Hey Guys,
I don't own anything but wool cycling gear. I wear it year round and find it to be most comfortable. The funniest thing is listening to people wearing the latest high tech fabric ask about how hot it must be.
One of the guys who does our vintage rides occasionally will show up in plus-fours, button down collared cotton shirt, & a tie. Very dashing and just that added touch, when tooling around on one's 1950s vintage Hetchins.
Nick Zatezalo
> [Original Message]
> From: Wspokes <wspokes@penn.com>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Date: 9/11/2004 10:15:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [CR]wood rims, fat tubies, and baggy plus-fours
>
> Aldo
>
> I like reading your little editorials...great thinking at a time when I
need
> to pause and think of something different! I love my woolies as well.
never
> hesitate to don them for a bike ride. with fall approaching and temps
> dropping...I am very excited. time to pull out my wool beanies and don the
> woolie socks. nothing makes me happier than to be able to grace my shaved
> skull with a woolie beanie. Your question on why to choose the Ancora over
> your modern steeds? Because you are able to choose it. That's most often
the
> reason I choose my fixies over some of my geared superiors...because I
enjoy
> the simplicity. I enjoy the ability to get out there and spin in
> silence...spin without thought. It is just different and somehow it makes
me
> appreciate the ride in a different way.
>
> Enough on all that...I am off to ride then do some work on my newly
> repainted Dawes Red Feather Club Racer. I has returned looking ever so
> lovely with a newly repainted frameset in green with white seat and
headtube
> panels. I am hoping to get it up and running prior to Trexlertown where I
> can bring it down to my booth...for show only!
>
> Walter "Beanie over my baldie" Skrzypek
> Falls Creek, Pa
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aldo Ross" <aldoross4@siscom.net>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 2:34 PM
> Subject: [CR]wood rims, fat tubies, and baggy plus-fours
>
>
> The more we dig through the old magazines, the more interest there is in
the
> clothing worn by racers when they were training in winter, or just riding
> around during the off-season. Heavy tweed plus-fours, sometimes without
> socks, but more often worn with long argyles, are certainly the most
> distinctive items donned by riders during that era. And unless it's a
rainy
> day, wool knit sweaters in patterns and colors have always made sense. My
> favorite winter top was a slightly baggy old Castelli wool knit jacket -
> perhaps the most comfortable and rewarding piece of clothing I've ever
> owned.
>
> Hats, caps, and berets seem to have a great deal of appeal. Worn black
and
> square on the cranium ala Fausto and Serse Coppi, or something plaid at a
> rakish angle like Maurice Chevalier in "Love Me Tender", such styles could
> certainly say allot about the wearer. Tough guy or fashion horse, bon
> vivant or bonehead... take your pick.
>
> More and more I appreciate the fashion statement our late friend Chris
Beyer
> was making when he wore plus-fours at CdC a few years ago. Who will be
the
> most stylish attendee at CdC'05?
>
> A few weeks ago someone said they couldn't understand the attraction of
> riding a bike with primitive cambio Corsa shifter, and asked could I
please
> explain what part of it was "fun". I've spent some time contemplating
that,
> especially at the beginning of each ride, trying to think of how to define
> that aspect of Fun. I've also tried the opposite approach, grumbling to
> myself in mild frustration over difficult and inaccurate shifting,
> lackadaisical braking, and inadequate gear ranges. I still have no
> answer... perhaps it is beyond description or definition.
>
> It's not like that with my wool jerseys - I know they're comfortable, warm
> in winter, cool in summer, neither clammy nor cauldron-like, but some
people
> still don't believe me. Most clothing manufacturers certainly don't, as
> each year they introduce new and improved fabrics and methods of
manufacture
> that are supposed to be so much better than anything available before.
But
> it's just like with laundry detergents - if they were really "new and
> improved" as often as they say they are, by now all I'd have to do is open
> the bottle, pour it into the dirty clothes hamper, and my shirts would pop
> out the top, bright white and neatly folded, with little paper tags on the
> cuffs and collars. (And in a related story, items labeled "new larger
size"
> would occupy fully half of the earth's surface.
>
> I've been riding the Ancora all week, fine-tuning the parts and positions.
> It shifts, it stops, it rolls, the pedals spin, the crank rotates and move
> the chain. What more should I expect from a 60-years-old bike?... hold me
> up, move me from here to there, and back again, turn at the corners, and
> stop (well... slow down, at least) at the intersections. As a bicycle, it
> is functional.
>
> Why would I choose the Ancora, rather than one of my modern bikes, for my
> daily evening (eveningly?) ride? I don't know how else to answer, so for
> today I'll just say it's because of the wheels. FB three-piece hubs,
> vintage wood rims, Clement Paris-Roubaix sausages. I've never ridden a
more
> comfortable set of hoops. "The wide-section tubulars and light wooden
rims
> combine into a magnificent mechanism for dampening the irregularities of
> various road surfaces."
>
> Besides that, wood rims are really extraordinarily beautiful. Layers of
> laminate flowing in and out of the surface, wood grain patterns forming
> subtle lines and vees. When they're rolling, they loose the visual
interest
> and become brown circles, but stop for a red light, and there they are
> again, shining up at you, warm and smooth and pleasant. And in the
center,
> the thin chrome barrel of the 3-piece hubs, brilliant in the sun. No
> thousand-dollar wheelset makes a more lasting positive impression.
>
> Aldo Ross
> Blue Ball, Ohio