Re: [CR]Classic British Frames

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Avocet)

Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:51:59 -0700
From: "krawls" <krawls100@gmail.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]Classic British Frames
In-Reply-To: <013301c571d9$af899b00$fbcff7a5@oemcomputer>
References: <20344029.1118855369757.JavaMail.root@wamui-cedar.atl.sa.earthlink.net>


I brought a Calzone to the Cirque. Very cool bike! Here are some pictures I took before I built it. I too was intrigued by the cable routing. http://client.visuallink.com/~krawls/id63.htm Mine came complete with the original brochure and order/build sheet. Karen Rawls Winchester VA

On 6/15/05, henox <henox@icycle.net> wrote:
>
> Louis wrote:
>
> "I wish someone could find something interesting to say about vintage
> bikes,
> but I haven't heard anything lately."
>
> I'm not surprised you are bored by look alike bikes. I am too!
>
> What excites me is when I see a way of constructing a bike where the
> builder
> could have done things the "traditional" way but chose not to.
>
> Some examples of bikes that really captured my attention:
>
> Mecacycle turbo - short wheelbase "unicrown" split seat tube matching the
> appearance of the "unicrown" fork All fillet brazed. I ended up buying on e
> of these just for the kick I would get out of looking at it from time to
> time.
>
> Calzone - conventional Italian bike from Torino but distinguished by pale
> green metallic paint every bit as distinct and engaging as Gios blue.
> Exceptionally deft cable routing thru the bottom bracket and out the
> chainstay and seat tube that made all the other bikes around seem clumsy
  
> in
> their handling of control cables. Subtle and exceptionally nice filing of
> the lugs to consistently minimal thickness. I imported these for a while.
>
> 3Rensho - every bike a little different - ever imaginative but sometimes
> even wacky constructions that could never be mistaken for any other bike -
> consistently imaginative graphics - style, style, style, and amazingly
> tasteful color selection (love that baby blue pearl!). I would go to each
> yearly bike show eager to see what new franes would be on display. I just
> missed several opportunities to be the importer of these bikes and now I
> wished I'd tried a little harder.
>
> Zunow - If 3Rensho rocked my world, Zunow knocked me out. Utterly unique
> constructions by Kageyama with ideas ultimately copied by many other
> builders. "Monocoque" (in steel) construction that later appeared as the
> Cinelli Lazer. Amazing Hummingbird logo cast into fork crown, bottom
> bracket, and elsewhere. Everything else engraved. Complex graphics that
> swirl around the tubes. Endless new ideas like integrated suspension. Bol d
> use of color and no reluctance to draw attention to itself - think fourth
  
> of
> july fireworks! Intended to be looked at!!! I could go on and on. I count
> myself fortunate to have been able to import Zunow for awhile and to get
  
> to
> know the Zunow team.
>
> Sabliere - from my first sighting, I was in love with this bike. Ovalized
> tube ends in lugless steel construction with minimalist fillets.
> Fabricated
> fork crown and "Breezer like" dropouts. Later I saw brazed aluminum frame s
> with large (not to big and not too small - just right) flowing fillet
> joints as nice as any I've ever seen. The name of the builder deeply
> engraved in the bare aluminum left chainstay. Impossably subtle and yet
> bold!
>
> Mairag - Clean lugged construction with proportionally sized lightening
> holes around the head lugs. The most subtle fork crown I've ever seen,
> totally machined from one piece of steel, a diminutive two plate effect.
  
> I'd
> like to have one of those crowns as a paperweight to remind me how much
  
> the
> materials you have to build with really do matter. Typically fussy "Swiss "
> graphics (but better than Mondia or Allegro) that matched and enhanced th e
> frame details. One look in their shop and at all their machinery to
> realize
> this had to be Switzerland and not Italy! I had the chance to import thes e
> and I'm sure sorry I passed.
>
> Mobius - from one of those incredibly tiny and crowded shops one finds in
> Japan (I came across the shop quite by accident on one of my rambles in
> Tokyo, although I already knew about Mobius) come frames that look like,
> well, a Mobius in the frame tubes and stays. Simply jaw dropping mitering
> and fillet brazing make these "art" frames. A singular vision of one
> builder.
>
> Freschi - my most recent acquisition. Looks like 100 other Itailian bikes ,
> judging by the graphics, until you start looking closely and realize that
> each little aspect of the bike is subtly different from the "traditional"
> Italian frame. All the braze-ons have diamond reinforcements, the seat
> cluster is unique, the cable guides are fabricated and bolt ons. Start
> looking and you see more and more unique details. (I'm looking for a pair
  
> of
> Campy calipers, countersunk and 44mm reach, to put on this frame).
>
> I've probably revealed a bit more about myself than I should in these
> recollections (and I haven't mentioned my own one-off frames).
>
> But nothing to say??? I'm stopping now because I'm hungry, otherwise I
> could
> go on all day.
>
> Cheers to Norris, who is "educating" us about unique British bikes.
>
> Hugh Enox
> Sunny La Honda