Re: [CR]the ultimate

(Example: Racing:Roger de Vlaeminck)

From: "Diane Feldman" <feldmanbike@home.com>
To: <vahdia@att.net>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <20010906205642.PXGN8481.mtiwmhc22.worldnet.att.net@webmail.worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]the ultimate
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 14:03:31 -0700


An ultimate? That would be the first Alex Singer I saw, at the Great Western Bicycle Rally in 1971 at Del Mar, CA. The Singer was owned by a group of Riverside cyclists who bought their bikes from Jerry Collier's store. The eye catcher was a soft yellow with the chromed 1 piece headtube, Beborex sidepull brakes, polished Super Champion rims on Maxicar hubs, and every braze-on in the book including a back-of-the-seat-tube generator lever. To this day cars are just big noisy lumps to me and most bikes, visually anyway, might as well be the shopping carts lined up in front of
Safeway.
David Feldman


----- Original Message -----
From: vahdia@att.net
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 1:56 PM
Subject: [CR]the ultimate



> I was about 9 years old in 1956 when I noticed some
> grownup ride up to the local liquor store in Culver City
> with a Schwinn World.It had a zizzy freewheel hub with
> big flanges and a circle of holes,a front hub to
> match,and cable operated caliper brakes.This was very
> stimulating,since all I knew before that was ballooners.
> As the years went by ,I continued to watch for really
> interesting bikes.They could be found but were
> unobtainium.I'm referring to really old bikes with wood
> rims and gnarly chains.Charlie Harding had some that
> were untouchable.
> By 1964 I had bought a proper road bike in Geneva with
> mostly early Record group that would be pure juice now.
> My big epiphany as a collector came in 1974 when I was
> walking past the unemployment office in Santa Monica
> with a bikie friend and we noticed an immaculate white
> Reynolds Peugeot with all original parts including JUY543
> We both exclaimed about the beauty and rarity of
> it,and despaired because we figured the rider had just
> found it in a yard sale,so the end was near...
> Afterthat I resolved to be alert and hopeful to spot
> neat old bikes in trouble and save them before they
> dissolved.I cast a wide net,from 1890's to 1965(not much
> after-the rest of us like those).The white Peugeot is
> still a phantasmal unicorn to me.
> 'til later,Seth Finkelstein,CA