I'm currently reading the little novel "1904" about
the second Tour de France. Igor would have been in
his element in those no-support-allowed days. His
kind of skills might also be valuable in an energy and
materials-short future--he's the 1900's Tour rider and
the Ecotopian bike mechanic!
David Feldman
Vancouver, WA
> Now Brian,
>
> A real constructeur like yourself might want to
> think back about Rene Herse
> or Alex Singer during the war under occupation when
> electricity was rationed
> and between raids for contraband components were
> hacked out by hand.
>
> A modest 75 tooth chainwheel could be plotted out on
> a suitable plate on
> aluminum alloy and cut by hand, think like well,
> much rounder than biopace!
> Easier than flowery lugs but for each tooth, more
> work. You could even drill
> and press in chain rivet pins as ramps for the
> custom touch.
>
> Just shape the teeth with a drill (a drill press is
> best) and hand file.
>
> Naturally, I didn't need to make this up. Igor; our
> new old stock bike
> mechanic from Georgia (sic - former Russian
> Georgia) comes from stout stock
> which with bicycle parts shortages ever since 1917
> or so has been making
> bicycle parts on an as needed basis apparently since
> birth. He is very out
> of touch with modern parts but show him a 30 year
> old magazine with new
> products featured and he'll explain in terrible
> broken English how he used to
> make those a few years ago; "Huret Duopar's, front
> and rear".
>
> HE's the worst packrat. I caught him brazing a
> customers broken brake cable
> back together the other day. I told him to change
> it and he did, then salted
> the brazed brake cable into his old bag to take
> home. I think I hurt his
> feeling as he kept saying, " it good work, good
> work". He hot patches
> skinside tires, replaces entire valve bases in
> tubes. All he needs is a
> little flame and some talc. He was doing this a
> week before I realized we
> have stopped selling tubes and tires on repairs. And
> spokes, you get the
> picture. He doesn't understand why we don't just fix
> all the bent twisted
> derailleurs in our spare parts bucket. (We have
> tried)
>
> I discovered the chainwheel thing after he
> discovered a 60T chainwheel
> rumbling round the shop and asked if we had anything
> bigger. The next day at
> lunch he was drilling away on this big alloy plate.
> It's butt ugly but it
> works. He rides a 75x16 fixed now. He seems to stand
> a lot.
>
> Another creation yet to be named is a crank he made.
> He took an old Sugino
> crank and 3 x 53 chainwheels and then drilled and
> bolted them to the outer
> chainwheel and crankarm in an equally spaced
> triangular pattern to make one
> very large chainwheel. They had to be reinforced
> and he's working on the
> chainguide as the chain ramps between sprockets by
> hey man, this is
> impressive to the lay bike guy; and let's don't take
> about impressing small
> children.
>
> Highest regards,
>
>
> Gilbert "Talc is cheap, shall Igor whip up a
> creation for Brian" Anderson
>
> The North Road Bicycle Company
> your bicycle outfitter
> 519 W. North St.
> Raleigh, NC 27603
> USA
> ph toll free in USA :800/321-5511
> Local ph: 919/828-8999
> E-Mail: cyclestore@aol.com
>
> In a message dated 7/6/02 12:07:18 AM,
> davebohm@cox.net writes:
>
> << These guys in England can make any ring you need.
> Can you say 110 tooth.
> Yeah baby! I plan to use them for some massively
> impressive chanrings on a
> future tandem.
>
>
> http://www.argonet.co.uk/
>
>
> Or Highpath Engineering.
>
>
> Take it easy.
>
>
> Dave Bohm
>
> Tucson (way hot)Arizona
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: Brian Baylis
>
> To: Grant McLean
>
> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>
> Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 8:28 PM
>
> Subject: Re: [CR]giant chainrings
>
>
>
> Grant,
>
>
> Thanks for the tease. Let's hear some numbers! How
> big is the largest?
>
> What bolt patterns are available? Talk is cheap, I
> want to know what he
>
> has.
>
>
> Brian Baylis
>
> La Mesa, CA
>
> I've got to play tonight; I'm out the door now.
> When I get back I expect
>
> to hear that you guys up there can top 70 T. >>
>
>
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