basscyclist thread picture thread

[dlb1001]

One more:

Any friends of old school British bikes here? I've always lusted after a Mercian Super Vincitore or a Hetchins Curly. I've just never been able to reconcile working for a living with ownership of one of these works of art. Anyone here know what I'm talking about?

I have seen pictures of a Mercian and Hetchins...very extensive lugwork. Colnago has their version with fancy lugwork, called "Arabesque". Very expensive!
Colnago Arabesque . Frame ,Fork, Headset.57cm. NEW | eBay

 

[fokof]

 

[Hot Rats]

The current situation: MT Diablo in the distance.

 

[Toptube]

The current situation: MT Diablo in the distance.

View attachment 4349785

I went down Mt. Diablo in 2011, with this 2007 Enduro SL

Love that bike. Perfect fit. Still have it.

 

[Hot Rats]

This is happening now....

 

[Clank Plank]

I have 8 bikes, have always cycled. Spent some years as a trainer teaching advanced road skills, off road skills, defensive tactics, etc, to the emergwncy services. Along with lifting cycling is my main exercise and selt administered mental health treatment.

I don't have any pics, but will get some pronto.

 

[MattZilla]

One more:

Any friends of old school British bikes here? I've always lusted after a Mercian Super Vincitore or a Hetchins Curly. I've just never been able to reconcile working for a living with ownership of one of these works of art. Anyone here know what I'm talking about?

I respect the artistry, not a fan of the aesthetic entirely (Give me some simple long point French or Italian lugs and a Japanese sloped crown, please and thank you). Seems like Speedvagen/Vanilla appreciate the mechanics of the curly stays adding a bit of suspension for both cx racing and road/street bikes. They keep the chainstays straight though. I might go for one of theirs in the right circumstances.

I think there's also a Ti frame maker who does a single-bend seatstays design. Seven?

Having found myself a preference for springy old steel frames over modern stiff frames, not just for aesthetics or suppleness over bumps, but for sprinting and climbing- possibly due to the theoretical effect of depositing some potential energy into the frame when the cranks are within 20° of horizontal and cashing it out near TDC/BDC- I'm curious how the British full curly rear end would perform in my daily abuse.


~~~


This past weekend I was near Asheville, NC and couldn't bring a bike. None of the shops in the county rent road bikes! (GRRRR)

CL TO THE RESCUE!

Put thirty miles on this kinda small Tange #2 sweetie and am thinking that I might have the next frame in my Ship of Theseus be a T#2 frame instead of 531 as the last three have been. Perfect amount of flex!

This one ain't gonna work as there's no room or mounts for fenders, so it's going to get sold off. I might flatbar+1x+platforms it to make it easier to sell in my area or just part it out on ebay. We'll see.

 

[Toptube]

Stopped by a school playground yesterday, on the way home from work; to do pullups on the monkey bars. And dips on some hand rails.

I still don't feel safe using a gym during these Covid times so....this sort of thing is what I've been doing for awhile.

 

[bassville pete]

Stopped by a school playground yesterday, on the way home from work; to do pullups on the monkey bars. And dips on some hand rails.

I still don't feel safe using a gym during these Covid times so....this sort of thing is what I've been doing for awhile.

View attachment 4352730

View attachment 4352732

How popular are Giant bikes in America?

 

[Hot Rats]

Stopped by a school playground yesterday, on the way home from work; to do pullups on the monkey bars. And dips on some hand rails.

I still don't feel safe using a gym during these Covid times so....this sort of thing is what I've been doing for awhile.

View attachment 4352730

View attachment 4352732

That is a great looking machine..... really nice.

 

[Toptube]

That is a great looking machine..... really nice.

Thanks. I already mentioned it but....I built it myself : )

How popular are Giant bikes in America?

They aren't very popular here. It can be tough to find a bike shop which carries Giant at all.

They had a small boost in popularity between 2002 - 2010. But since then, their popularity has really fallen off. However, I also feel like the brand hasn't put nearly as much energy into advancing their designs, as some other brands. So....I feel like the drop in popularity is related to that.

I bought this frame on Ebay. It was leftover surplus stock, shipped from Taiwan

 

[fdeck]

Giant is an interesting brand. They are the world's largest bike manufacturer. But in addition to their own brand, they also make frames and finished bikes for other brands, including some of the "name" brands in the US.

Schwinn had a relationship with Giant for a while. When lugged frames became widespread, Schwinn made a brief attempt at manufacturing them in Mississippi, then gave up and started outsourcing frames and bikes, from a number of makers. For a time, they bought bikes from an unknown Taiwanese factory called Giant. From what I've read, they treated Giant so terribly, that Giant decided to enter the US bike market, selling bikes to all of the Schwinn dealers, who were frankly, delighted. I remember when Giant bikes showed up at the Schwinn shop in my home town. They were a step above Schwinn in quality, having lighter frames and more modern components.

In the US, nobody has the storefront presence of Trek, and all other brands have their ups and downs. It's possible that Giant is happy making bikes with any brand on them, and not worrying about having a major brand presence in the US.

 

[wazzel]

Cool thread. I did lots of road riding and short distance tri's for a stretch. When my oldest got pregnant and moved home the bike got parked. My wife and I have been helping her with the baby for the past three years while she finishes college. Hope I can get back in the saddle soon.

I have a really nice 2012 Scott Foil 10. Got it as a store demo for half price in 2013. Only had a couple test rides on it.

 

[Stempelloos]

Giant is an interesting brand. They are the world's largest bike manufacturer. But in addition to their own brand, they also make frames and finished bikes for other brands, including some of the "name" brands in the US.

Schwinn had a relationship with Giant for a while. When lugged frames became widespread, Schwinn made a brief attempt at manufacturing them in Mississippi, then gave up and started outsourcing frames and bikes, from a number of makers. For a time, they bought bikes from an unknown Taiwanese factory called Giant. From what I've read, they treated Giant so terribly, that Giant decided to enter the US bike market, selling bikes to all of the Schwinn dealers, who were frankly, delighted. I remember when Giant bikes showed up at the Schwinn shop in my home town. They were a step above Schwinn in quality, having lighter frames and more modern components.

In the US, nobody has the storefront presence of Trek, and all other brands have their ups and downs. It's possible that Giant is happy making bikes with any brand on them, and not worrying about having a major brand presence in the US.

According to the Dutch Wikipedia, Giant has 3 factories. 1 in Taiwan, 1 in China and a European assembly factory in Lelystad the Netherlands.

Lelystad:

There's also talk that Giant was brought to the Netherlands by Koga-Miyata, a Dutch bicycle maker that started off with importing Japanese Miyata frames to build bikes with.
They're called Koga nowadays because their co-operation with Miyata stopped in 2010. Koga // About Koga > History

 

[Stempelloos]

From an article about cycling track bikes, a comparison between the Dutch Koga Kinsei and the Lotus x Hope HB.T..

The steering wheel, wheels, chain, sprockets and pedals have to be ordered separately. Prices are for the frames.

 

[J_Bass]

From an article about cycling track bikes, a comparison between the Dutch Koga Kinsei and the Lotus x Hope HB.T..

View attachment 4360471




The steering wheel, wheels, chain, sprockets and pedals have to be ordered separately. Prices are for the frames.

Some controversy around the bike:

Team GB Lotus x Hope track bike design 'stolen', claims Dutch bike brand

 

[MattZilla]

How popular are Giant bikes in America?

less popular than Trek, Specialized, Kona, State, and Surly, but I still see them around, probably about the same as All-City, albeit possibly a different price bracket. I think I see more pre-2005 Cannondales than Giants on the roads & trails, but more Giants than modern Cannondales.

They aren't very popular here. It can be tough to find a bike shop which carries Giant at all.

I've only seen them in shops used or in for work so I don't know where people are obtaining them. It seemed like half of all bike shops in the northeast were Felt dealers a decade ago, but I've almost never seen anyone actually riding a Felt and only saw one in for work- it allegedly was a triathlete's "cheap traveling race bike".

When lugged frames became widespread,

Are you talking about the period from 1880-1990?

Schwinn made a brief attempt at manufacturing them in Mississippi,

had to read it up. Just barely ten years. There's a bunch of threads' posts of second hand quotes of dealers having to reassemble bikes and/or straighten frames from the Greenville plant along with quotes from plant management. It's a sad statement of the mentality of consumerists and the people who have to cater to them. Kinda patting myself on the back for avoiding the too good to be true used prices on TT & Columbus tubed Schwinns.

Also now hoping I can find a minty white & black chrome Peloton frameset, assuming it's the same black chrome on my High Sierra and probably built by Giant in Taiwan (despite the Chicago badge the HS was wearing when it came to me). It'd probably look pretty cool as a restomod if I could budget some Enve wheels with the logo matched to the white on the frame.

 

[fdeck]

Are you talking about the period from 1880-1990?

Ah, good point. Other manufacturers had lugged frames, just not Schwinn. Oddly enough I weighed a complete Schwinn Varsity frame plus crankset along with an inexpensive lugged frame plus crankset from the same era. The difference was only a few pounds. All of the other components added a lot to the ponderous weight of the Varsity.

I'll have to find it, a YouTube video showing the manufacturing of an English bike in the 1940s (the Rudge factory), and it's just amazing. I think they could build a bike as quickly as Schwinn could. For instance the lugged frames were not brazed by hand, but in an oven.

had to read it up. Just barely ten years. There's a bunch of threads' posts of second hand quotes of dealers having to reassemble bikes and/or straighten frames from the Greenville plant along with quotes from plant management. It's a sad statement of the mentality of consumerists and the people who have to cater to them.

Welcome to America. Same thing was happening with cars. To make matters worse, from what I've read, the Schwinn owners were driving the business into the ground, and just did not make the investment in the new technology. I'm not sure anything would have helped against the global economics of manufacturing.

I think I have one Greenville frame, and one from Giant. They're of similar quality to the entry level Japanese frames of the same time period.

 

[MattZilla]

Oddly enough I weighed a complete Schwinn Varsity frame plus crankset along with an inexpensive lugged frame plus crankset from the same era. The difference was only a few pounds. All of the other components added a lot to the ponderous weight of the Varsity.

I noticed the same thing with a "ladies townie" Schwinn I got. Someday it'll get new 26" wheels.

a YouTube video showing the manufacturing of an English bike in the 1940s (the Rudge factory), and it's just amazing.

I've seen that and it is amazing, both on its own, and that Schwinn could've done just that and not put all of the investment they had into the electroforging.

I'm not sure anything would have helped against the global economics of manufacturing.

I blame consumerism and that being Anti-Communist & Buy American Made carried connotations of other things that made being deliberately ignorant of the reasons for AC&BAM easy for people who were young enough to have not fought in the Korean War for how most companies, even Trek & Cannondale, slowly gave up on really wonderful domestic manufacture. And also policies & attitudes brought by Nixon's crew & their successors.

Greenville was really too little, too late.

I often wonder now about what I used to refer as Founder's Son Syndrome and how it seemed to kill so many companies and now think it's just down to consumerism+wage-stagnation…

…even if Ignaz Schwinn had stopped ageing at 34 and lived to 150 or the same for Frank W, I still think the company would've either gone full closure, or to production in PRC & PRC territories, and very doubtfully would've sensibly scaled down to just the Waterford high-mid to high end bikes to compete only with Colnago, Serotta, and such.

Welcome to America. Same thing was happening with cars.

Maybe the grandson was incompetent or Frank left him with incompetent management, but the lack of buying power that the consumers had would dictate how big of a salary a company could use to lure talented management.

Honda & Toyota got smart when they got faced with a limit on units moved here- go upmarket.

 

[Hot Rats]

Also now hoping I can find a minty white & black chrome Peloton frameset, assuming it's the same black chrome on my High Sierra.

I've still got my black chrome high Sierra from 1984. Does yours have the rear brakes on the chainstays right behind the bottom bracket or up top. I can't find any pictures or info about the lower brakes like mine.