On Bike Musical Instruments, Bicycle Design For The Military, Steam Bikes & More....!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Well, here's some pollinations for this week, straight from the C to the O to the Z to the Y!


1. SAUDI OIL ON 60 MINUTES (WARNING : P is for PLENTY!) : The first part of last week's CBS 60 minutes explored the Saudi Oil kingdom, and their push to produce more oil in the era of the Obama Presidency. It was a jaw breaking revelation of the Kingdom's oil resources and technology, like something out of a Star Wars movie. The low oil prices you're seeing now will climb back up since its not stable at this point. Realistically, this important commodity is very necessary for the development of the modern world, of countries, economies and their people. However, that should not deter anyone from exploring and developing alternative, cleaner sources of energy which I believe is one of the biggest engineering challenges of our times. Oil by itself has been and is doing plenty of damage to the world on its evil side.

Part 1 :


Watch CBS Videos Online


Part 2 :


Watch CBS Videos Online




2. COMPANIES GOING 'BUST' : According to the story on Finanical Times yesterday, 62000 companies will go out of business next year. This, when compared to last year's 28,000 and this year's 42,000 seems like a dangerous linear trend. It'll be interesting to see if bicycle businesses are truly recession proof or will they join the long list of the jobless. We already saw what happened to RevoPower, in a previous post on this blog.



3. FEM ON HEADTUBE :

This isn't modern art but a depiction of the loading on a bicycle headtube during front brake activation. It'd be nice if there was a legend and some more things to make it look sensible. Courtesy : Rational Engineering



4. SOUND FROM WIND FOR BIKE MUSIC :




Korean designer Joseph Kim, in a new concept, imagines two tube like channels on the handlebars that create music by controlling the amount of wind that blows through them. Interesting. Look here for more information.



5. BICYCLE PLANNING GUIDANCE FROM WISCONSIN : I was fortunate enough to fall on an lengthy bicycle planning guide from the transportation guys in Wisconsin, courtesy of National Transportation Library (NTL). It could make for interesting reading, especially for those of you interesting in some transportation engineering for our good old two wheelers. Click here to read.



The NTL also houses other free literature, like the latest 2008 reports on the National Survey of Bicyclist and Pedestrian Attitudes and Behavior. See a snipshot below, and to check out all the reports , click here.




6. SEN. JOHN KERRY TEACHES BICYCLE SAFETY :


Yup, that's definitely the way to go about it!




7. BICYCLE DESIGN FOR THE MILITARY :


How do you design bicycles and accessories for the men and women serving on the front lines, in the rough conditions that they encounter? Ease of maintenance, portability, and sturdiness could never bang on your doors here louder. Enter bikes for the Light Bicycle Infantry (LBI) that are rugged, all terrain, and electric and mountain bikes in nature.


Here's a video on bicycle tools accessories for the military :



Lots of colorful history and bicycle design inspirations for the military here.




8. STEAM BIKES!


The MAKE blog explored the history of steam powered bicycles. Check it out here.






In these bad times we're all going through, I just want to end with a good note :




And....for your next season....


You have to work hard like Boonen...



But just don't injest so much caffeine that you can't get a handle on yourself :




Calm down bro.

Chill. Ride.

Design of Vintage Bicycles and The Question of Restoring Vs Reconditioning

Every now and then, you'll find the old rusting remains of what is an ancient bicycle in your basement, a bequeathal from your grandparents of which you would probably be less concerned about than the dust collecting in your laptop keyboard. However, it pays to take a second look at these objects because they could very well turn out to be a gem, or one of those rare classic vintage bikes that sweep a lot in value these days (think museum, or even EBAY!). Are you just going to stand there doing nothing when a mini-treasure just sits there right under your feet? Then maybe you should quit complaining about not having the cash flow for your next season.

Okay. So you did take a second look at the bike. You asked a few people around and found out that its a Netherlandish or nederlandish design from the days when your greatgrandpa had more teeth, and that it has a good amount of value. Then the next important question is, what do you do with it? Do you restore or recondition it?

Vin Vullo, apart from having strong opinions on the ills of modern bikes and cyclists wearing tight fitting clothes (see Wheeling Through History, The Boston Pheonix May '08), has also been buying and selling vintage bicycles since the 1960s. In 1995 as the internet gained in popularity he founded Menotomy Vintage Bicycles and moved his business to the web at OldRoads.com. His company's web site has many tools and resources for people interested in vintage bicycles, including a picture database, an online price guide, serial number charts and a dozen discussion areas where collectors can post questions and provide answers for other bike collectors.

I've collected a series of nice video presentations he gave on vintage bikes through Expertvillage. He walks us through from an introduction to vintage bikes, to the question of restoring vs reconditioning.

While you're at it, also pay special attention to design elements in the common style of vintage bikes, for a lot of those elements have carried on and are seen in present bikes as well. For example, apart from the double diamond frame design which I already talked about in a previous post, the remnants of the cantilever frame design has also stuck in road bikes and cruisers. Another point of interest is the front fork design. You may see a relation between the front suspension of Jeff Jones' Monster Truck MTB and vintage fork designs of balloon tired bicycles from the 1930's. Nothing extremely 'out of the book', if you ask me :

The Monster Truck MTB (courtesy Wired Mag). Check out the similarities in front suspension design.

Schwinn B-10 E. Courtesy : Copakeauction

Enjoy the presentations.

* * *

Intro To Vintage Bicycles

Intro To Vintage Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

What Makes Vintage Bicycles

What Makes Bicycles Vintage -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Why Do People Collect Vintage Bicycles?

Why People Collect Vintage Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Styles of vintage bicycles

Vintage Bicycle Styles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Balloon Tire Bicycles (1940's)

Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1940s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Middle Weight Bicycles (1950's)

Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1950s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Sting Ray Bicycles (1960's)

Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1960s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

3 Speed Bicycles (1970's)

Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1970s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

English 3 speed bicycles

English 3-Speed Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

English Rod Brakes

English Bicycle Rod Brakes -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

English Bicycle Cable Brakes

English Bicycle Cable Brakes -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Pre and Post War Vintage Bikes

Pre-War & Post-War Vintage Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bike Serial Numbers

Vintage Bicycle Serial Numbers -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Rims

Vintage Bicycle Rims -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Hubs

Vintage Bicycle Hubs -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Tires

Vintage Bicycle Tires -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Reflectors

Vintage Bicycle Reflectors -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Accessories

Vintage Bicycle Accessories -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Head Badges

Vintage Bicycle Head Badges -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Vintage Bicycle Literature

Collecting Vintage Bicycle Literature -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Do You Restore Or Recondition A Vintage Bicycle?

Vintage Bicycles: Restore or Recondition -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Restoring A Vintage Bicycle

Vintage Bicycles: Restoring -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

The Oncoming Retro Trend, Powerway Hubs Etc...

1. RETRO TREND IN BICYCLE DESIGN : If you're a keen observer of the design world, the blending of the retro with the modern is the latest trend. Some say its even the future. Retro is now seemingly everywhere, from automobiles to home interiors to fashion design. Its also extending to bicycles. The retro trend is honing in on bicycle design in places like Germany, says an Earth Times article. And different bicycle manufacturers have different design ideas for style. Some interesting statements in the article were about Cannondale and Volkswagen :

Carmakers such as Volkswagen have also discovered the retro trend in bicycles, reissuing two series of Bonanza bikes whose features includes banana seats, high handle bars and three gears. The company has produced 500 each of the models 1976 and Goal. The bike costs around 350 euros in Germany. While Volkswagen emphasizes originality in its remakes and Bergamont is using new materials to spur on a spirit of old bicycle purism, the manufacturer Cannondale is combining modern engineering with a classic appearance indicating a direction that the retro trend could take. Cannondale's 2008 model Vintage looks like a bicycle of yesteryear with its black matt finish and natural-coloured leather seat and handle bar grips. But the classic facade conceals modern-day accessories such as hydraulic disc brakes and an automatic lighting system.




2. CANNONDALE PONG : Speaking of vintage bikes, remember the Cannondale pong prototype? Bizarre but really cool looking. James at Bicycle Design had a take on it on his blog two years back.





3. DERRINGER CYCLES : On a somewhat related retro note, an interesting shop called Derringer Cycles in LA, California and its industrial designer founder, Adrian Van Anz, carry the design system of thought that the most ideal urban vehicle is a cross between a Ducati and a vintage Schwinn, with a style that picks the athletic image of a board track racer. However, it must be said that it is still considered a motorcycle.


I have not seen many plug a 49cc 4 stroke Honda engine in place of water bottle cages and a multigallon fuel tank on the top tube of a retro pedal bike before, so this is a treat for the eyes. Did someone point out to proper stand over heights and blasphemous Q-Factors?! Hell yeah!






4. POWER-WAY INDUSTRIAL BICYCLE HUBS : I have to admit that I have not seen a well designed and gorgeous looking wheel hub anywhere like a Chris King. But the Taiwanese do know a thing or two about style as well.

I'm very interested to know more about this whole patented 'O Cricoid Spring' design with 6 pawls. Sounds a lot like Greek to me right now. When it comes to putting quality information for the potential customer on their website, the Asians are a little behind.

Apparently, the man at Power-way had a case of writer's block while on the side, also managed to mangle the English language like some Caterpiller D9 Bulldozer.


Rest said, Power-way, we like your purts and Princippies!

The Progression of Steel Bicycles

Picture Courtesy : Waterford

Here's a great picture showing a 1972 Schwinn P15-9 Paramount (inner bike) next to a Waterford fabricated 953 Stainless steel bike. For most, they might look like the same thing. The fact is, these two bikes are separated by almost 3 decades in time and technology.

Steel has come a long way. The 953 is stainless, stronger, and six pounds lighter than the '72 Schwinn yet retaining all the great qualities of a steel ride.

Click here to read all about the history of Schwinn Paramount.

Click here to read about the Reynold's 953 tubing.

Pedaling History Bicycle Museum

For those of you cyclists who do come up here to Western NY, you should definitely visit Pedaling History, the world's largest bicycle museum. Its just 15 or 20 miles from where I live, maybe we can meet up and catch a cup of coffee too?

Anyway, watch curator Carl Burgwardt (also a retired Buffalo executive) give us a sweet introduction to historical bicycles with an excellent video, courtesy of River Wired TV. (It may take a little while to load but you can try refreshing the page or click the direct link here)

1950's Production of Columbia Bicycles

A 1939 Columbia Westfield Compax Traveler

Get ready to ride back in time to the America of the 50's. Here's a nice, historical 6 minute video hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) which documented how the Columbia line of bicycles ("bringing health and pleasure to millions of Americans") were produced. West Field Manufacturing, at West Field Massachusetts, was the first company to produce an American bicycle (Columbia highwheel) The video shows how ribbons of steel were seamlessly welded into tubes of various diameters and then cut and shaped to assemble frames, how handlebars were chrome plated, how spokes were connected to the rims and trued as well as glimpses of other cutting operations to yield chain rings and cogs, all over pleasant, soaring music and a serious, hurried narrator.

To see the video, go to the NAM host page here and hit "Click to View". If you're interested in knowing more about vintage Columbia bicycles, click this page.

Check out this old Columbia poster, originally published in 1895 - found on Ebay. Pretty funny. I guess it was hard then to substitute humans for animals.. Why is this monkey riding with a parrot, and why is this lazy parrot not flying? Was Columbia for monkeys and parrots? I.. I really can't explain this picture.

Sunday Shorts

1. While lightweight carbon frames have nothing to do with cycling performance, they are absolutely critical in this situation.



2. Continental borrows the condom vending idea for its "tubes".



3. This summer, just pull down someone's pants to know what sport they're into. Make friends!



4. The KING of all punctures. Bow down and pay your homages.



5. New meanings are added to the Lore of the Victory Salute post. Read if you haven't dared to.


6. I thought the dorkiest cycling commercial would be the "I am Tom Boonen I am Specialized" nonsense, but seems like Selle Italia has taken over. This video can happily kiss our bottoms.




7. While the spectators began leaving and the podium was taken down, an aero trike crossed the finish line in record time. Say, have you kept options open and ever explored walking.....




8. Last but not the least, on a more serious note, Dave Moulton highlights the colorful history behind the Paris Galibier frame design, legacy of the late London frame maker Harry Rensch. You can argue why or why not his design was superior to the traditional diamond truss by heading over to his blog.

Courtesy : Lightweights & Vicious Life Cycle

Graeme Obree's "Old Faithful"

In July 1993, Graeme Obree broke the world hour record, one of the toughest things you can attempt in the world of cycling. Only the top names even dream of doing it.

It was previously held for nine years by Francesco Moser, with a distance of 51.596 kilometres (32.06 miles). Obree's record lasted less than a week, being broken by Englishman Chris Boardman. Obree retook the record in April 1994 [Wikipedia].

In the colorful documentary below, we get a glimpse of the healthy rivalry between a confident Boardman and the relentless Obree. Obree didn't have a team sponsor to provide him with a special bike for the event. It was crunch time then!

The impetus made the hitherto unknown amateur cyclist an engineer, leading him to produce his own bicycle out of tubings from a friend's workshop, bearings from a washing machine and a single bladed fork designed by Mike Burrows. The super narrow bottom bracket would eliminate any conventional geometry so he angled his chainstays at a radical 45 degrees!! He named the machine 'Old Faithful'.

The rest is history.

Many thanks to user EVANS1978 on YouTube for the upload.

BATTLE OF THE BIKES

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

PART 6

PART 7

FINAL PART 8

P.S : If you enjoy videos like these, you can lose yourself on YouTube. You can watch my collection here on VodPod, or watch random videos from the same on the left side of this page.

The Lamborghini Bicycle

Before all that, I've incorporated some music on the side, so feel free to check out the day's tune. Ofcourse, you don't get to choose what you want to hear so bear with me. Anywho, let the music beginnn...!!!


Thanks to a very Euro group on facebook, I was able to learn that Lamborghini once made a bicycle under their name.

I don't want to mess with any more pictures of this bike, since its heavily copywrited with text on the website. Anyway, some highlights are that this bike was made in Germany by Lamborghini Bike International for the 1979 Frankfurt Motor Show. Now what was remarkable was that the bike was built with Titanium and Magnesium (for the wheel rims probably) and supposedly, even polyester was used (handlebar tape?).. bringing the total weight of this bike to 14.3 pounds, or 6.5 kg. That's pretty sick for a 1970's bike. The cost of this limited production baby must have run well into the 10,000's of dollars, but whatever happened to the Lamborghini bike, I do not know. It just goes on to perhaps show that auto companies can take a break from cars and produce bikes to get their name out there, and do so in the highest form of bling bling om shanti.. Good question to think about? What if the car business was no more economical in a hypothetical world where 'go go green' was the chant and any more of 4 wheelers were looked down upon. Don't you think if car companies wanted, they could make some hot bikes and put current bike companies in tough competition? Well, its also a matter of 'field of expertise' but still....

Some observations : In this picture, the wheels have no tires. And ..the brake hoods can easily give someone Carpel Tunnel, unless the position is changed. Man, can someone even ride like that? Is that EURO? And that odd looking thing to stabilize the bike is extremely fugly and industrial.

See more pictures and details here.

Eastman of India - Classic Roadster

While browsing YellowJersey.org, I came upon a bike that sort of touches me. The Eastman's single speed roadster. I remember these bikes vividly back in India, where folks would haul 100 lb sacks of rice on the rear racks.. or climb on it for a quick ride to the grocery stall, even kids as small as 10 or 15 would stand and hammer on it through some of the hilly internal dirt roads, inspite of the standover height (ouch). Almost all older generations in India, including my dad and his family have ridden these bikes in their young years. The 29" wheels would make for a faster speed with low cadence. The springs under the seat were awesome shock absorbers. Geez, I remember how the gear ratios were so high on these bikes, that when you approach a hill, you'd better mount off or you'd breathe so hard, mashing the pedal like a clown.. if you're having problems with your knee and lungs, you BETTER not climb.

And some of them would be custom fitted with dynamos that would light the headlamp as you pedal, colorful frame thongs, fenders and racks... as you can very well see, these bikes are built for rugged environments, but being bombproof doesn't mean being ugly. This bike is marvellous, and I feel like owning this piece of history. Click here to read more. I agree with the commentary on the site that the bikes are slow handling and can be of poor quality, but you can very well neglect those things, because they were made for a certain environment, and were pretty economical for people who used them. I'm still not sure why its sold for 399 dollars though?!

Brooks "Swallow" 2007 Limited Edition

Brooks baby. in Titanium!!! The most comfortable seat in the world just got more expensive! Om bling bling!! Note the screw on the underside of the nose. I am curious what that is for.

Included in the new Swallow treasure box :

1. Hand stitched edges
2. New clasp underneath
3. New stronger titanium frame and rails
4. New adjustment mechanism
5. New numbered Owner's certificate
6. Presentation box include Proofhide tin (what on earth is that?? I see it in the picture but..)
7. Special Brooks Swallow chromed wrench
8. Brooks buffing cloth
9. Brooks waterproof saddle cover

Here's an alternative review from Bike Radar. It includes tips on how to care for the saddle.

Now swallow hard. All this for 750 dollars! I don't know how comfortable the Swallow is (c'mon, its a brooks though), but it sure will swallow your wallet. Want to get a piece of pure class in this exotic makeup? For ordering info, click here.

Here's a classic Dave Phinney branded lugged steel bike. Its actually built by Serotta and even have the Serotta brake bridge in the rear. The tubing is Columbus SLX, which I mentioned about in an earlier post.

Credits : Ebay

1989 Eddie Merckx Team 7-Eleven

Eddie Merckx Team 7-Eleven






An authentic Eddie Merckx columbus slx steel bike from 1989,in Team 7 Eleven colors. The frame is a genuine vintage Corsa Extra frame with chromed fork. This bike was hand crafted in Belgium, its beautiful lug work attests to it. SLX was the most technologically advanced steel tubing at a time when new materials like titanium and carbon fibre were just being introduced.

Good steel tubes back are designed to act like a spring, with a certain amount of give when energy is supplied, and then snapping back like a trampoline. The SLX was designed by Columbus to do exactly that, and in fact, it tubing actually has a coil that winds down the middle to encourage the snapping effect. Which is why it was heavier than the SL version.

The old school Fizik Nisene saddle is super retro and looks comfy.