The Golden Age Of Handbuilt Bicycles

I'm the kind of person who has an inverse relationship to hype: the more people say "you have to see this movie" or "this book is amazing" the more apt I am to avoid it. At a certain point a product becomes the victim of its own hype and the result is disappointment.

This said, let me be perfectly clear about something: if you have any interest in classic bicycles you absolutely must buy "The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles". This book is simply stunning and is a wonderful tribute to classic bicycles, especially those made by French constructeurs who believed that a bike is far more than the sum of its parts. The book presents 50 bikes ranging from porteur bikes capable of carrying 100 pounds to ultralight randonneur bikes. Each bike is photographed in profile along with a selection of close-up shots. Text is provided by Jan Heine, publisher of Vintage Bicycle Quarterly. Jan's expertise is clearly evident as he takes the time to not only describe the details of each bike but in many cases writes about the builders and eventual owners of the bikes presented. This puts a very human touch on the book and saves it from simply being a collection of pretty photographs.

At the back of the book are detailed notes on each of the bikes presented including a list of any non-original equipment present. What is missing would be a listing of the equipment for each bike along with the size of the bike shown. This would make some of the weights listed far more impressive.

As it stands, the book is an invaluable resource for fans of the randonneur/constructeur style of bicycle and a nice departure from similar books that only seem to focus on racing bikes.

Numbers that count

Has anyone looked at the geometry chart in the back of most bicycle catalogs and noticed some changes in recent years? No, I'm not talking about the much ballyhood lack of tire/fender clearance. Instead look at the column for fork rake - in many (most?) bike catalogs you'll see the same number for a 47cm frame as a 63cm frame. I looked at the specs for Cannondale, Trek, Bianchi USA, Novara, Merckx, Jamis, Pinarello, and Rivendell (Rambouillet/Atlantis) and only two of these brands had more than one rake dimension across their size ranges. As many of you might suspect, Rivendell was one of the two brands. The other brand was Trek - the company so many bike snobs like to pick on. Of course even these companies only offer two rake dimensions.

Am I the only one who finds this a bit odd? I mean maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt that a 47cm frame should have the same amount of rake as a 63cm frame. Call me kooky.

I've been thinking about this a lot while riding my Soma Smoothie ES. The bike is great but it still rides more like a racing bike than a bike suited for comfortable, all-day rides. A loaded handlebar bag really makes this apparent. Some people claim the bag is the culprit and maintain that heavily loaded handlebar bags are a bad idea because they put too much weight at too high of a height. Having seen plenty of French built randonneur bikes with downright huge front bags I am inclined to doubt this. I suspect instead that too many product managers are simply ordering cookie cutter frames from Taiwanese factories and/or are simply not thinking about geometry. Jan Heine wrote what is probably the single best article I've ever read on front end geometry and anyone with an interest in this subject should read the article published in Vintage Bike Quarterly (Vol. 3/No. 3)

Later in the new year I plan to have the steel fork on my Soma re-raked and will compare how it rides to the "standard" rake carbon fork I'm currently on.

SOMA Smoothie ES update

I've passed the 2000km mark on the SOMA Smoothie ES which is remarkable considering it feels like I barely have time to ride these days. Here's an updated review:

The good:
The bike handles great unloaded and while carrying a large saddlebag. Stability is excellent and I can easily ride no-hands down to 10-15kmh. At higher speeds (50+ kmh) the bike remanins shimmy free. Ride quality is quite nice. It would be easy to say the smooth ride is due to the forgiving nature of steel tubing or the result of the carbon fork. Of course then I'd be spouting the same garbage as the big bike magazines. The bike does glide over rough asphalt but that has much, MUCH more to do with 28mm tires at 95psi than anything else. The frame fits and the handling is such that you can just hop on it and ride without having to pay attention to the bike. Really this is about as good as it gets. With a retail price of under $600 it's a hard bike not to like. It's a blue collar bike: rugged, cheap, and dependable.

The bad:
Mounting fenders on this bike isn't as easy as it should be. The bike is designed around standard (57mm) reach brakes and is sold as having fender clearance. However the frame/fork only include fender mounts at the dropouts. There are no fender mounts at the brake and chainstay bridges forcing me to use clips or zip ties. Problem with this is that it results in rattling over rough roads. Very annoying. I'm contemplating adding a riv-nut to the chainstay bridge. Not sure if I can safely drill and tap the brake bridge. I can't imagine it would cost that much more for them to make this change in future production runs.

Fender clearance when using the carbon fork is pretty scant. I'm running 28mm SOMA tires and they barely clear under the crown and brake. The fenders I'm using are SKS plastic fenders and when I hit a hard bump or jump out of the saddle the tire buzzes the underside of the fender. A fender boss on the underside of the fork would probably help as it would allow the fender to be pulled up closer to the crown. Plan to replace the SKS fenders with more solid Berthoud models in the new year. Hopefully that will solve some of the problems. Also plan to switch to slightly narrower tires.

Handling is fine when the bike is unloaded but suffers (as most bikes do) when the bike is fitted with a loaded handlebar bag. I suspect more offset/less trail in the fork would help and early in the new year I plan to have the steel fork re-raked.

Safety in numbers

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So sue me....

These are probably NOT the words to say around a certain 7 time Tour winner because he will, in all likelihood, do just that. Such is the fate of Skidstrong. Skidstrong, now Fisso, was the brainchild of Gary Boulanger the owner of Cycles Gaansari in Dayton, Ohio. I met Gary when he was in town for the Seattle bike expo and have exchanged e-mails with him over the years. He is without a doubt one of the nicest people in the bike business. Cycles Gaansari produce some stunning looking frames and his site is a thing of beauty. He started Skidstrong as a way to promote fixed gear riding while also giving money to the Bicycle Messenger Emergency Fund. The BMEF was established to help bike messengers - who typically make less than your average burger flipper - with medical bills that frequently come with the job. All was good for a few brief weeks and then Lance's legal team apparently thought that the general public might somehow actually think an obscure bike brand in Ohio might get confused with a 7 time Tour winner. Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I respect the need to protect copyrights and frequently find myself in the position of protecting the copyrights of the company I work for. That said, Lance's people should have taken a step back and thought twice about what they were doing. I suspect the damage done to Lance's reputation is now greater than any damage that would have been the result of copyright infringement.