Dear fellow members of the CR list, it being highly recommended in the welcome netiquette mail received by me this morning to introduce myself, here I am.
My name is Toni Theilmeier, I live near Osnabrück, Germany, and I have been a bike collector for something like twenty years (and a driver of Citroen 2CV "Tin Snail" truckettes for twenty-three), and I have also been trying to contribute to various cycling mags for the last ten years or so.
My main interest lies in British lightweights, my collection used to or still does include nearly all the big names, and I have recently developed an interest in motor paced track cycling. I am also the "marque enthusiast" for British Bikes in General of the German Old Bikes Owners Club Historische Fahrräder. I´m afraid I´m not doing too well at this because hardly anyone seems to be interested in British bikes here.
What I do not own, and consequently (in my personal line of thought) do not know a lot about is Italian or French classic bikes, because I will most certainly never be able to afford one at current prices.
What I´m hugely proud of is going to a veteran bike meet, like last Sunday, on my blue, highly original 1939 Evans Super Continental, and then being told off for not coming on an old bike.
Shall I tell you that I use a super-heavy Gazelle Dutch Roadster for my daily cycling or will I then be summarily executed as threatened in the aforementioned netiquette mail?
And I refuse to find out how to work ebay.
So there. I hope to hear a lot of you all, but will certainly first listen in for a while before chirping in myself.
Yours, Toni.