Joe Cirone

I was recently contacted by Joe Cirone, (Left.) who lives in Visalia, CA. Joe is now 92 years old and raced bikes, with success back in the late 1940s early 1950s.

Joe Cirone has been corresponding with me since 2006, when he told me about a frame he had built in the winter of 1948. The builder’s name was Mike Moulton, same name as me, but not related as far as I know.

Mike Moulton, from Tujunga, California, was an engineer for the Lockheed Aircraft Company. He built bike frames as a hobby.in a little workshop at the back of his house.

I can imagine back in the late 1940s, early 1950s, cycle racing was somewhat a “Cinderella” sport in America, and one could not easily find a track frame in the US. So, to find someone locally with the necessary skill to build such a frame must have been rare.

More about Mike Moulton later, but getting back to Joe Cirone, he got into bike racing in 1946 and found that he was a pretty good at it when he won the Junior National Championship in 1947.

Joe Cirone leads in a 1000 m. Match Sprint. 1948 US Nat. Championship.Joe tried out for the Olympic Team in 1948 but fell short by a little over one second in the 1000 meter Time Trial, held in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He did however take 2nd in the Nationals Senior Championship that year held in Kenosha Wisc.

It was when Joe Cirone returned home to California in 1948,  he met Mike Moulton at one of the races held in Pasadena and Mike offered to build him a frame. Joe rode that bike to the end of his career, and still owns it to this day.

1948 US Nat. Championships. Joe Cirone center.In 1951 Joe was part of a "Special American Team" that went to Japan on a "Good Will" Tour for one month. He raced against Japanese Teams up and down Japan. The team averaged two races each week, ending in a Special Event in Tokyo Stadium.

Before he left Japan, a large Japanese Bike Manufacturer offered Joe $1,000 for his bike. A great deal of money back then, but Joe turned the offer down a kept his beloved bike. The same bike he holds in the picture at the top of thes article.

Joe Cirone with his collection of Trophies.Some links to previous articles:

I had written about Mike Moulton, first in 2007, when I thought his frames may have dated buck to the 1930s.

Later that same year, (2007) I wrote a follow up.

In 2013 I learned of another Mike Moulton track frame that had been nicely restored.

More pictures of Joe Cirone's buike built by Mike Moulton.

 

Foot note: Don’t confuse Mike Moulton with Mike Melton, another fine American builder.

From metalsmith to wordsmith

I have always been a creative person; it gives me tremendous satisfaction that I have left a body of work out there that is still being appreciated by a small but growing number of people.

Also, good to know that there is a good supply of bicycles and frames that I built still out there, thanks to previous owners, taking good care of them.

I am still creative but have gone from metalsmith to wordsmith, it suits my current abilities. All creativity begins with an original thought, and where I previously assembled metal and paint to produce a bicycle frame, I now try to assemble words in way that hopefully is entertaining, informative, and thought provoking.

With any skill, repetition is the key to becoming good at it, I became a good framebuilder by building a lot of bike frames. Today I constantly tell myself that my best work is yet to come, and the only way to achieve that goal is to write, write, write, and then write some more.

Of the utmost importance to me is to write in a manner that does not give the reader the feeling that I am trying to foist my opinions on others. I may have done that in the past and if I did, I was wrong.

In today’s world no one persons opinion matters. I cannot change the world; all one can do is change their own world.

I am always looking for ideas for articles so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Protest

In the UK this last week there was a big brouhaha over British Cycling partnering, and accepting sponsorship cash from Shell Oil.  One would have thought  that British Cycling would have at least gone with a British oil company like BP. Shell is an American company, partnered with a Dutch Company.

Perhaps that was the reasoning behind another protest in London when two young women threw tomato soup over Dutch painter Vincent Van Gough’s Sunflower painting. Fortunately, the painting was behind glass, so a quick once over with a paper towel and some glass cleaner, and the protest was nothing more than a waste of soup.

The protest was against the use of oil. I would have thought in the UK above all places, the price of gasoline, (Petrol.) is so high that most people are only using it as is absolutely necessary.

I am sure no one is driving around looking for a Shell Station to buy that particular brand of fuel because they saw a Shell Logo on a cyclist’s jersey. That is the crux of it. We all know burning fossil fuel as bad for the environment, the problem is consumerism in general.

I hate the type of protest that draws attention to a problem but offers no solution to the underlying issue. Throwing soup over works of art or giving British Cycling shit for taking money that the sport of cycling can put to good use, solves nothing.

In the 1970s and 1980s I produced a few thousand bicycle frames and did so with a very low carbon footprint. Here we are thirty, forty or more years later, and people are still riding these same bikes. Most still have the original paint, so they don’t even need a re-paint.

Everything produced today has built in obsolescence, including bicycles, and especially phones and other electronic devices. Most made in China from materials derived from oil, using electricity produced using China’s abundant supply of cheap coal.

I have done my bit for the environment and continue to do so. I don’t eat meat, and I don’t buy stuff I don’t need. I have clothes in my closet that probably older than most of the people protesting on the streets today

And if a large corporate oil conglomerate wants to give me money, they can contribute copious amounts of cash by the cartload. I’ll take it

Thank you in advance 😊

Forming tapered tubes for bicycle frames

I was recently asked, “How are tapered tubes formed for steel bicycle frames, like chainstays, seatstays, and fork blades?”

When I had my frame building shop in Worcester, England, I was only 25 miles from the Reynolds tube factory in Birmingham, and I would often visit.

I have witnessed first-hand the various processes of tube manipulation, and the machinery used for that process. Also, I was a Machine Tool Engineer prior to building bicycle frames, so I understood the workings of these special purpose machines.

I could not find a video of the actual Reynolds machines, but I did find the one above of a tapered tube being formed. Not a bicyle tube, but the principle is the same. As you can see the process is done “Cold.”

The tube walls are relatively thin and flexible enough to be manipulated without heat, using the required force, usually applied by mechanical means or hydraulic oil pressure. The process, (If one thinks about it.) is not unlike a potter forming pottery from soft clay on a wheel.

You will also notice the tube is held in the machine at both ends, so it cannot grow in length as its diameter is squeezed smaller. That material must go somewhere, therefore, the wall thickness of the tube becomes gradually thicker towards the end, as the tube becomes smaller in diameter.

This is desirable, as the finished tube has a uniform strength throughout its length. Also, this cold manipulation “work hardens” the material, making it stronger by compressing the molecules or particles of the steel, tighter together.

These machines, once set run automatically. A long length of plain tube is fed into the machine, the taper is formed at one end and is then cut off automatically, and the tube auto-feeds in again. When the length of tube is used another again automatically takes up its place.

You will also notice that there is a liquid coolant running over the tube being worked during this process. This is usually in the form of a mixture of soluble oil and water.

Without it the pressure and the friction generated by this process would create a great amount of heat. This would not be good for the machine, or the product being produced.

I suggest you watch the video in “Full Screen” mode to fully appreciate the mechanical process involved. Here is the YouTube link if needed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAnzRRjKPpc&t=3s

The one you feed

I came across a Cherokee parable that told the story about the fight between good and evil, in the form of two wolves, that live within a person. A good wolf and a bad wolf. I took the story and re-wrote it as a song. This is not the complete song, there is also a bridge and then the chorus repeats, but what I have posted here completes the story.

An old Cherokee Chief, with his grandson by his side

Told a story to the young boy as he listened open eyed.

He said a terrible fight between two wolves goes on inside of you,

And inside me and every man and every woman too.

The one wolf he is evil, anger, sorrow, lies,

Hatred and resentment, arrogance, and pride.

His eyes and teeth are yellow, and his fur is dark as night.

Each day he meets another wolf and the two of them must fight.

The second is a good wolf, his coat is white as snow,

He is love and peace and happiness, all the goodness we could know.

Compassion, truth and kindness, generosity, and joy.

The old man told the story he’d learned as a boy.

The young boy thought about the wolves the ones that fought within,

He looked up at his grandpa and asked him, which one wins.

The old man sat silent, let him think on it a while,

Then with love he stroked the young boy’s hair, answered with a smile.

The one you feed, becomes the stronger of the two,

The good or bad, the choice is up to you.

Know deep inside a good wolf lives within,

And his evil adversary, you decide who wins.

The one you feed, is the one that will prevail,

Give the good wolf strength as they fight tooth and nail.

Your thoughts are what they feed on, and the one that will succeed.

Is the wolf that gets most nourishment, the one you feed. 

In these hard times when there is so much hatred in the world, it is good to be reminded that thoughts are powerful. Good or bad thoughts can become good or bad actions. I try to be mindful of what I wish for and be kind to others in thought word or deed. Even when others around me are not always kind to me.