3. A complicated bike project
So, a few years onwards and we are at 2013. Couple years on our trusty single speeds and I started to get a feeling that we had found the practical limits of the steeds. We kept doing longer and longer treks in our surrounding area and at one point we found that the butt-department endurance cannot be trained to the extent of your physical condition. A trek of 40 km is ok but at a 60 km one can really start feeling the hind-department numbing rapidly. During our rides on the coastline dunes I really started to be envious to the racers and trekkers whizzing past us left and right.
Our bikes were as good as they ever were (a bit rustier at this point) but they never were designed for long distances or speed.
So now we had a new purpose: to go farther and faster!
Trying to learn from my past mistakes I did not run to the local bike dealer with credit card in hand, but started thinking what I want and started asking what the significant other would like to have. Luckily me and the S.O. are usually of same mind on style and purpose, otherwise this project would still be on the table.
Well, we knew that we want to have something like a trekking bike, relatively good speed mixed with comfort, and the bike should allow at least limited amount of cargo. Ideally the bike would be versatile in such a way that carriers and panniers could be added when necessary. This mix is not too hard to find, for example Cinelli and Koga-Miyata have a number of modern models which would fit to the description easily. The second part was slightly less rational: style. Now I am not a terribly stylish or fashionable person, but some things just get stuck in my head. In this case it was vintage bikes and their construction.
I have always had a soft spot for 30-50s style and here in the Netherlands it was the first time that I would see proper vintage bikes in quantity on the streets. Some were naturally in very shabby condition, but plenty of people have put the bikes back to their prime. Now in a vintage constructed bike there are lots and lots of details which really please me.
The frame is lugged, meaning that individual parts are joined with a separate, usually ornate/chromed piece, instead of a simple TIG weld. Also quite often the lugs are ”lined”, highliting the shape with contrast paint, as shown in the comparison picture below.
Another eloquent detail is in the forks. Older styled forks are manufactured from seprate parts whereas most new forks are unibody.
Our interest towards vintage style bikes was further amped up after a couple of friends came by with a delightful pair of vintage Koga-Miyata road racers. Both had absolutely deliciously shining steel and chromed parts, lugged frame and forks. Since then my S.O. has had to suffer my boyish enthusiasm on silly little details I keep on showing her from the internet. At least her fashion sense agrees with mine.
I knew that I was hooked, but a bit dismayed at the same time. I could not figure where to find the bikes fit for our purpose, and in the style we were now most interested. All those beauties I had seen on interwebs or could spot on the streets were hot-blooded road racers in their original or fixie forms. Not suitable for trekking of any sort. It seemed that speed combined with load carrying on a vintage frame was very hard to combine.
So the search continued and I started to look on what type of bikes people ran on long distances with packs on the bikes in the olden days. Names like René Herse, Jan Heine and Alex Singer started to pop out around performance sport called Randonneuring that originated in France. It was founded around the same period as the Tour de France, but whereas the Tour was for money and glory by working class athletes, randonneuring was upper class endurance event where the aim was to get to goal within specified time. The original randonneuse event, or brevet, is Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) which was first completed in 1891 and is competed every four years.
A brevet is an unsupported event, meaning that all you need is carried by yourself or bought along the route, including all the repair gear, food and water. The PBP route is 1200 km which needs to be completed within 90 hours or just less than four days. Sounds crazy? It is. Think about it, without a single stop the average speed needs to be 13,3 km/h. If you rest for 5 hours a day, the average speed is close to 17 km/h for the remaining 19 hours, non-stop. The insane bit comes from the fact that the record for the event is just over 50 hours. Gladly should I or we be interested in randonneuring, one can start with shorter 200 k/13 h rides and advance step by step to longer distances. Records aside, the interesting bit for me came from the fact that these long runners often carried their own necessities, which racers seldom can do without compromising steering and balance. The Frenchmen solved this problem by developing a new kind of bike, the randonneur.
Perhaps one day I will understand at least a bit about bicycle geometry, but for now I am just parrotting what I have read. As far as carrying capacity goes, these bikes had been optimised in such way that the handlebar could take considerable weight without compromising the steering. Should you put extra 10 kg on a racer handlebar it would became unstable indeed. Furthermore, randonneurs were almost legendary for their comfort without sacrificing too much of the speed. This was achieved by larger tires, extra long fenders (to ward of rain), integrated lights and by relaxed low-trail geometry. You could say that they were less aggressive than roadies but they compensated the speed by allowing the rider to be on the bike for insane amounts of time.
In the olden days these bikes were built by artesans and each bike was customised according to the customer’s wishes, including the frame, wheels and accessories like carriers, fenders and lights. In the modern age such workmanship is rare and far between, hardly any modern bike has lugged frame nor the aesthetics of the old randonneurs, except for some small builders around the world serving an exclusive clientele. Since the beginning of the millennia, there has been some renewed interest to these beauties in the old continent, which should make it easier to find a modern rando. Lucky me! Not. After drooling for weeks of these beauties on the US side of the the Atlantic, I started to realize that the European counterparts would be also rare and exclusive, but also on the very, very expensive side. No such thing as off the peg selection conveniently available at your local dealer. Even the modern iterations of randonneurs, which in theory could fit to the budget (and bit in the style), were out of stock for the winter season.
Ergo, practical and economic solution would be to find a genuine rando and put it back together or find a frame that would be as close as possible to randonneurs and build it from the ground up.
So I hunted down some local bike shops specializing on custom builds, but for one reason or another that lead to nowhere. Either the builder would be reluctant to go for a vintage frame (which I yet had not been able to find for both of us) or suggested that we’d go for a complete built modern trekkie for practical purposes (warranty etc.) and just pimp some details. I started to feel that this project is not going to end well, or actually end at all. After some time of lurking on numerous internet forums with randonneur topics, I found threads discussing on contemporary UK framebuilders. A number of classic brands like Raleigh, Pashley, Merlin and Mercian originate from the UK and the British have their own version of Randonneuring called Audax. This is when I found Bob Jackson.
They do classic, hand made lugged frames for touring, racing and Audax. Better even, they do all of their frames either fully custom or as off-the peg versions. A customer can choose the model and size and then provide a few additional details such as the paintjob of their choosing (S.O. was completely bought by now). I now had a chance to get a lugged frame, with a semi-custom paintjob, for just under 600£. I was bought.
The problem was that I did not have a builder who would be willing to make us the bikes on a naked frame and more importantly in light of my past experiences on choosing a bike, we would not have a chance to try such frame in the real life with wheels on.
I begun the search anew and found a local establishment called Lola Bikes & Coffee who promised a possibility for custom builds on their website. I contacted them and started the discussions on a custom job. On our first visit, we trialed number of modern racing and trek bikes in order to get an idea what size and geometry might work for us, and what definitely would not. Then I contacted Bob Jackson and asked for estimation on what size they would suggest based on our body measurements and the key geometry on the bikes we would be most interested in. Then it was a matter of comparing the geometries on the bikes which suited us well with the B.J. specifications. The builder gave a go-ahead for two World Tour frames and drafted the budget and a list for the parts based on our thoughts and aims with the bikes.
Now the project is at the point where we have bought the frames and are waiting for the paint to dry for the shipping from UK. Meanwhile we have put the parts list together with the builder. Unfortunately our budget will not permit an authentic build, so for now it will be a mix of modern tech and old style. I think this will be just a start for future projects :) Actually the best part is that I and S.O. will participate on putting the bikes together under the builders watcful eye and guidance. So we should get a good hands-on lesson in how the bikes are built and taken apart for maintenance or further upgrades. Not a bad deal.
In the end we should have vintage styled bikes for light and heavier touring. I just hope that everything goes according to plan…
When the project goes forward I have thought of documenting the buld in detail. I should have plenty to write about that when the time comes. We also have a bit of a DIY project on panniers and handlebar bags coming up so that’s a whole nother story. In the meanwhile I will perhaps write about something different altogether or just post some pictures to past the time. Toodle-loo!
Pics:
Leiden Windmill
Seatpost cluster lugged (left):http://www.oswaldcycleworks.com/gallery.php
Seatpost cluster right TIG welded (right): http://threadbikes.com/?cat=1
Lugged fork (left): http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/cheap-commuter-and-city-bikes-head-to-head-36100/
Unibody fork (right): http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/02/19/long-term-review-volagi-viaje-steel-road-bike-desguised-as-a-commuter/
Vintage roadbike: http://lovelybike.blogspot.nl/2012/01/randonneur-experiment-review.html
Paris-Brest-Paris Early times: http://gccfla.org/brevet/brevets.html
René Herse rando: http://www.cycleexif.com/rene-herse
Bob Jackson headtube logo: http://www.velobase.com/
Den Haag Hollands Spoor trainstation