10 useful tips for car drivers

1.)    If you see a cyclist ahead and you can’t pass because of opposing traffic, resist the urge to run over him, even though you can. You know what a mess it can make of your car if you hit a deer, a cyclist will probably do even more damage.

2.)    Don’t throw stuff at cyclists. In some states there is a $250 fine for this, plus there is a $1,000 fine for littering, it can add up. If you feel you must throw something at a cyclist, think of the environment, throw something that is biodegradable.

3.)    Don’t waste time thinking of clever things to yell at cyclists as you drive by at 50mph. Just shout, "Garble, garble, garble, fucking road." It is all they will hear anyway

4.)    If you are approaching a right turn, slow and wait behind the cyclist ahead of you. If you can’t do this, at least be consistent and race ahead of other cars, then cut them off by turning right in front of them.

5.)    Use the buddy system. If you can’t resist the urge to text while driving have a buddy ride along to look out for cyclists.

6.)    Pedestrians can also be annoying. they will not stay on one side of the road and are likely to interrupt your texting by crossing over to the other side at some point.

7.)    Resist the urge to lay on the horn. If you can’t do this, consider fitting a second horn inside the car a few feet from your head. This will give you a realistic feel of how incredibly fucking loud your car horn is.

8.)    Watch your blind spot. Looking in store windows or at pretty girls as you drive by creates a huge blind spot ahead of you. Cyclists have an annoying habit of riding in this blind spot.

9.)    If a cyclist is riding in the middle of the lane, it could be because he will not ride within five feet of a parked car. (The door zone.) If you expect cyclists to ride within inches of parked cars, set an example by driving within inches of parked cars.

If more cars did this and removed a few car doors, and grazed a few knuckles as a result, it would help by reminding people to look before opening a car door. At the present time cyclists hitting car doors does not have the same impact.

10.)  Avoid hitting cyclists by simply going around them. If you should hit one because he happened to be there when you were applying makeup, don’t say “He swerved in front of me.” Simply tell the police officer, “I didn’t see him.”

This is becoming the more widely accepted defense, after all it is the truth, and a driver can’t be expected to see everything. (Don’t try the “I didn’t see it” defense if you run a stop sign. For some strange reason this does not work.)  

Transport

I started this blog in 2005, later this year it will be 17 years old. Looking back over the hundreds of articles written, I realized I had seen the Fixie trend arrive and disappear again’

Hipsters riding fixed wheel track bikes (Sometimes brake-less.) on the road. What happened to the “Hipster?” They must still be around, but probably under some new name that I have yet to learn.

I imagine they are all riding e-bikes and e-scooters now. Electric assist. The bicycle industry finally overcame the last drawback to riding a bicycle, it requires effort to propel it along, especially up hill.

There has never been a perpetual motion machine made that will run for free without some energy input from somewhere. In terms of efficiency, the bicycle is the best renewable source, form of transport that you can use over and over again for free, aside from initial cost, and a little maintenance.

I am ignoring skates, skateboards, scooters, and the like, because although slightly more efficient than running or walking, (The most basic form of transport.} In a straight-out race, the pedal bicycle would win every time.

In the mid-1980s when my business was operating at its peak, the bikes I produced were probably the simplest and most efficient of that era. Simple friction shift, and rim brakes, and aerodynamically efficient’

However, for an unfit person, the saddle was too hard, the aero position was uncomfortable, and the friction gear levers needed a certain skill set to operate. Add to that, the fact that the bikes were over geared for most but the strongest of athletes.

In other words, a person needed enough dedication to stick with it until their body reached a level of fitness, where riding ceased to be a chore and became a pleasure. Few had this level of dedication, which is why many of the bikes I built in the mid-1980s are still in nearly new condition when re-sold on eBay or Craig’s List.

Any form of exercise regime requires effort and dedication. How many people pay a gym membership or buy an exercise machine and then fail to use it regularly? The bicycle is both a form of transport and an exercise machine, but few take full advantage of that fact.

The drawbacks of commuting to work on a bike is that one is exposed to the elements. You arrive at work soaked in rain or sweat. The advantages of electric assist do not go unnoticed.

Many see electric bikes and electric cars as the future but remember even electricity needs to be transported. The best places for producing wind or solar power are not necessarily where electricity is needed, and there is a cost in getting it there.

Even our most basic need like water must be transported from its source to where it is needed. That means pumping using electricity. Everything, including ourselves needs to be transported often on a daily basis.

In the meantime, all the batteries for these electric vehicles are being produced in China because they are cheaper. One of the reasons they cost less is because China uses cheap fossil fuels to produce electricity.

We also have an abundance of cheap fossil fuel but may do the right thing and not use it. Isn’t that the principle they used when restaurants had a smoking section?

Talk is cheap, but at what cost?

What sets the human species apart from all others? I believe it is not that we have a superior brain or opposing thumbs, it is language, our ability to communicate with words.

I prefer the written word. It can be edited, whereas often the spoken word comes out and cannot always be taken back. The old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is seldom true.

We tend to forget physical pain, but when someone says something unkind, those words are locked away in our memory bank to be brought back along with the hurt, over and over again.

It takes a strong person to recognize that these were only words, and it is our choice to relive them. It is not easy to dismiss words once heard or read.

Fond memories can be re-told to others and relived in our own mind. Bad memories often get re-told and are exaggerated, made worse than they originally were. The clever lines and comebacks we recite in re-telling the story, are not the words we said, but rather what we wish we had said.

Told over and over the stories eventually become our reality. Others will steal our stories, make them their own and retell them until they become their reality. This is how urban myths are born.

People who talk incessantly miss out on a lot. By talking continuously, they are not letting others express their views. Then when the other person speaks, they are not listening because they are thinking of what they will say next.  

It is only by listening to others that communication pays off. A thought from outside our own mind can spark an entirely new line of thinking.

“Talk is cheap,” is another common expression. Some can talk for hours and say nothing, certain politicians have honed this to an art form.

If some can use words and say nothing, others can stay silent and speak volumes. And silence is simply words left unsaid.

Words may be cheap, but the cost can be enormous. Say the wrong thing and it can cost you your job, end a relationship or lose the love and respect of a valued friend.

Words can be powerful at times, but other times are inadequate. Words can fail and are not always necessary. Sometimes just to listen, hold a hand or give a hug is enough.

Even though cheap, words should not be wasted. Words can build people up or knock us down. They can be both our blessing and our curse.

Paris Sport: Setting the Record Straight

Paris Sport was a brand name and the name of a business owned by Vic Fraysse, and his son Mike Fraysse. The business was located in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, seven miles outside New York City, just across the George Washington Bridge.

They owned a bike store (Park Cycle.) with a framebuilding shop at the rear. On weekends the store attracted a lot of customers from New York City, who made the short bike ride via the separate bike path across the GW Bridge.

The Fraysse family had French origins and both Mike and Vic spoke fluent French. This enabled them to import bicycles and frames from France in the 1970s during the US bike boom. The bikes were labeled with the brand name, Paris Sport.

They also had resident frame builders build high end custom frames in their shop. This was how I came to move from England in January 1979 when the Fraysse’s offered me a job.

It was much easier to move to the US in 1979 than it is today. All one needed was a job offer, and a sponsor. The Fraysse’s offered this and paid my air fare over. I arrived literally “With the clothes on my back.” My luggage consisted of the tools from my framebuilding business in England.

Mike Fraysse bought me work clothes and work boots, and I lived in the basement of Vic Fraysee’s home. Frame building materials were supplied and I was paid a flat rate per frame built.

I was satisfied with this arrangement, it got me my start in the US, and for a lot less expense and hassle than if I had I tried to set up a framebuilding business on my own.

By this time there were not too many bikes being imported from France. Because of cost the cheaper bikes sold in the bike store were imported from Taiwan. These were all labeled with the same “Paris Sport” decals, along with the high-end custom frames I was building.

Some customers felt that this cheapened the Brand, and gradually as my reputation grew, customers wanted my name on the frames I built. Vic Fraysse was strongly against this, and I had to agree with him. Paris Sport was his brand that he had worked hard for years to establish. I was simply an employee hired to build Paris Sport frames.

Mike Fraysse on the other hand was a bit more flexible. It was Mike who painted the frames, and sometimes agreed to allow my “Four M’s Logo,” to be placed on the seat tube. 

The frames were often painted in the evening after I had left for the day, so I didn’t see how the were labeled. My decals that I had brought over from England were stored in the shop along with all my tools. These were made available to Mike, and I didn’t mind either way. If a frame had my logo or name on it. It was publicity for me.

I worked at the Paris Sport shop from January 1979 until October 1980. By the mid-1980s, a few frames left the shop fully decaled as a ‘dave moulton’ but without the “worcester, england.” under the logo.

I think a lot depended on, whether the customer was a friend of Mike Fraysse, how much the customer paid for the frame, or in some cases the customer would not agree to take delivery unless it had my name on it.

After working for the Fraysse’s for almost two years, I felt I had fulfilled my obligations to them, and I left in October 1980 to take another job with Masi In California.

We parted on good terms, and I am forever grateful for the start they gave me. Had I not had this opportunity, I may never have come to the United States.

The frames I built at Paris Sport were the same as the ones I built in England. Built to my own design and geometry, with one big difference. The frames built in the UK had a serial number stamped under the bottom bracket, that coincides with a number in my UK Frame-numbers record book.

Paris Sport frames I built had no serial number. Again, this was not my call. In fact, this is one of the clues that it is a Paris Sport frame I built. Like the one pictured here.

The recent owner of the bike was given missinformation by its original owner. I can recognize my own work, so I am not disputing that I built it.

It apparently was labeled fully as a “dave moulton” but as it has been repainted one cannot prove that, but as I have laid out here, “It is entirely possible.” However, it is a pity the original owner did not take a picture before repainting.

Where the story gets strange, is that the original owner says he bought, and paid me directly for the frame in my own shop in New Jersey, and he has never heard of Paris Sport.

I did consult with customers, measure them and build a custom frame, but I did not handle the finances.

I am alive and well, and my memory is still intact. If you do a search on the blog, for “Paris Sport” it will bring up more history. It does not need to be re-written yet.

It is annoying to spend hundreds of hours writing here, only to have miss-informed people question what I tell them.

Siblings

I sometimes look on the bikes I built as my children, and like any parent it does my heart good to see them doing well, like the one pictured above.

Still owned by the original owner since 1985. He sent this picture with the comment, “Apart from two small nicks in the paint, the bike still looks the same as the day I picked it up from the bike store.”

The Fuso was a limited production frame, still very much hand built and brazed by me, but unlike building custom frames one at a time, these were built in batches of five frames all the same size.

This was more efficient because not only were the frames all assembled on the same jig setting, but as I first brazed the Bottom Brackets, by the time I finished number five, number one had cooled and I could move on to the next step which was brazing the head lugs.

Then on reaching number 5 again, number 1 was ready to have the seat lug brazed. By rechecking alignment after each brazing step, there was very little movement in the final step of the brazing process.

The whole frame was assembled in this fashion, 1,2,3,4,5, and move to the next stage and repeat. When the frames were finished, they were stamped with a serial number in sequence.

Today it is interesting to see these batches of five same size frames slowly being added on my Registry. Occasionally, the more popular sizes were built in batches of up to 10 frames, depending on the demand.  I tried to keep all sizes in stock ready to be painted to order

Like siblings these frames went their separate ways, now like a family reunion they are reconnecting on the registry. The red and grey Fuso at the top of This article is #522, and lives in Dallas, Texas. Above is #523 painted two tone blue and lives in Los Angeles. #525 (Below.) lives in Boulder, Colorado. All are 56 centimeter, and interestingly are all three owned by the original owners.

Bikes in some ways are like people, some age well, others don’t. People do well if they eat right and exercise, and look after themselves in general. It also helps to have good genes, to come from good stock. Bikes too, where they came from and what they are made of plays a big role in their ability to stay “Young Looking.”

I have mentioned before the red paint I used was a Candy Apple Red, over a bright orange base coat. The reason this red looks so rich and deep is because what you are seeing is the almost fluorescent orange shining through the translucent red.

In bright sunlight this is even more evident. When I went to trade shows, (Which was how I built a dealer network, in pre-Internet times.) I went with a simple ‘Home-made’ display made of peg-board and painted white, and used florescent ‘Daylight’ lighting. The chrome and componentry sparkled like jewelry, and the paint colors, especially the candy apple colors, and pearlescent finishes just popped.

The best red pigments are made from cadmium, but due to the expense and the toxicity of cadmium, red pigments in paint, printer's ink or any other medium, are now-a-days synthetic and usually have a tendency to fade over time. Especially when exposed to a lot of sunlight.

I remember driving behind a car with a faded bumper sticker that read ‘OBER RIVERS.’ I was thinking, ‘What a great name for a rock band.’ Then knowing what I do about the pigment in the color red, I quickly figured out the this sticker had originally read SOBER DRIVERS, and the “S” and the “D” had been printed in red and had faded to the extent that it had completely disappeared. Leaving behind the rest of the message that was printed in black.

My point is that the Candy-Apple red method I used was not prone to fade over time. This is evident in the top picture of a frame that is 37 years old and exposed to bright sunlight almost daily. The durability of the paint also speaks volumes for DuPont Imron, but another reason is that I “Cured” my paint by baking in an oven to a temperature of 250 degrees. The paint was ‘Hard’ from day-one, rather than waiting to cure naturally over a long period.

The other thing helping the durability of the paint job is the primer I used. It was an “Etch” primer, that contained phosphoric acid, which is also a rust inhibitor and being a mild acid, it etched itself into the metal of the frame, providing a key for the finish paint coats that would follow.

It gave me great satisfaction to build these frames, and it gives me even more satisfaction today to see them still being ridden, and still looking good for their age.