Vintage Bikes

I was recently sent a link to this interesting video. (Above) It features a vintage bicycle event held annually in Tuscany, Italy. It is much like other similar events held in various parts of the world, one of the most popular in the US being Le Cirque du Cyclisme held in Leesburg, Virginia, May 17-19, this year.

A vintage bicycle is usually considered to be one from the mid 1980s or before. It occurred to me watching this video that the 1980s will probably be the last era of collectable bicycles.

It is the cutoff date where bicycles stopped being hand brazed lugged steel, with the same 1 1/8 inch diameter seat and down tubes, and level (Horizontal.) 1 inch top tubes. A standard that was set in the late 1800s early 1900s. It is the end of an era when bicycle frames bore the name of an individual craftsman that either built the frame or at least one time built the frame.

Bicycles are now made by corporations like most other products, Trek, Cannondale, and a whole host of others, some that have emerged in the last twenty years or so. I cannot see bicycles built today being collected in the future, not in large numbers anyway; anymore than I can see modern cars being collected.

The event in the video, l’Eroica, attracted over 3,000 participants, a large number; but when you consider that there were millions of bicycles built in Europe alone between say the 1950s and 1980s 3,000 then seems quite small.

I am finding this is holding true with my own Bicycle Registry. From 1984 to 1993 I built somewhere slightly under 3,000 Fuso frames. On my registry I can only account for a hundred or so of them. My registry has 163 members total at the time of writing this. Again small by comparison against the amount I produced over the years.

In order for a bicycle, bicycle frame or any other product for that matter to become collectable, it has to show that it will last a long time. Frames I built over thirty years ago are still being ridden today; it is safe to assume that they can safely be ridden for at least 50 years, or longer depending on how often it is used.

It is not unusual to discover a bicycle that has been sitting in a garage or basement for twenty years and is in mint condition, having had little or no use. In 2007 I bought a Recherché frame that I built in 1985; it was “New Old Stock,” (NOS) having been hanging in a bike store for 21 years. Its age is now 28, but it has had under 6 years of use.

I feel extremely fortunate to have had a career during this 1980s period, and was a part of the ending of an era. There are still new framebuilders out there, spurred on by events like the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show. (NAHBS)

A few of their frames may be collected in the future, if only for the quality and the rarity, but in general in order for something to be collectable it has to have a number of collectors interested in the same item, if only for the reason of buying and selling the item.

Collecting vintage bicycles can be fun. It is far less costly than collecting vintage cars, and requires a lot less space. Because of the economy, it is a buyer’s market right now, and vintage bikes across the board are at an all time low.

Besides owning something of beauty, collectors are preserving something for future generations. They may also get the added pleasure of meeting other like minded people and attending events like l’Erocia or Le Cirque du Cyclisme.

I suggest you view the video in full screen mode to get the full effect not only of the vintage bikes but the beauty of the region where this event was held.

                       

Women as bike mechanics in the early 1900s

An interesting ad for Triumph Bicycles from 1906; the text reads:

The male mechanic in the workshop has proved himself infinitely superior to the female; he is capable of doing better, more exact, more reliable work.

Morally, mixed labor does not raise the standard of either worker, and considerably lowers the standard of the work produced.

Triumph Cycles, are made in a factory where no female labor whatever is employed. Female labor and best work do not go together therefore let your machine be a Triumph. “The Best Bicycle British Workmanship can produce,” and made by skilled male mechanics only.

The Triumph is the only Coventry Cycle Factory not employing female labor.  

It appears Triumph was not too interested in the female market at that time. Of course such an ad would not fly today, but it is an interesting look at history in an age before women even had the right to vote in the UK.

Below is a picture from the same era showing women working in a bicycle factory. Obviously not the Triumph Facility.

The pictures are from a piece in the Guardian Newspaper and part of a promotion for the Coventry Transport Museum exhibition celebrating the history and heroes of all kinds of competitive cycling. The exhibition runs from 22 June to 14 October 2012. My thanks to Tim Mullet for sending me the link.

                        

Building a Raleigh Bicycle

Here is an interesting video of how a Raleigh bicycle was made in 1945. I lived in Nottingham, England in the 1960s when this factory was still in operation; it was huge and took up many city blocks. In fact the company started out on Raleigh Street in Nottingham in 1887, hence the company name.

An interesting part of the video early on shows a Bottom Bracket shell being made by pressing from a flat piece of steel. I was still building my frames in the 1970s with bottom brackets made in this fashion. (By a French manufacturer named Bocama (BCM); not by Raleigh.)

By the late 1970s early 1980s investment cast bottom brackets and lugs became available that were far superior for a quality hand built frame. Never-the-less many of my old frames from the 1970s with pressed steel BBs are still around.

Interestingly, in the industry of manufacturing bicycles, all the lugs were called “Brackets,” which is where the term Bottom Bracket comes from.

What the film didn’t explain was that when the frame was assembled, a brass ring was placed in a groove inside the socket of the bracket or lug, before the tube was pressed in. When the frame was later placed in a furnace, the brass melted brazing the joint automatically.

Another interesting item not mentioned was that Raleigh parts were a non-standard size and had special Raleigh threading, ensuring that if you bought a Raleigh bike you had to buy Raleigh parts when these needed replacing.

I suggest you click on the “Full Screen” icon, bottom right, to view the video in full screen mode. (Press the “Escape Button” return to normal view.) My thanks to Bruce Chandler for turning me on to this video.

                      

Joseph Lucas

Joseph Lucas was an old Birmingham England company that got its start making oil lamps for ships, and went on to manufacture lighting systems for bicycles.

They date back to the late 1800s when they made Kerosene and Carbide lamps for bicycles.

See the picture left of a Lucas “Kinglet,” circa 1896.

When these became obsolete Lucas went on to make battery and dynamo (Generator.) driven bicycle lighting systems. (Top picture.)

The company also made generators and other electrical parts for cars and motorcycles.

Lucas also made an inexpensive little mechanical bicycle odometer, called a cyclometer. Introduced, I believe, in the 1930s it was popular with club riders and cycle tourists up until about the 1960s.

It attached to the front wheel spindle and had a five-point star wheel that made contact with a little striker pin attached to a spoke.

Five revolutions of the front wheel would turn the star wheel one revolution. The mechanism was geared so it would measure miles and 10ths of a mile. It was easy to read as you rode just by glancing down to the end of your right fork blade.

You could figure out your speed by looking at your watch; a 4 minute mile was 15 mph. a 3 minute mile was 20 mph. These were never really popular with the racing cyclists as it made an annoying tick-tick-tick sound.

So I abandoned my Cyclometer very early on when I became a serious cyclist, and come to think of it, there were not any other devices to measure mileage or speed until the first electronic ones appeared sometime in the 1980s.

To this day I still don’t use one; I have gone this far without knowing exactly how fast and how far I am riding. A map tells me roughly how far my ride is, and I find that close enough.

                         

Recognition

Someone asked me the other day, “Who built the bike from the 1950s with the double bend in the front fork blades?”

That was Bates an East London builder; it was called a Diadrant fork. (Left.)  It was introduced in the mid 1930s and remained popular into the 1950s.

The next question was. “What was the advantage?” None that I can see, although I’m sure Bates claimed there was. Designs like this were done for recognition.

“Cycling” was the main publication for the sport in the UK and a picture of a top rider in this weekly magazine on a certain bike was very good for business.

When you saw a picture of a bike with this distinctive front fork, or even when you saw one on the road, you instantly knew it was a Bates.

Hetchins, another London builder had their famous “Curly” stays (Picture right.) for the same reason; it was instantly recognizable.

An interesting story I first heard back in the 1950s.

It concerned an English rider competing in a road race in France, on his Curly Stay Hetchins.

He crashed and was rendered unconscious for a few minutes; when he came around, he found some local French farmworkers trying to straighten his bike.

I doubt this incident actually happened, the story became one of those urban legends and everyone claimed to know someone who it had actually happened to.

I do know this bike was a source of amusement for the French cycling establishment. I remember in the 1950s seeing a picture of a Curly Stay Hetchins in l’Equipe a famous French sports paper that always covered the Tour de France. I didn’t get the exact translation of the caption under the photo, but it mentioned something about “Queen Anne Legs.”

Another trend of that same era was the short wheelbase frame, or rather a short rear end with short chainstays. The idea was to make a stiff and more responsive ride, but if you overshorten the chainstays the rear wheel touches the seat tube.

To overcome this brought about some very interesting frame designs. Probably the most famous is the Bains “Flying Gate.” (Below.) Actually its official name at first was the ”Whirlwind,” but was nicknamed the Flying Gate by cyclists; the name stuck and later became the new official name.

First built in the 1930s, Bains ended production in 1953, but in the late 1970s the design was resurrected by Trevor Jarvis a Burton on Trent builder. The frame can still be ordered today from T.J. Cycles.

Another design was the Saxon Twin Tube. (Picture below.) That deraillier by the way is called an Osgear.

Jack Taylor Cycles achieved the same ends with a curved seat tube. (Picture left.)

One of my favorites was the Paris “Galibier,” an interesting cantilever design with a large main strut in the center of the frame and small diameter twin tubes at the top. (Picture below.)

The Galibier frame construction method is known as Bilaminated or Bilaminates. Steel sleeves cut in fancy shapes are brazed over the tubes, and the actual joint is then made by a fillet of brass (Fillet brazing.) It has the finished appearance of a lug but it is not really a lug. (Pictures below.)

Each of these frame designs were distinctive and all instantly recognizable; I'm not sure if every builder patented their design, but I'm sure each claimed a definite advantage over all others.

The shortened chainstays were popular in the 1930s and 1940s when most British club riders and time-trialists used a single fixed wheel. If derailleur’s were used all that was available was a single chainwheel and three or four sprockets on the rear.

By the 1950s gearing had advanced to double chainrings and five speed freewheels; this type of frame without the conventional seat tube made the fitting of a front derailleur difficult or impossible. The trend died a natural death.

Today these bikes are collectable and make interesting conversation pieces. They came from an era when there was much competition amongst the many framebuilders; each was clamoring for their own little piece of the market.  

One way to stand out in a crowd was to build something different and distinctive. Bike riders have always looked for an edge, and a different design could be claimed as beneficial to the rider. But recognition was the main objective; somthing that would be instantly identified as a particular brand.

I previously wrote about Paris Cycles here

I touched briefly on the various framebuilders here; you can read more and view pictures of these and other classics on ClassicLightweights.co.uk