Four Current Classics for a Four Day Week

The process of organizing and cleaning up can be a little ugly - found a nested folder on the computer that had a bunch of things which folks had sent in late last year, that "I was gonna get to..." but didn't.   Within that unremarkable digital repository is a goodly chunk of cool bicycles.  I may end up threading them into the newer submissions, or just try to do those sequentially (which may in turn build up the backlog for more recent entries.....) We'll see.

Again for those of you who have sent stuff in and have yet to see it represented, patience please! (And Thanks! - both for the images and descriptions and for the patience!) Hang in there, subscribe to the feed and enjoy these fine bicycles.

Nick Roth's Schwinn Superior

Along with the early Trek bicycles, another set of bicycles which I've always secretly lusted after has been the fillet brazed Schwinns.  This under appreciated segment of Schwinn's lineup seems to be largely unknown to folks.  It first caught my eye when I read about them on Sheldon Brown's site -  in Mark Rother's article posted there.

Now, certainly,  I like lugs.  But, there's something really beautiful about a fillet brazed frameset - a smooth, seamless quality to the work that flatters the elegant simplicity of a bicycle frame. The Schwinns such as Nick's Superior just seemed like really undervalued framesets.

Hopefully (since we presumably ride in the same county) I'll cross paths with this bicycle one day - but in the meantime, enjoy these images of this bicycle.

New Entries to the Current Classics Gallery - 
#829 - Nick Roth's Schwinn Superior
#830 - Gernot Huber's Raleigh Woman's model
#831 - Angus Lemon's Rivendell Atlantis
#832 - Tyler Los-Jones' Miyata 1000

A Set Of Current Classics from A Couple Weeks Back

Missed getting this posted when I made the last round of updates - ahh well.... better late than never, eh?

Martin Gierke's Trek TX500

Martin's Trek TX500 hails from the time when frames were steel and designs were versatile. Yes, the heady days of 1977 when punk rock was slipping into people's awareness and the Talking Heads were just an obscure art band with a day-glo cover album out.  Regardless of the musical tides of the time, the renovation of this bicycle today is really gorgeous. 

Starting with the proud simplicity of the frameset, Martin has chosen some very tasteful current parts from Paul Components, Sugino and Honjo to come up with a build that is truly timeless - the epitome of the ideals which started this collection of "Current Classics".  

Truly a pitch perfect example, and one of the reasons that I always seem to have "Steel Trek frame, pre '83" on my want list of bikes.

Additions to the Current Classics Gallery -

#808 - Ray Shine's Rivendell Bleriot
#809 - Michael Hechmer's Bilenky Tandem
#810 - Even Elliots Univega Viva Touring
#811 - Jan Levine's 3Rensho SR Export
#812 - emor's Univega Grand Rally
#813 - Jason LePree's Rivendell Rambouillet
#814 - Jason LePree's Carrera Andromeda
#815 - Lee Hogan's Paramount PDG
#816 - Martin Gierke's Trek TX500

Seven Singlespeeds

Kind of a crazy start to a week that is now almost over. Between the San Francisco Giants winning the world series on Monday, those wacky elections on Tuesday and the resultant political hangover and celebratory national pastime parade in the city, I guess it was easy to forget I'd posted some updates to the Singlespeed Gallery Monday morning. I mean, here it is all Thursday and everything...

The updates also include an "oopsey!" on my part - sometime in the delay of receiving Jeffrey Brodersen's email with information about his 1974 Raleigh singlespeed project and actually getting it posted to the Gallery, his description got separated from his images, and I'm left with no way to contact him to ask for his text again. So, Jeffrey, if you are reading this, zap me an email with the specifics and I'll get it updated. Cool ride, by the way.

Also, a special mention for John Spurny's Fuji, which includes a great image of two happy dogs:

There's been a dearth of dog-buddy pix in submissions recently, and they are always appreciated when included.

This set of seven new bikes really had a nice assortment of projects and rides, with a number of countries represented.  It seems like all of them had a compelling reason for appreciation, but I said I'd only pick one each update... So,

Ian Roop's Saronni

There's really something about clean hardware and a fresh powdercoat... 

There's a simplicity about this build which is fairly deceptive, but captures a great deal of the allure of this type of bicycle. A bike with a single gear setup, whether fixed or coastable, has stripped away the confusion of extra cables and wiring, the complexity of on-the-fly gear choice and now reminds us of that easy and direct act of getting on and going.

The high flange hubs are gorgeous, the newly updated powder coat  smooth and creamy, but below it all lies the promise of the bicycle - easy and simple freedom.


New Additions to the Singlespeed Bicycle Gallery


#310 - Jeffrey Brodersen's '74 Raleigh
#311 - Balu Ramananda's Dahon Jetstream
#312 - George's Big Red Singlespeed
#313 - John Spurny's Fuji Grand SE
#314 - Ian Roop's Saronni
#315 - Paul Popescu's Prophette
#316 - Dean Watkinson's Schwinn Voyager 11.8

Also  Updates to the following Singlespeed Gallery entries:

#106 - Bert's Bianchi
#301 - Joe Huddleston's Nishiki

*A quick word about "Updates" - these have been languishing significantly, and honestly, they are a little cantankerous in terms of the workflow.  I'm making a concerted effort to include a couple with each update now, so if you sent in new images of your existing entry, hang in there!  Also, if you are sending in an update - please reference the Gallery # of your original in the email - that will save me a bit of time and make it more likely to see the updated version more quickly.