[CR] Frejus goosebumps

(Example: Framebuilders:Dario Pegoretti)

To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:39:23 -0400
Subject: [CR] Frejus goosebumps


I must admit to being more of a romantic classic bike lover than a technical expert or classic bike history student. Sure, I know how to build wheels, repair a tub, polish aluminum and use a vernier caliper but many of the list members are so far beyond me in the technical department that they leave me in their frame building dust ... their Southerland's reading dust. I know a little about bike lore because I've read The Dancing Chain, and I can sort of keep up with the discussions around here if I'm pushed to, but if a final exam were given on Bike History 101 at one of the Cirques I'd have to take a make up test to maybe get a C.

I'm a romantic because that's my strong point in the classic bicycle world. I've been to a Brooklyn Vintage Velo monthly meeting and the people there tolerated me, not because I knew anything special, but because I love bikes --- a lot.

The recent discussion of Avenia's shop in Spanish Harlem during the 60's and 70's caught my attention. I also love New York --- a lot! I love out of the way places, and out of the mainstream people. It's miraculous to me that a bike like the Frejus commands so much attention in the list. It seems that it's main claim to fame is that when nothing much else was available - it was. It's a humble bike that sort of made the scene at just the right time ... sort of like an ordinary guy that gets stranded on a desert island with Sophia Loren. After a few weeks, she begins to see his special charm, and then she gives him a big open ended kiss ... a fine romance is initiated because there are no better options for her.

The Sheldon Brown link suggests that Frejus production quality was so so to acceptable, but the list members who actually own one see "special magic" in the breed. Is that special magic coming from a desert island romance, or is the magic in the tubes? Is the Frejus a poor man's Masi, or is it an old flame from New York's magic past?

I know that the 60's and the 70's were not inherently better than our present decade, but those were the first years of my life when life's possibilities were fully available to me, so that's why I love that time. I was in NYC during that period of my life and anything that was around there at that time gives me nostalgic goosebumps. At the risk of being censured from the list for being too far afield - I'll say that the Frejus seems like all the distant memories of adolescent romances recalled in one bike. What more can one ask for? I don't own a Frejus, nor have I ever ridden one, but romance is sometimes like that ... ethereal yet strangely unavailable.

Garth Libre in Miami Fl. USA