Hot Rodders or Cyclists ?

1930’s-40’s-50’s American car culture grew from a junkyard love affair with turning high speeds using modified and carefully assembled components sourced, scrounged and polished. 

Over the years I’ve owned only a couple of ‘complete’ bikes, well, actually 3 mountain bikes and two road bikes, bought from the showroom floor.  The others have all been Frankenbike efforts, upgrading and renewing as pieces have worn out or technology has shifted.  I have to admit that this type of custom building was at first a necessity for a strapped teenager, and also quite a bit easier in the late 80’s.  There really wasn’t that much choice available locally for a start, and components of the time did not rely on remarkable tolerances to perform properly.

Maybe it’s just me, but I love this approach to bike ownership, and the opportunity afforded by networks such as ebay, or the local swap meet. 

My long-term companion is a custom Reynolds creation made for me too long ago by the crafty hands of Frank McCallum, the frame builder for McBains in Launceston over many years ( Where are you now Frankie ).  That bike is a little like Grandpa’s axe, only the original frame remains, the rest swapped out and upgraded over time.  ( By a small co-incidence, it was made immediately after a batch of anniversary Malvern Star frames in 91-92 from the same 651 tube set, but with gusseted lugs like a Pinnarello, to my own measurements, and finished in oven baked Mercx orange instead of the Anniversary Pearl White of the Malvern Star frames ).

The custom spirit is alive and kicking.  After a bit of PBP route and mileage planning, Gav introduced me to the Vanilla Bikes web site – custom steel frames from dear old Blighty.  Custom Steel frames…So beautifully executed, and yet not exactly what I had imagined Gav parting with his hard-earned for.  That’s not a criticism, just surprise that he is equally swayed by flawless craftsmanship as he is by immutable carbon mouldings.

In my current fantasy world, I have been ranging around with an idea to build a time-trial-specific frame with drop bars for mass-start racing.  A lash-up based around something like a Teschner for local content.  Our vet(eran)s club, the most active racers in the State, hold only relatively short events, thankfully, and a slippery frame and wheels would be just the thing for a skinny light-weight like me – taking a leaf out of Dave Z’s experimental book with full aero-tuck and skin suit for mass-start racing.  This bike is unlikely to happen in reality, but it brings out that old tortoise and hare / technological chest-nut.

I know that this doesn’t have much to do with P-B-P, but stay with me, there is a little more to these thought processes.

For me, bicycles are such paired back mechanical devices that somehow ( if only by pumping up the tyres a bit harder ) are always linked with performance.  Their lives are constantly shaped by ‘up-grades’ to reduce the amount of input required to cover ground.  Even the most basic of two-wheeled machine can be more rewarding to experience with a lighter wheel set, better saddle, improved brakes…