well, it's done, well...almost! it's all set for the St.Crispin's Day Night Ride, the shakedown night trial went well, with just a few small adjustments needed, but it's all set. I will seriously consider stripping the whole thing down for a complete colour change and rebuild to as new standard afterwards, new spoking, the desired parts and it will all be as i really want it. The MaxiCAR hub finally being used!

St Crispins Day NIGHT RIDE, London, 2012

Im taking part this year, the Arragain porteur will be there too! If you are too, get in contact! It will be a great experience!

Miroir Des Sports 1963 - 1965

A great advert from August 1963

Scintilla SA/ AG "X" 3UB 3 speed gear hub, Swiss-made Sturmey Archer-style?

Well, I happened upon this lovely piece of NOS, it's a Scintilla 3UB 3 speed hub gear, it has "X", could that be Brand X? It has "Scintilla SA" and "Suisse" stamped into the hub body, it's 36 spoke hub, all complete in it's original box, all fixings, cables and levers, with instructions in German and French. I know nothing about how old it could be too. A bit of searching has found absolutely nothing about this Swiss manufacturers bicycle hub gears, so, if anyone knows anything about them, please let me know? Even old Sheldon Brown and Classic Lightweights don't mention anything about them!

Happy Birthday!

as today is my birthday, I feel it fit to share with you, a tribute to Francois Truffaut, the French film director, as it's also his birthday too. In particular, his short film, Les Mistons. Bon Anniversaire!

Rossin Verandalux 1985 Team

Kuiper, Bogaert, van Vliet, Verlinden, de Beule, Demol, Jacobs, Luyten... the van Houwelingen brothers. My team frame was NOS bought in 1986 from Mike Perry from Weilersport, in Sussex, UK. It's a 56cm Columbus frame, it has an old stock Campagnolo pantographed seat pin. It has a metal race number tab on the underside of the top tube. I have never seen another like it, as most Rossins i see via the web don't have this. It's all Campagnolo, and all Italian except for the Look pedals and Conti tyres. I remember seeing a guy on the train on my way home home school with an amazing red Rossin, this memory stands out still, even from 1985, as he looked like Neil from The Young Ones (same long hair and sweatshirt-look) but his Rossin had chromed lugs which stood out against the bright red paint on the frame.

Cycles Arragain period-"Porteur" UPDATE

the Arragain has waited to be worked on long enough! I guess I just needed the right parts to commence? It has been updated with the MAFAC Racer centrepull calipers, NOS MAFAC brake components to go with the already fitted MAFAC inverse brake levers. I used the old outer casings with the calipers as they seemed to be in good shape. The seat post was changed as the previous one was a bit undersized and the binder bolt could not hold it well enough! The addition of a Stronglight 49D 5 vis double chainset alongside the 1953 Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur, Valentino front mech and the band-on gear levers have now made this French bike a lot more usable. The cables are routed through NOS Huret chromed guides. It now has TA alu quill pedals and Christophe clips. I am using a stainless Velo Orange "porteur" rack as the bike has taken on more of a Criterium Des Porteurs des Journaux-look, of the period 1940s to early 1960s. I have retained the narrow leather Pearl saddle and I have learned a bit more about the frame's features. It appears to have Nervex (of St.Etienne, France) "Legere" series 110 lugs and the dropouts appear to be similar to Stallard dropouts, or Oscar Egg, the type similar to those used on a 1950 Hetchins Nulli Secondus. It seems PT Stallard was a huge fan fan of the Continental style, in effect, championing the European style in his framesets, I believe he could have liked this so much, he copied this style of dropout. They feature a double position for either fixed wheel use or by flipping the rear wheel over for another fixed gear ratio, or for use with a bolt in derailleur as the bike was fitted. The dropouts have the same style of "spur" at the very front of the dropouts. An Alpex (of Birmingham, England)featured in the "Fixed" book has similar dropouts. It will have a Normandy front 36spoke and rear Maxicar hub on alu rims soon, im using Panaracer 32mm Pasela tyres. It has lighting now, the front is a Soubitez "golfball" and the rear is a NOS Soubitez.