Hello everyone,
I'm a newcomer to this mailing list. Ahmet Cemiloglu, from Istanbul, Turkey.
I'm posting a rather long one here, because it felt good writing about my childhood memories of cycling, wanted to share with people of the same interest, and actually it's connected to how I ended up here... I hope it's not against the mailing list rules, as it's nothing directly related to vintage bikes or parts. Better skip if not interested...
Until 2005, I never had a high-end bike. Not that I couldn't afford, they just happened to be available after late 90s; when I wasn't cycling at all... The 80's Turkey, healing her wounds after a military coup, wasn't your favorite place to feed your bicycle enthusiasm. Import bikes were ridiculously overpriced, not only the rich, but the the lucky amongst them could get the chance to own one. A few brands were imported, usually British and French, and a handful every year... It was like, there's an invisible contract you sign with the bike stores, that you will not see another one of your beloved ride. Well, I saw one or two of each of my rides in the last 15 years, reasonable... Most sought after brands were Raleigh and Peugeot, and Dawes later on, when the mountain bike craze began in early 90s. 21-speed that is!
Those were the golden days for domestic manufacturers, they were selling their failure-happy kiloton bikes in exchange for a pouch of gold, with a smile on their face for selling affordable rides compared to the five times expensive import bikes.
In September 1988, my dad surprised me with a Raleigh Winner, right after my BMX (Raleigh Super Burner) was stolen. Raleigh was the Rolls-Royce of bicycles amongst us, the crowd who was unaware of the high-end bikes and components available in Europe. I recall my first time meeting a Colnago, it was out of this world... My dad's mate brought it personally from Germany, and what he paid for it was about the same with my Raleigh Winner. Not many things changed nowadays, a well known example would be the new Corvette, priced at $45.000 in the US is sold for $150.000 in Turkey, hardly a bargain. Lovely taxes.
Compared to the other imports around, Raleigh Winner didn't have state-of-the-art equipment. Steel rims, Sachs gear, a pretty wide saddle etc. It was a new bike that looked old, or I was too young to see the differences between a road and a touring bike... Seeing the new edge Shimano equipment on some other bikes, I felt down with what I got, call me a spoiled child... There were no frame size options back then, what you saw was what you got. The bike had a huge frame, pretty oversized for a 11 year-old. I could see the idea behind my father's XXL purchase, as my childhood years were soon coming to an end, so was the summer... It took three years for me to grow taller into a teenager.
Istanbul, being one of the largest metropols of the world, wasn't a good place for kid to cycle around, so my bicycle days were limited with summer holidays I spent at our summer house in Princes' Islands. No cars around, it's the perfect place to spend your childhood, roaming around freely, fresh air, the sea... It's said that Princes' Islands are the last remaining place to taste the beautiful social rainbow of the long gone Ottoman Empire. There's a good amount of Greek, Armenian, and Jewsih population... The next summer I got my Raleigh, I got another new bike (lucky!), with 7 speed Shimano gear, 700c Mavic alloy rims, a 48cm frame, and a sleek Selle Italia... A Dawes Scorpio. Couldn't be happier. It was so light and fast, I never had a second look the the poor Raleigh.
At 15, I started cycling in the winter weekends. Had a few friends from the school, we did about 60 miles every Sunday. It was cycling for fun, not training or any kind of professional purpose. Sightseeing, enjoying the moment... Anyway, after a few years of cycling occasionally, I had a direct crash on a high pavement, severely damaging the front wheel. The impact caused cracks at the front end of frame tubes. The headset was also damaged. It was a goner.
I was the only one amongst my friends, who insisted on a road bike, everyone had mountain bikes, and wanted to go off the road, being parks and pavements in a big city. So, I bought a Peugeot MTB, took a few spins... I decided that I hate MTBs. That's about the time I gave up cycling and somehow lost the interest for a long 10 years until last year.
Two years ago I built myself a road bike with up to date equipment, got an Airborne Zeppelin titanium frame with Time Millenium carbon forks. Built the bike with Campagnolo Veloce 9spd. groupset. Ti seat post, Ti stem, a flat Ti bar, a saddle with Ti rails, mostly Airborne stuff... and voila! Here it was... After a long while, I had a pretty good bike. I couldn't love it. Something was seriously missing. Although it was the most comfortable and lightweight road frame I've ever experienced, it didn't feel like a bicycle. It felt like I borrowed some pro's ride, trying to act like one... The components looked so hi-tech, it made me miss the link for cycling with joy. "Spoiled" I hear you say... No, not at all...
In June, I got curious about what my Raleigh was doing in the attic of the summer house. Or even how it looked like. Long years of dust even at the tiniest detail, spiderwebs, surface rust on the wheels, it took a messy and long while to clean. A mint condition 80's bike. The bike I couldn't ride, didn't like... After spending more than two hours cleaning it, surprisingly everything worked fine, even the gears... It felt very heavy, not a good comparision after experiencing a titanium bike, but the ride was so smooth and soothing... Probably the island's environment boosted the feelings... something was sincere with it... may be the touring tyres, may be the Chromoly frame... may be the days I couldn't ride it... can't explain... But I recognized that it has a 54cm frame, the size I picked when ordering Airborne... It fit like a glove. Felt like a dream, perfect balance, even it was heavy, I quickly fell in love with it.
My father passed away in 2001, and I felt sad again, for how I'm grateful again for something he did for me, wanted to thank sincerely again for picking such a good bike, not for the kid, but the 30 year old me. Even for the frame size...
In order to ride it with maximum joy, I decided to let everything go, except for the frameset. I'm really moved with Greg Townsend's track bike, so I thought, get rid of the gears and the brakes, go for fixed... As this bike is the most valuable to me, I'm going to build it with vintage track bike parts, NOS if possible. So, I'll be looking for vintage Campagnolo Pista stuff, and Cinelli headset components... Already ordered a Brooks Swallow saddle and bar tapes...
Thanks for your time,
Ahmet Cemiloglu
Istanbul, Turkey