The Bikes
The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.
It seems in some ways like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, the way we honor our machines. We love them to a point that lies well beyond obsession. Upon these machines upon we endure endless suffering, but also find an unending pleasure. The rhythm, the harmony between rider and machine, the outdoors, the wind in our faces and air in our lungs.
The Bikes is devoted entirely to our machines. Ours, The Keepers, and yours, the Community. It features articles devoted to our bikes, and proves a forum for uploading photos of your own machines for discussion. We will be harsh, but fair; this is a place to enforce and enhance our observation of The Rules.
If you’d like to submit an article about your own beloved bike, please feel free to send it to us and we’ll do our best to work with you to include it.
- Rule #12 and the Cascade Effect
That is a very reasonable opening salvo for the Rule about bike ownership. Three is good and certainly a minimum, and we are talking road bikes here, if there was any doubt. They naturally become ordered: the #1 is ichi-ban, top dog, go-to bike for every and all rides. #2 was the old #1, ... - Guest Article: Black Is Not The New Black@kogalover is singing my song here. Bikes are beautiful. ’nuff said. VLVV, Gianni With all those posts on riding in winter and being visible, either by putting Eyes of Sauron or other car melting devices on one’s steed, or by even considering a YJA instead of donning plain black kit, it was about time to finally get ...
- Dialing in the StableThis was going to be an article about Rule #45. It is amazing how much time is wasted and matches burned when professionals stop for that second bike change to get back on their #1. With all the jigs available to team mechanics it would seem they could set up five bikes exactly the same. And ...
- Matching the drapes to the rugAs a longtime titanium bike owner, I’ve always been jealous of a beautiful painted frame but Ti and carbon frames don’t need paint like a steel frame needs paint. But I want some painted beauty. It’s like buying a white car; I can’t do white, need some color. So between a Ti frame and a ...
- Festum Prophetae: Waiting for the HourEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson The one thing everyone should always plan for is that however well-conceived a program might be, things will never go to plan. The high level plan for my Festum Prophetae Hour Ride was as follows: Have a custom Hour Bike built by Don Walker. Because reasons. Reasons like custom ...
@Teocalli
….with the Assos girl.
Yeah…take a number. We all have that dream.
I see a Celeste Bianchi with green center stripey Pave’s… Classic ! Especially now that Pave’s have been discontinued. Anyways, this is too cool. I can’t imagine how this cat ended up with all these bikes?? What a hoot.
@Harminator
No but mine has beer taps as well
@Harminator
The VMW was OK with the cafe and bike dream.
The Assos girl would not survive long………………
@wilburrox
Paves have been discontinued? Fuck. Why do companies have to discontinue the good stuff? Casio stopped making my favorite basic watch, the assholes. Now a $15 watch goes for $75 on ebay since they’re “rare and vintage.” And basic Nokia phones. I don’t want a smartphone, thank you. And goddamn helmets! You find one that fits well, that looks good…and next year the discontinue it or update it, and it isn’t as good! Shite.
The helmet makers need to realize that if you don’t make the rear strap mechanism movable so that you can get it to the base of your skull, the helmet can move up and back, no matter how tight you make the mech or the strap. In a bad crash, I don’t want my helmet moving.
After getting all nostalgic with my father last week about trying to find parts and pieces and recreate my late grandfathers race bike from the 30’s , he fronts up this week and gives me photo’s of my first “proper bike”
Obvious violations, the hair being high on the list, including not really sure what value the guards had !
From memory, most of it was stripped back in some pre-V premonition.
Clearly photo not attaching itself in the little box download thingy.
Back in a sec …. mumble mumble #$@% !
@Ron
Ron, I’ve got a Casio F-91W which cost me about $15. And my phone is a Nokia C1, not a smartphone.
If you want to carry on living in the stone age, which I do, it is possible.
I went to get on my bike last night for a turbo trainer hurt session, and couldn’t push the crank round. I worked out that the crank was rubbing on the front derailleur. I must have ridden it like that because there is a scratch all the way across the inside of the crank (which is brand fucking new).
I pushed the derailleur back into shape and it seems to be fine now, but I have no idea how it happened and I want to vent because I’m upset about scratching my crank.
@RobSandy
Color it in with a sharpie, submit to GCN to get on bodge of the week. Unless its a carbon crank… Then get a pint and some tissues and have a good cry.
@RobSandy
Not wishing to point out the obvious but you might want to check the outer limit adjuster screw on the derailleur? Is you mount “braze on” or “band” – either way you may also want to check the appropriate tension on the mount bolt. Is it slipping as you shift? I’d suggest that “pushing it back in shape” is just maybe not the best approach on a carbon frame………..
As @Teocalli says, for it to do that the limit screws have to be set wrong. If you’re not comfortable adjusting your derailleur yourself, get it to a decent bike mechanic stat. Also, how bad is the scratch? Approximately three times your body weight goes into every pedal stroke so the risk of a broken crank increases dramatically if there are any stress risers included in the equation…
@AJ
I’ve considered this.
@Teocalli
@Oli
Thanks chaps – I’ve had my bike on a couple of trains recently, think the mech may have just got caught on something. Only the seatpost and forks are carbon on my bike so I’m not that worried about that, and I’m taking my bike into my friendly local mechanic next week so I’ll get him to have a check over.
Bit cross.
@RobSandy
But seriously, mine was making a hell of a noise from the rear end after a long ride few weeks back.
Turns out shop had given the rear mech limit screws a tweak but forgotten to un-tweak them, leaving the upper limit screw wide open. Consequence of that was chain went clean off the 28 on the rear into my spokes and hub. NOT happy. Have now built a home made service stand and fixed the limit screw issues. Next is to replace the cables as I suspect some damage/fray as now not shifting sweetly.
So, check limit screws, front and rear.
Hope it works out.
My Sat am #9 neighborhood bike. Nothing special no. BUT, and I’m serious about this, the gates carbon drive belt is about perfecto for just knocking around on wet days with no particular place to go. This is a Trek District and set up as single speed. I could imagine setting up this drive with an internally geared rear hub and it being a perfect commuter bike. Maybe I hose the drivetrain off later today?? Maybe not. It just doesn’t matter with the belt.
N + 2
Winter Projects. More to follow as builds are completed.
@bovary1031
More projects after Winter Projects?! That’s a nice way to spend winter!
Checked my seat post last night and discovered an imprint of the seat collar 1-2mm deep in the carbon fibre. WTF? I have no idea how this has happened. I haven’t touched those bolts for months.
@bovary1031
Woah, cool!
@RobSandy
That means it’s been like that for months.
@Oli
Yes. I am sad about this. I had not budgeted for a new seat post.
@RobSandy
1-2 mm ?? I need to ask as much as possible about how this is possible with the right sized collar. What does the collar say about this situation ?? Seriously.
@bovary1031
It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year! There’ll be much… hub lacing and wheel building. Planning to sit in our newly opening service course headquarters with a kerosene heater to build vintage tubular wheelsets.
@RobSandy
….and a torque wrench?
@universo
What are those rims?
@Teocalli
Not able to clarify those shallow rims in the image posted by bovary1031. I will be building up a 36h Campagnolo Victory Strada tubular set, and also 32h Mavic GP3 and GL 330 sets — all shallow and anodized.
Hi everyone,
Here’s my #1, a photo from August (before velominati). Since then ive added a bottle cage and saddle bag. I have since then become aware of the rules. The saddle bag has come off and shortly at least one spacer is going to jump up the stem. My current n=3. I am aware of some rule breakage however i’m very pleased with this photo. I’ll try harder next time.
@universo
The rims are Galli Milano-Torino and Nisi. Both are 36 hole. Not sure of the specific Nisi model. They are non anodized and have no eyelets. The brake track also has vertical notches. I think they are of 1960s vintage. They aren’t a period match for the 80s frames, but they were an unusual item and at $20 were too good to pass up
@Teocalli
The rims are 36h Galli Milano-Torino and Nisi (not sure of specific model). The Gios is getting a respray in its original Gios blue
@bovary1031
Very nice. Headed to L’Eroica California?
@cognition
L’Eroica is always a possibility. I also have an unhealthy attachment to old steel bikes. Probably because they are what I started riding
Had to share.
@Teocalli
Yeah, so that seat post is retired. I’ve fitted a basic cheap alloy one for the time being. My friendly local wrench weight them and worked out that for £14 I would add 50g to the weight of my bike. And I wont fuck it by overtightening again.
I can always go back to carbon when I have the budget if I don’t like the ride.
Newest budget addition to the stable;Graham Weigh frame for the princely sum of £22 from E-Ghey with a few bits I had and some re-built old Mavic MA-2 rims which have seen better days but should last a bit longer,paint is just a rattle can job;set up as a free-wheel ss at the mo but can flip the hub and go fixed later.
Dunno what the tubing is as there was no stickers or ID,but might be 531 of some sort,think it’s late 90’s age wise.
Had a first shake-down this morning and it’s real smooth.
This was the (crappy) pic that was supposed to be attached.
Oh and yes I do realise there are many violations in that pic but fuck it I just wanted to ride the thing and it was a quick phone snap on the way to work.
@rhods
Welcome aboard! Looks good and as you say, it was pre Rules application. Those white tires shouldn’t work – but they do. That’s a Ribble house frame – how is it? You can tell Ribble’s a British shop when the advertise “winter” frames!
@fenlander
Sweet – how do you find the Crud guards? Do they rattle and how much clearance do they need to the bridge (my #9 is very tight with 25mm tyres)? We have a winter club rule for guards on group rides in the wet. I used SKS Race Blades last year but the metal pieces that hold them at the brakes do seem to break after a while as does the release clip part.
@fenlander
Surely the biggest violation was taking the photo outside a swimming pool?
That must be tough work without gears in the Fens with the winds we’ve been having recently.
@Teocalli
Update on this. So after some consideration we cut the sleeve in 2 using a blade so as not to lose material. The sleeve then fitted in fine from either side and fixed the BB per instructions. Praxis did not say no to this – just “be it on your head” which was fine by me. With the LBS mechanic we decided that as the Praxis BB has a flange to the frame the sleeve was not load bearing longitudinally so we went for it – also the fact that a replacement sleeve is only £3 helped the decision it it went pear shaped.
So far silence restored. Bliss.
@wiscot
Thanks for the welcome, I am chuffed about the bike. Its my first ever brandnew and carbon. I have an inherited 20+ yold Claud Butler tourer with Campagnolo gears and they still work a treat after a horrendous amount of abuse. So i thought silver gears and white bar tape and tires to balance the stealth black of the frame. Rule #8 was always going to get breached as I cant see me with a white saddle lasting for years. I think I had the inclination for bike cosmetics before I became enlightened, now I have a trusted framework to strive towards.
#2 is going on loan to a friend, my beloved Graham Weigh 531 reynolds as per pic was£150 inc shimanobrifters/shoes/pedals/vittoria tyres that went punctureless for two years until I saw tube mid 103mile snowdonia bikerace.
#3 was cheaper than the GW. Carrera 708 reynolds with mixed bag of 105 with down shifters in need of some serious tlc. But soon hopefully will adhere in a vintage 80’s way.
Rule #10 strictly adhered to with the new bike within 30 seconds of being out and realising as good as I think it is it was never going to peddle itself.
Cheers, Rhods
@bovary1031
You are wise (and insane at the same time). That original Gios blue paint is a beautiful thing. Well done.
@Gianni
Please don’t respray! Ok, so it’s not the more desirable gios blue (who doesn’t want a blue gios?), but in my opinion, and experience, respraying a frame for colour preference alone is a big mistake. Shame to lose the original paint and patina.
@fenlander
Nice score. Might be a little earlier, as it has a proper fork and the brake cable guides on top. The Graham Weigh frames from that era were built by Paul Donohue; good quality and very much undervalued. Most certainly 531, as all of the other lugged ones I’ve seen are. Donohue also did some nice tig welded and fillet brazed frames from 853, one of the first builders Reynolds certified to do so.
@DavyMuur
I would agree not to change colour for the sake of colour. If there are issues with the paint and some frame repair is needed, then a good paint job is the shield to preserve the integrity of that steel for many years to come [ inside and out ]. I am currently planning to repair and repaint my frame to make it mine for all time — and that only matters to me. No shame in glassy new paint.
@Teocalli
There’s not much nicer than a noise that stops.
@universo
I do agree that original finishes ought to be preserved. However, I should have clarified that the frame had been repainted already when I acquired it. It has one of those Columbus “Riverniciato” frame stickers that indicate that it has been repainted. The repaint itself was not all that competent as the dropout screws were painted along with the frame. There are also numerous areas where the paint and primer are completely gonel leaving bare steel exposed.
@RedRanger
Very nice. I just mounted some 25mm Open Pave CGs on mine for the fall-winter transition: