Donald and all,
I would be no longer married if i tried to collect as many bikes as Donald recommended. (Linda also rides, and net me on a bike club ride, so cycling is a shared activity.) We each have one road bike and one town bike, and we have 3 spare wheels for the road bikes. (Linda was skeptical about the latter, but they have been handy on occasion.) She probably would go for a tandem (most likely OT) with a long-enough rear TT for me to stoke with her, or that we could use to switch positions.
My better half was *most* skeptical when I first suggested buying the still-unbuilt Allegro from Craig Griffith over a year ago, and she is not one to "collect" anything of her own. (Well, she does like her Lladro porcelain figurines, but they take up far less room than bikes and she only has three.) She certainly would never tolerate half a dozen more bikes in our household--even though bikes would be much less expensive than her brother's collection of five high-end motorcycles, never mind cars. (Friends of mine here in Alameda own 30 bikes in a family of four
But I find myself drawn to the idea of finding one or more of the following riders in my size (appx. 51 CM seat x 55 CM TT, c-c):
-My still-unbuilt 52 x 55 CM (c-c) Swiss Allegro road bike, probably a 1975ish model.
-An older (1960s-1973?) PX-10 with Nervex lugs or a PY-10
-A 1970s Mondia with the wonderful fade paint job
-A Bruce Gordon or Albert Eisentraut with a longer-than-normal TT.
-A 1950s-1960s English "path racer" or road bike from a smaller builder
-An older (1960s-1970s?) Gitane Tour de France--they had longer TTs
-A Motobecane Grand Record (all 531, 55 CM TT)
-An older Italian racing bike (Frejus? Bianchi? Atala?) if I could find one with a longer TT than what seemed to almost uniformly evolve by 1970.
-A track or path bike with track ends that I could use with caliper brakes and a single-speed for street use. (Older Paramount track bikes seem to have the right TT length, more or less, but any make will probably do.
-I'd like to try one bike (perhaps one of the above)with braze-on mounted Mafac centerpull brakes, too.
-A nice touring bike would be fun, but I may never tour with F & R panniers again...
In addition, if I ever had money for wall-hanger bikes (and this is extremely doubtful), I would look for:
-A Pierce Racer or similar 1910-1920 Madison or 6-Day racing bike
-A Raleigh Pro Mark II or Mark III (they apparently had longer TTs than the Raleigh Pro Mark IVs that I have ridden and did not fit me)
-Bruce Gordon or Albert Eisentraut bikes with special provenance or in great shape, to display as "art." Because they are.
(It IS nice to have an active fantasy life, after all... :-)
Jon Spangler Alameda, CA USA
On Mar 7, 2010, at 11:59 AM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org wrote:
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 18:44:00 +0000 (UTC)
> From: billydavid13@comcast.net
> Subject: Re: [CR] The Beginner's Collection ...
> To: donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>
> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Message-ID:
> <654449599.12098531267987440326.JavaMail.root@sz0035a.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Hi Donald. That's certainly some food for thought and i'm surprised it hasn't generated more response. There's no way any list is going to avoid seeming somewhat arbitrary. This hobby is still driven by very personal [and sometimes peculiar] preferences. But it seems like more people might weigh in w/ what they consider a well rounded collection. Personally i tend toward the lower end bikes and Zeus. Cheers. Billy Ketchum; Chicago, IL; USA.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "donald gillies" <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Sent: Friday, March 5, 2010 8:41:38 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: [CR] The Beginner's Collection ...
>
> Here is my proposal for a "beginner's collection of 60's - 80's road
> bikes". ?I'm not saying that I own all these bikes, in fact I own
> about half of them. ?What I'm suggesting is that if you're just
> starting out collecting vintage bikes, here are some models that were
> sold for a long time, and/or had a storied history, from all 3
> continents. ?Most importantly, these bikes are still plentiful and
> affordable for a collector just starting out.
>
> - Viscount Aerospace
> - ALAN Competition
> - Peugeot PX-10
> - Colnago Super (in Lieu of MASI)
> - Fuji Finest, Newest, or Ace
> - Schwinn Paramount
> - Raleigh/Carlton Pro or International
> - Windsor Pro (in Lieu of Cinelli)
> - TREK 600 or 700 series, 1977-1988
>
> Comments, Additions, Corrections?
>
> - Don Gillies
> San Diego, CA, USA
> _______________________________________________
>
Jon Spangler
Writer/editor
Linda Hudson Writing
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