini-pump is only 8 or 9 inches long, it is necessary to pump in fast short (Almost frantic.) strokes, and it is almost impossible to hold the air chuck steady, hence my experience with bent valve pins.

The flexible rubber connector on the “Road Air” pump is under a neat little plastic dust cap. Lift the dustcap and the connector unscrews from pump to extend it, but remains attached to the pump. It fits a Schrader type valve, and you have to use the Presta adaptor (Provided.) for a road bike.

(Above.) The handle opens up, and contains a Presta adaptor, a needle connector for blowing up soccer balls, and a plastic nozzle for blowing up anything else that needs air. The compartment in the handle is quite hard to open and my first attempt it came off suddenly and the contents went flying. Had I been at the roadside the Presta adaptor would have been lost in the long grass with all the other parts.

I found it best to lever open the handle with a small pen knife I always carry on my key ring. (Left.)

I always have a spare Presta adaptor in my patch kit anyway, so I’m covered.

I would prefer a Presta valve only version, and I don't need all the other stuff.

The maker would save money on a plain handle instead of one that opens.

There are enough road bike enthusiasts out there, I would expect there to be a good market.

When this little pump arrived, I let all the air out of one of my tires and connected it up.

Two minutes of fast pumping and my thumb and forefinger told me there was enough pressure in the tire to get me home if I was on the road.

The pump comes with a little carrying bracket that fits on a water bottle mount. I prefer to carry it in my pocket.

The two minutes it took me to pump up my tire, was the time it took to sell me on this pump. It pumped my tire up, that’s all I ask. This is a great little pump.

Buy the Road Air Pump here. Reasonably priced at $24.95 and comes with a lifetime guarantee. 

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Padded Under Shorts

Traditionally cycling shorts are worn without underwear. Anyone who knows anything about cycling knows that.

The reason, most garments including underwear have seams where the panels that make up the garment are stitched together.

These seams will rub and chafe the tender underparts and the insides of your thighs, as you sit on a narrow saddle, with your legs pumping up and down as you pedal your bicycle.

I have been involved in cycling and cycle racing since the early 1950s. Long enough to remember wearing woolen jerseys and shorts for racing. Woolen shorts, always black, not only by tradition, but by UCI regulation at one time.

The shorts had a one piece seamless patch on soft chamois leather sewn inside the crotch of the shorts. There was no padding. Both the jerseys and shorts were a lot of work to launder. They had to be hand washed, and left to air dry, or the wool would shrink and become matted and useless in a very short time.

After washing, the chamois leather in the shorts became stiff and hard. It required that you rub the leather between both hands to make it supple again. Then on race day the chamois patch was smeared generously with Vaseline.

With all this special care and expense, we never trained in our racing clothes. There were no cycling specific clothes in the 1950s, unless you could afford something tailor made. Our cycling shorts for training rides in the summer were often an old pair of cut-off trousers.

It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that cycling specific clothing became available for non-racing use. Manmade fibers like Acrylic, often replaced wool, making them easier to launder and care for. For racing too, Acrylic or a Wool/Acrylic mixture, replaced the pure wool shorts and jerseys.

However the chamois leather patch inside the shorts continued into the 1980s. Then as manmade fabrics for cycling clothing took over completely, the chamois seat insert was also replaced with a manmade material. The extra padding inside the shorts is quite a recent addition.

And so the tradition of not wearing underwear under your cycling shorts continues. But what if the underwear has the exact same padded insert that your cycling shorts have?

A company called Gearbest contacted me recently to see if any of the wide range of products they offered would interest me. I noticed some padded cycling specific boxer shorts that I thought might be worth a closer look. They sent me four pairs of these shorts. Two different brands, a L and an XL size of each.

The sizing is a little skimpy, and I found the XL size fitted me best. I do have a little middle age, old age spread. My waist is 37 inch. They do make an XXL size, but if you are really big around, these may not work.

The two brands I tried were Arsuxeo, priced at $9.16, and Kingbike, priced at $9.73. They were both made in a similar black Polyester/Spandex type material, a lot thinner than regular cycling shorts, but this is a good thing because they are considered an under-garment, and any thicker they would retain too much heat.

The Silicone padding was similar to that I am used to seeing in most cycling shorts on the market.

Of the two brands, the Kingbike has a nicer wide elastic waistband. The Arsuxeo had slightly thicker padding.

Wearing these under my regular padded shorts, I was aware of the extra padding, but didn’t find it uncomfortable. In fact as I got into my ride I didn’t even think about it.

Another reason to wear undershorts is modesty. I have mentioned before, that modern cycling shorts, even the expensive ones are often see through when stretched tightly across a well-rounded butt. Just stretch the fabric and hold it up to the light, you might be surprised at how translucent your shorts are, and when riding behind you, we can see your butt crack. The extra thin layer of black material these undershorts offer takes care of this issue.

There are many people who ride a bike for transport, either commuting to work, or out for a social evening. They wear their regular street clothes. Some wear a pair of cycling shorts underneath for comfort. But in summer this can get really hot. These boxer shorts would be a perfect replacement. They have no fly opening, so are considered unisex.

The Arsuxeo Shorts are shown at the top left. The Kingbike Shorts lower right. In both images the shorts are inside out to show the padding. Priced at under $10 a pair one could afford to buy several, ensuring you always have a clean pair in your underwear drawer.  

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The Bicycle: Evolution or Intelligent Design. Part II

This is Part II of a three part series, If you haven’t already read Part I, you can read it here.

Soon after the chain driven bicycle was invented in 1885, a whole bicycle industry sprang up in Britain. Bicycles were mass produced, making them affordable for the working man. For the next 60 years the bicycle became the working man’s form of transport. And bicycle racing the working man’s sport.

Because Britain was the first to industrialize bicycle manufacture, certain standards were set, and the rest of the world followed. The half an inch pitch bicycle chain is a good example, it is still the standard today worldwide, even in countries that have always used the metric system of measurement.

Bicycle frame tubes were a standard 1 1/8 inch seat and down tubes, 1 inch top tube, 1 1/4 inch head tube. With the exception of the French who used metric size tubes, most of the rest of the world used the Standard English size tubes, even the Italians. And this would remain the standard, especially for lightweight racing frames for almost 100 years.

The horizontal, level top tube became standard. It was the framebuilder’s point of reference. All other angles were measured off the top tube, it was parallel to a line drawn though the wheel centers. (Assuming both wheel are the same size.)

Traditionally, lightweight frames were custom built, one at a time. My mentor, Pop Hodge, would assemble a frame, measure all the angles and tube lengths. Then lay it out on the brick floor of his shop. The top tube would line up with the edge of a row of bricks. There were marks scratched into the bricks where the Bottom Bracket should be, the same with the rear drop-outs, the bottom head lug, etc.

He would then drill a hole with a hand cranked drill, (He used no power tools.) and pin the tubes in the lugs with a penny nail. (A penny nail was a reference to its size.) When the whole frame was assembled, he would place it in a hearth of hot coals, (Again with a hand cranked blower.) Heat the whole joint to a light red heat, when he would feed in the brass, and braze the joint.

The first framebuilders were blacksmiths, and Pop Hodge had been building frames since 1907 built in that traditional way. He had a hand held torch that he used to add braze-ons and other small parts. It burned coal gas, from the town’s supply that was piped in to all homes and businesses for cooking and heating. The flame was boosted by foot operated air bellows.

The level top tube also had the advantage that once a person established what size frame suited them, any make of frame in that same size would fit. Even though seat angles, and top tube lengths may vary, it would only be slight and could be taken care of with a longer or shorter handlebar stem.

The main reason different makes of frames worked as long as the frame size was the same. When the saddle was set at the correct height, and the handlebars would then be automatically the correct height in relation to the top of the saddle. No one spoke of “Handlebar Drop,” it was an unnecessary measurement, as long as the top tube was level.

In the late 1950s and through the 1960s there was a huge social change taking place in the UK and the rest of Europe. Economies were booming, (Because of the WWII recovery.) and the working man was buying a car for the first time. My parents never owned or even learned to drive a car, but the younger generations were abandoning their bicycles and buying a car.

Even the racing cyclists, mostly owned one bike. They rode to work on it, which was a big part of their training. On the weekends, the fenders (Mudguards.) and saddle bag came off, racing wheels were fitted, and a time-trial was ridden.

For many cyclists, Time-Trialing in the UK in the 1950s and before was more a social event than a serious athletic event. Owning a car for the first time changed the whole social structure of the working man, and many gave up cycling completely.

The result was a huge slump in the bicycle business at all levels. Prices of lightweight frames remained stagnant for many years and framebuilders had to look to ways to cut costs. The ones who survived were the ones who moved away from building frames one at a time, and managed to produce large numbers of frames sold at a reasonable price. See top picture.

I mentioned in Part I of this series, that the standard racing frame geometry of that era was 71 degree seat angle, 73 head. To simplify the design the parallel frame was introduced, that is one where the head and seat angles are the same.

People were not ready to make a big jump from 71 to 73 degree seat angle, so a compromise was made and the 72 degree parallel frame was introduced. Advertised as a “Massed Start” or Road Racing Frame, the parallel frame had the advantage that a complete range of sizes could be made using only two, maybe three top tube lengths.

Simple jigs were used to assemble the frames, the same length top tube could be slid up or down between the parallel head and seat tubes, to build several different size frames. Maybe not the ideal set up, but it did cut the cost of building frames, and as I mentioned before the reach could be adjusted with a different length stem.

Tubes could be pre-mitered using the same angles, another time saver. By the mid-1960s the parallel frame concept was accepted by most people, and the 73 degree parallel became the norm. 73 was a better head angle, and riders soon found that the 73 degree seat was better too. Less tendency to slide forward on the saddle.

So once again here was a trend started by framebuilders because it suited them, but actually lead to a better riding bike. This series will have to run into a third part. Next I will touch on the steep head angle trend of the 1970s and how that came about, and then bring the story up to the present day.

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Black shorts and retro style jerseys

There has been cycle racing almost as long as there have been bicycles. In the beginning bicycles were handmade and were expensive, cycling and cycle racing was initially a sport for wealthy young men. However, in the late 1800s the safety bicycle was invented, and soon mass production lowered the price, and made the bicycle available to the working classes.

Prior to the invention of the bicycle the working man could only travel as far as he could walk, he had no form of personal transport. The bicycle set the working man free, to travel and seek work outside his immediate area. It also set him free to travel outside the cities and into the surrounding countryside at the weekends.

All over Europe cycling and cycle racing became the sport of choice among the working classes. Cycle races were held on Sundays, after all working people had to work the rest of the week, which included Saturdays back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Sunday was for many their only day off.

Cyclists wore black, and especially black shorts, both out of respect, and so as not to offend those who attended church on Sundays. This tradition later became a rule of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) which is the world governing body for the sport of cycle racing.

For 100 years, racing cyclist both amateur and professional wore black shorts. It was both a rule and a tradition. Sometime in the 1980s that changed when the UCI allowed professional racing cyclists to wear different color shorts. This came about because professional teams are now often financed by multiple sponsors, and there was a need for more room for advertising on both the jersey and shorts.

Also technology and the modern fabrics that cycling clothing is now made from, lends itself to the printing of graphics and sponsors logos. In the old days jerseys were made of wool and the sponsor’s name was embroidered on.

So what does the casual cyclist wear for a non racing weekend ride. Many cycling clubs have their own matching jerseys and shorts, styled after the pro’s kit with the club sponsors name and logo. For others there a still plenty of plain black shorts that is still a good choice as it can be worn with practically any color top.

One interesting alternative is produced by Solo, a company from New Zealand that now has a worldwide distribution network in place. Solo produces very high quality “Retro” style cycling jerseys that are designed after the style of those worn by the Professional cyclists of the 1950s through the 1970s. The jerseys are not replica jerseys, and do not represent actual teams of yester-year; but rather are unique designs inspired by retro jerseys. 

Solo jerseys are a high quality garment and the price reflects this. Although the design is retro, the fabric is modern with the same easy care and sweat wicking qualities of any modern cycling jersey. The colors and designs are screen printed on, which makes them permanent and non fade.

Knitted collars and cuffs are a nice retro touch, and the jerseys have three rear pockets as is standard with most cycling jerseys, plus they have an extra zippered pocket for keys, money, etc. There is an elastic gripper strip sewn around the inside bottom edge of the jersey, that stops it riding up, and supports a load if the pockets a filled with food and tools for a long trip.

The 1950s to 1970s was an era when pro cyclists often had a single sponsor. Sponsors names had to be embroidered on, and designs created by sewing different color fabric together. The results were simple, but powerful designs which demonstrated less is more. Solo have done a fine job of capturing the feel of these designs. And of course the jerseys look best when worn with black shorts because that was what the pros wore back in the day.

Footnote: A poor man's sport

I recently wrote the above article as a product review for Answers.com. I reposted it here because I thought you might find the history of black shorts interesting, as well as helping the good people at Solo who are supporters of this blog.

A few weeks back when I wrote another article, I mentioned the slump in bicycle sales in the late 1950s and the 1960s due to working class people buying cars for the first time. One reader could not understand why that would affect sales of racing bikes.

Cycling, and cycle racing in the UK and the rest of Europe in the 1950s and before, was not like it is today. And it was nothing like the cycling scene as it is in the US today. Low income working class people rode bicycles as transport, it was how they got to work each day. A few raced on Sundays, but it was more a social thing, than a fitness thing like today.

Many owned one bike that they put mudguards on and rode to work on it all week.

On a Sunday they would ride to a race, (In the UK that would be a time-trial.) carrying their best wheels with tubular tires. (Picture left.)

The mudguards would be removed, best wheels would go in and they would race.

After the event the mudguards went back on, etc., and they would ride home. Many did no further training, other than ride to work and everywhere else.

Middle class people with a higher income, owned and drove motors cars, they did not exercise, or belong to Cycling Clubs. When the income of the working classes improved, they also bought motor cars and didn’t exercise, so they gave up cycling and cycle racing.

For many Cycling was never seen as exercise, it was what people did out of necessity. Joining a Cycling Club and racing on the weekends was a social outlet. Racing was easy because people were naturally fit.

It wasn’t until the US fitness craze of the 1970s, that sparked a second bicycle boom. Today, racing bicycle equipment is high tech and super expensive, low income people do not buy it. Cycle racing is no longer a poor man’s sport, and never will be again.

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Mike Moulton: Restored

Somewhere back around the end of 2005 I received an email from a Joe Cerone:

Sir: I have a bike that was custom made for me by a Lockheed Engineer by the name of Mike Moulton, his name is stamped on the fork.

He made this for me in 1949 and I raced it all over America as well as a member of the All American Team that toured Japan in 1951.

I won three California State Championships on the bike, 49,50, 51. Are you any kin to Mike?----Joe Cirone.

This was the first I had heard of Mike Moulton. We are not related but Moulton is a quite common English name. I later wrote an article here, and as a result I was contacted by Mike Moulton’s daughter and his nephew, unfortunately after I responded they never got back to me.

As Joe stated, Mike Moulton was an engineer at Lockheed Aircraft and started building frames as a hobby around 1947. 

He built frames for about 4 years or so. The bike on the left is the one he built for Joe Cerone.

Los Angeles area cyclists raced on his bikes all around especially in those early years when the Burbank track was up and running around 1948/9.

Just this week I received an email from Jeff Groman who sent me pictures of a beautifully restored bike built by Mike Moulton in the mid to late 1940s. It was originally built for a rider named “Rusty” Baker.

The bike is built up with period correct parts including Airlite hubs, Chater Lea cranks, the handlebar stem is of unknown make. The bike will be displayed at Classic Cycles, Bainbridge Island, WA.

Although Mike Moulton only built a few frames as a hobby, he did so in an era when there were very few other American framebuilders. So this is a wonderful thing that Jeff Groman has done by restoring this bike. It is an important piece of Americana and American bike history.

Mike would have had to get his materials mailed over from England. The lugs are Chater Lea cast steel. These were rough sand casting that required a great deal of hand filing, and were typical of those used by English builders in the 1930s and 1940s. The tubing is most likely Reynolds 531.

Below are pictures of the bike before restoration.