Tom,
Welcome. Responding to your comments about frame size: I have never raced, so I never felt the need to ride my "correct" size, whatever that is. I'm about 6'1", but I have always ridden large frames. 62cm seems to be my favorite, but I have a 65cm Raleigh Competition, a 66cm Botecchia, and a 27 inch (68.5cm) Fuji. I can get on the Fuji, but the first time I got off must have been pretty amusing to the onlookers.
Pat Moffat Tempe, AZ
-----Original Message----- From: Thomas E Ward <tom.ward@juno.com> Sent: Nov 5, 2003 11:26 AM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]salutations
Hi, I'm another of the recent ones to join the list. I'm writing to you from a small apartment in Greenwich Village, though I am originally from San Diego by way of the San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you Pete Rutledge and Steven Maasland for separately inviting me to the list over the past year, and I have a feeling I've encountered a few others of you on eBay; I hope you found me nice to deal with. A pity I haven't more money to spend! I've been unemployed for about three months--except for those bass guitar lessons I give. In addition to being a 36-year-old unemployed office worker (B.A. Urban Studies), I'm active in New York City's music scene--playing in three bands. You'll see that this is on-topic once you realize the correlation between 'flatwound' strings on a '56 or '62 Fender Precision Bass, and tubulars on any number of older cycles. That's the kind of thing going on in my life, which has lead me to buy for example Pete's old racing shoes from 1965 (they fit). Which leads me to the lament: why is it so difficult to buy a pair of unbranded black wool cycling shorts, a la the type my (nine years older) brother wore as a racer in the early '70s? Perhaps there is a source out there of which I am unaware. Already I digress, but it's great to observe so many people sharing so much information and experience, whether it be in the realm of lore, recorded history, or mechanical insight. I will definitely have questions to pose; I hope you'll forgive me when they are naive and feel esteem for me if I come up with something sophisticated to inquire about. I've definitely benefitted greatly from others' posts and following the various threads. The cumulative effect has to be tremendous.
My complete bikes are: circa 1971 Raleigh Competition, nice original condition circa 1968 Bottecchia, repainted, Nervar crankset, ttt bars and stem, Campag NR other bits '70s Gitane tandem, 650B wheels Peugeot UO-8 with fenders & Sugino Maxy triple--parked at my girlfriend's place
My build-up-from-frameset, ongoing projects include: circa '58 (?) Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix (Reg Harris)--good decals & paint 1973 Peugeot PX-10, a clean one 1973 Raleigh Super Course--beater to be set up for low, low gearing
I'm making good use of racks as these are sharing a one bedroom apartment (near Sullivan and Bleecker, for those of you who know the city) with a Raleigh DL-1 and a couple of 'Sports' models.
John Pergolizzi, I hope you'll get in touch, as I know no one locally who shares my interests vis-a-vis the bikes. I need to review the schedule of your gathering tomorrow--not sure yet if I can make that, but I'd like to.
To all my compatriots on the list, thanks in advance for all commentary and advice. I'd particularly love to hear from anyone with opinions about how the Lenton Grand Prix should be built up. So far I've installed the Williams cottered cranks (dated '58) that I got with the frameset, also a GB spearpoint stem, GB bars, and a Universal Mod 61 brakeset. I have a Simplex 'suicide' front changer, & there's a boss for a rear derrailleur. I'd be curious to know:
a. What was the original kit for this bike, particularly the rear derailleur & shifter b. What would other opinions be regarding tasteful upgrades to, say, mid-60s enthusiast trim
I'm taking up too much space here. Thanks all for reading my intro, hope it was a little entertaining.
Tom Ward Manhattan
P.S. RE: "a new high"--that gold Cinelli. Looked like a dream to me. I was monitoring that auction and basically salivating (unemployment has made me hungrier than usual), as for one thing it was in my size. Has anyone else experienced that with experience, one begins to like a larger frame size? 58 c. to c. seems to be my preference now (so 60-ish c. to t.) whereas 56 used to seem right. I wonder if this preference may again change as I age, also if many riders with multiple bikes ride a variety of sizes. Anyway, this one was hard to watch disappear, as I might have spec'd it myself (had I not been born in 1967).
P.P.S. I do wonder about the actual age of the gold Cinelli--noticed a thread starting--do you suppose since it was purchased as a complete bike (built-up by Spence Wolf, I believe it said) that it is likely to have been an old-stock frameset at that point? I believe that's the implication. I bought my Raleigh from the original owner, who said that when he bought it in '73, it had been hanging around the store for two years. Makes sense in that it's apparent that '73 was kind-of the boom year of the 'bike-boom' . . . seems like you could sell anything that year. Reminiscences?