Contre Le Montre

The Vel-Sport 3 speed fixed, Contre la Montre

frame has had the lugs lined, decaled and clear coated.

Took me a bit longer than I planned, but 

got there in the end.

Now I will build up the woods for it.

And of course make a nice head badge, which
 will probably be alloy and cnc cut, we are still agonizing 
over this final, but crucial little detail.

There are some more photos of the earlier
stages of this project in the For Sale section here

PEUGEOT PY/PX10

Here is a machine that is very rare in New Zealand.

This is either a Peugeot PX10LE or a PY10

from the late seventies.

These seem to be rare on these shores, I gather,

because there didn't appear to (obviously) be any one

importing Peugeot's into NZ until the very late seventies.

...

Notice the French specific Reynolds decal...nice

 Simple, but I think beautifully understated fork crown.

 I had been after this frame for a few years, so was 

really pleased when it's owner phoned me a while back

to say he would sell it to me.

It's really is on the out side of my size range,

but I will make it work ( I hope).

 One of the reasons, I suspect it is a PX10LE or a PY10

is the relatively short wheel base.

Although I could well stand to be corrected.

A WEEKEND PAINT JOB

When I heard that David, one of my sons friends,

had crashed his bike, and needed another frame for his school

racing the next weekend.

I had a look through the garage and found a unknown

frame ( although it looks suspiciously like a Bauer, oh well)
 that was given to me a while back, with a very

ugly splash paint job on it.

Davids crashed Bauer, ouch!

So I offered it to David, on the understanding that

he prepare the frame, and I would paint and assemble

it for him, which he was very happy to do.

I  happened to have some nice orange paint 

at hand, that I had just had mixed for the McLaren project.

To cut a pretty short story even shorter,

I painted the bike in record time (for me).

Not the mintiest job, but looks good enough

 from a couple of feet. 
But most importantly he is racing again
this coming weekend. 

I should have it back together this week, and will 

post some photos when done.

I hear he does pretty well on these steel bikes

against all the other boys, mostly on late

model alloy, and some carbon bikes.

Will definitely have to get some photos of that.

GB COMPONENTS

 I really like GB components, not all of them are great sure, 

but  some I rate highly. Such as these anodized 

Courier Plus brake sets, which also look good

in plain alloy.

They work very well when set up nicely too.

EPHGRAVE SAVED FROM THE TIP

THE GOOD NEWS

This very early Ephgrave was spotted at 

a local rubbish dump a few years back, by my mate Dennis.

He actually left the bike where it lay, but thinking it

over went back the next day and recovered it.

It was a frame only, with no forks or fittings.

He found some forks that fitted, and assembled the bike

out of his spare parts bin.
He used the bike like this for a while, before moving onto
 something else, so letting it 
languish in the corner of his garage, until I spotted it.

I had seen this frame set sitting forlornly in the corner
of Dennis's garage over the last couple of years, and would often wander
over and inspect it, wondering what make it was.
I always had a strong suspicion that it was something
interesting and worth looking into.
I eventually asked Dennis if he was going to restore
or rebuild the frame, at which point he said I should
take the frame and do with it what I will, 
as he had no further interest in it.

It didn't take me long to realize, once I had the frame at home, and got 
into some research, that my initial interest was well founded.
The frame turns out to be a very early, possibly
mid/late forties Ephgrave, built by non other than
the legendary Les Ephgrave himself. 

THE BAD NEWS
So that is all the good news, the bad news
is that the frame had been left sitting on
the floor of the tip, and people had been walking
on it.
With the result that the down tube is badly bent, 
and the top tube is a bit bent, and the seat cluster seems to have
taken some serious punishment at some time during it's life.

THE GOOD NEWS
But the good news, is that, while I have my hands full
of bike work and projects at the moment, and for the next little while,
I intend to fully restore this beautiful machine back to it's
former glory when time allows.

MONSIEUR ANQUETIL

Here is a rough up for a  tribute

Tee Shirt to the almighty TT man

monsieur Jacques Anquetil

I have added a couple of little stars around his head now,

which makes him look like he is crazy on speed.

Which I guess he was, a bit of the time.

Still think he was cool though.

SIX TRACK BIKE ROAD TESTS 1975

Read a classic 1975 six way test between six classic

track bikes here

Fuji TF Sprint

Kabuki DTF

Masi Pursuit

Miyata Professional

Panasonic Ultralight

Ron Cooper Sprint

Believe me it's worth reading just for the 

Panasonic Ultralight test.

SPEEDY CYCLES MUSETTE

NEW SPEED CYCLES MUSETTE

Here is the new Speedy Cycles musette from Vel-Sport

check it out here.
Check a little on Speedy Cycles here

LEAD CYCLISTS AND BIKES

I have been playing around with casting my own lead 

cycle racers on and off for the last year or so.

With a bit of promoting from my mate Lee, who also wants 

to have a go at a bit of casting, I have got back into this 

very interesting little side project.

In the photo above you can see the first cast I made

 for the rider, the image below is the first prototype.

Now I am in the process of casting a set of bikes.

I didn't want to just copy the old 1950's French castings,

I decided to add a little more detail. also as we are 

going to spin cast them, and make six at a time, 

I thought they should all be a bit different.

This us the first one I have worked on, it has 

added water bottle, thinned and detailed chain,derailleur,

drilled hubs, head badge,saddle(not finished),brake blocks 

and the handle bars have been given the

"South of France" bend.

 

MAJOR NEW ZEALAND CYCLE RACING FIND

I have just secured these historic

 photographs of George Sutherland, one of New Zealand's

first cycling stars.

Also this fantastic photo of Sutherland, racing the 

African American track star Major Taylor

As you can see the photos all are in need of

restoration. I will post some better photos when this has been completed.

 George Sutherland 1900

 Sutherland and Marshall Taylor 

Christchurch 1907

The great Marshall Major Taylor in action

 I haven't been able to identify this rider yet.

I am hoping some research might unearth some details.