Ouch!

Hmmm. Nothing a little moisturizer woudn't fix.

Steele who?

I hear a few folk out there asking "Steele who?"

Steele Bishop was an Olympic cyclist and West' Australian champion track rider 1971- 84.

Check out the Wik for more: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steele_Bishop

There's also this neat story about his attempt at he Human-powered World Speed Record in 1984:

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~khsinc/Bike.pdf

Return of the The Bishop (Part 1)

 Nick has been pestering his dad to see if he could have his old bike converted to a fixy, but Mick (dad) can't deal with the thought of having his beloved 'STEELE BISHOP' butchered. So we've tossed it into the bike ambulance and rushed it off the ICU. Can we restore it's integrity? Dr John says "Yes we can!"

Chrome?

Shiney but slippery.

Account

I managed to get the wheel somewhere near staight and will have it fine-tuned later in  the week.

The bike has cost Aidan $150 so far. Wheels & seat are on loan for now. These aren't his bars of choice - we're looking for some nice drop bars. 

Later on , maybe a tasty crank set, some vintage pedals and then a pair of deep vees....or not.

Thwarted!

Saturday, 5:05 pm. The bike shop's just shut and I realized the back cog doesn't match the chain for size! Ugh.

Preview

So Aidan's bike is taking shape. It's always tempting to get the beast rideable, but it does tend to take the edge off the seeing the final product.

Just follow the instructions...

Following the instructions from the net (Sheldon Brown's) for the spoke thread was um... a challenge..

" After this leading spoke has crossed 3 trailing spokes, there will be two possible rim holes to connect it to. Use the rim hole that is on the same side as the flange you are working from. It should not be right next to one of the trailing spokes that runs from the same flange of the hub." 

What the?

So I looked at the pictures and looked at another wheel and.... well it seems to have worked.

De-spoking

A last minute tip from Clive at Mercer's ensures that I  gradually loosen every third spoke to remove the oldies without buckling the rim.

Easy!

The coaster hub arrives....

The coaster hub arrives for Aidan's bike and I set out to 

grapple with the fine art of wheel building for the first time.  

Bicycle Hoopla

Hmmm. Me thinks the crew at Bike Force might have been engaing in a little lunch time coits competition!

Latest Perth cycle gear trends

Further….”We had a great ride on a beautiful Perth morning.

Had a coffee in South Terrace, Freo last weekend and was surprised as to the number of fixies that rode past. So good to see the numbers increasing.

The 'dude' is an Anglican bishop... Bishop Hale..of HALE SCHOOL fame. The Cloisters building apparently was the original site of HALE SCHOOL, which is now located in Wembley Downs area (since 1961) after a number of sites between. It was originally called the "Bishops School' and was opened in June 1858.” 

Nice snap. Thanks Ray!

The fixie bishop

Ray writes:

“We went for a ride around the city on Sunday morning..early..and stopped at Cloisters to take some shots, with the assistance of a very affable gentleman who offered his support.

The frame is a SOMA 'RUSH' purchased new and colour is a pearl white. Ellis added a bmx crank and chainring, purchased the Velocity rims and built the wheelset around a pair of beautiful PROFILE RACING hubs. Ellis prefers riser bars and a Fizik saddle. This is a great build and rides so well. The drive train includes a Surly cog and the gearing is 46:17..very cruisy indeed.

Ellis is a very good mechanic and great mentor to me, and has always offered valuable advice. I attempt to do most things myself on my bikes, but everything is not always possible...see Ellis.”   

Wanted

Anybody know where I could get my hands on a frame like this? (In Perth) There are a couple of these on Frankencycle (see links). Check out the conversions.

Speedlite - Maylands WA

While at Off The Wall, I had a quick squizz at this old Speedlite (made locally in Maylands). It's a track frame, bit bent, but destined for a re-build.

 It's weird, we don't really live in much of a culture of manufacture. How much of what you own was made in Australia, let alone in a suburb near you? Associating the production of a bike with a local suburb is just - odd! Before WW 2, there were dozens of bike makers in WA  and hundreds across Oz.  Will have some contacts for the WA Historical Cycle Club up soon.

On the wall @ Off The Wall

If you click on this pic (all of them blow up if you click on 'em) , you should be able to get some info from the sign.

Churchill at Off The Wall

Will try to collect some detail on this upon revisit.

Off The Wall

'Off The Wall' is a 'retro stuff' shop at:  6 Market St Fremantle. WA 6160 Ph: (08) 9336 4435. They stock some tres cool bikes including vintage. I stuck my camera in the door just as they shutting today for a couple of quickies, but have been invited back to have a look....out the back! Stay tuned for some more goodies. 

Road stencil - South Tce. South Fremantle

Bird's eye

Flat out!

As mentioned earlier (Jan 18) Whitey has had a couple of modifications: stumpy flat bars and toe clips. The toe clips are a pain when walking the bike.... they scrape the ground!

better shot

Didn't really do justice to Aidan's choice of colour with those last shots...looked a bit military-grey. There's deep undertone of bluey-magenta in the colour.

Aidan's stage 2 b)

Aidan's stage 2 a)

Aidan's frame (see Jan. 18) has returned from a make-over. Had to fill a couple of small dents. Nothing a brother-in-law and some silver solder couldn't fix. We're messing with installing a coaster hub to a pre-loved wheel, finding a seat post etc. Still perplexed about substituting quick release front axle with nuts. Stay tuned for further adventures....

Kerry's work in progress - Bianchi

Kerry's Colnago

Kerry is reluctantly having a go at his 1st fixy (see work in progress). 

"I built my first bike last year- Colnago (above) . Not a genuine build because of the modern groupo but it came up ok and I love riding it. The wheels were dead easy, I just ordered them from the UK and they turned up in a box - all done."

Duke

Ray works in the big smoke and has made productive use of his flash phonecam down on King St. Sweet! 

The notion of a silent Ducati has got me beat though! Bit like watching a Rage Against the Machine video with the sound turned down and the sub-titles on. 

Paramount detail

The Paramount story part 2..see below

I told him I had to go and get a bit more cash and asked him where the nearest ATM was. He looked confused. “Bank machine” I clarified.

“Don’t know if it’s got a machine, but there’s a bank……” and he gave me directions. As I walked away he reminded me that it was Sunday and he didn’t think the bank would be open. I explained that I would use the automatic teller and he was genuinely amazed to learn that such a thing existed!

When I returned, he’d upped the price again. This time I spat the dummy and walked off. He called me back and reluctantly took my money. As I drove away, I wasn’t sure if I’d cut such a good deal after all, but I was hopeful of returning at some stage to try again.

When I got home, I began to rub the dirt off the older frame and was delighted to find the remnants of what would have originally been a spectacular hand-painted finish on a 1950’s PARAMOUNT. I hit the net to find out more but came up with - NOTHING. So I searched more broadly and discovered The Western Australian Historical Cycle Club. There was no web site, but one contact number and I rang Peter Wells.

I described the frame to him and told him about the a small remnant of a decal on the steering column (see pic). It has an Australian coat of arms, the words ‘L. Andrews’ and under that ‘……ark’. Peter and his crew are absolutely set on salvaging what remains of Western Australian bicycle heritage. He told me that the bike was likely to one customized by LES ANDREWS who had a shop in the 50’s and 60’s on Albany Highway in Victoria Park.

I later visited Peter and I’ll post some pix of his incredible collection and write more about the club in the near future.

 

Meantime readers, I have to make a crucial decision. Do I…..

• Preserve the bike as is, find a sweet leather saddle, a set of vintage gears and put it out to pasture?

• Strip the frame and have a sign-writer fully restore the original paint job? (Homage to Les Andrews)

or

• Cut the bumps off and make the fixy of my dreams from it?

The Paramount frame - Victoria Park WA

The Paramount decal

The Paramount story - Part 1

I went looking for a cheap frame one Sunday. The local Sunday rag classifieds seem to have the best range of cheap old bikes. 

I called one number in relation to a 'racing bike frame' $90. Seemed kind of expensive, and the guy couldn't give me much info about it. He told me  that he wasn't sure that he was charging enough. I had a hunch about it and took a long drive. 

The owner was well into his eighties, or at least looked it. He showed me what turned out to be Gordonson - mid seventies. Then he tried asking $130. I was disappointed, but gradually became distracted by his back yard. It was an incredible treasure trove of stuff: vintage car parts, general junk and dozens of old bikes. Everything was literally piled in heaps, some covered by sheets of plastic or corrugated iron. I asked him if I could have a poke around and he reluctantly agreed. 

A lot of his bikes were seventies and eighties models and there were a number of mountain bikes, but he had a few interesting vintage frames, and piles of wheels, seats and random parts. The piles were so high, there was no telling what was underneath them. He said that he wanted somebody to just come and clean it all out. I thought I'd found Aladdin's cave, but gradually I came to realize the bloke was just one grape short of a bunch. 

As indicated by his unreasonable request for the frame I'd come to look at, he had a fanciful notion of what his bikes were worth. I explained to him that I could look for the nearest excess rubbish collection (where people put their waste on the street for collection) and find an equivalent bike for naught, but he was convinced that because the bike originally coast $600 (yeah right) it was now worth at least $300....'easy'.  

As I rummaged about, this grandiose perception of the value of his collection became more and more obvious and I began to see the my hopes of scoring a gem dissolve. I dug out one old frame, covered in greasy dirt, an old crank set and a pair of pedals. The he began to run out of patience and suggested that I buy the Gordonson and be gone. When I told him that I didn’t want to but the bike, he spat the dummy, so I began to negotiate a price for the bits I’d picked up and the Gordonson and we settled on $130. 

Blue 2

Blue Bike

The frame has no name but I was told it is Italian, nonetheless it rides really well. The parts are a mixture of Shimano, Cinelli, Velocity, Campo and Profile Design...it's not a pista ..but a 'bitsa' (bits of this and bits of that). As the frame had recently been painted when I got it I left all of the braze-on bit in tact. Fixies are a revelation in riding for me and I enjoy every moment riding it. Gearing is 46:17 for those interested and suits our terrain very well.

 

Orange 2

Orange Bike

GT Force frame which started life as a 7 speed roadie. The frame is the only part left-everything else has been replaced. The frame is early 90's and very unusual here so that's another reason to pimp it. All alloy parts have been polished,and the frame painted in 2 pack auto paint by a friend. Bullhorns and stem are Nitto, Cranks are Shimano, Seat is Fizik, Wheels are Alex and drive ratio is 46:17 with Surly cog.I had the front wheel relaced to radial style by my mentor at LBS (Georges Bikes-Willeton). This bike has had bars changed 3 times now but that’s it! It rides as good as it looks (to me anyway).

Ray has sent me some pix of his bikes. He says: ….."Going back to single speed etc. takes me back to the beginning as a kid when that's all there was. Then we seemed to complicate from there on. KISS is better philosophy I think."

Alter angle

Angle 2

Monarch Star

This frame and wheels were found on the verge and given to me for my birthday last year (cheap family). Call me weird, but I LOVE this bike. . I do get some disturbed expressions from strangers (and acquaintances alike) when I ride it. It's not like I'm wearing a dress or anything....not that there's anything wrong with that either, but I don't get this girl-bike/boy-bike thing. Sure 70 years ago when girls were girly, having a cross bar may have resulted in the odd undy flash. 

Anyhow, if you ever scour Ebay for old bike bits, you may have noticed how many girl-bikes there are.....ZILLIONS. Any theories? Is it because the fems are inclined to tuck their tredlies thoughtfully under cover with a blanky, or is it just that blokes trash the poop out of theirs and then just leave them on the verge for the vultures when the tyres get flat? 

Now having  managed to work through a few issues, I feel it's time to announce that this bike is actually for sale. Truth is, I can only fit so many bikes into his shed. My mum told me once that "A man can only wear one shirt at a time." I take her point, but I'm sure I could wear two at once.

 I scored the seat (Bell) from a bloke from the Western Australian Historic Cycle Club. More on them later.  

Shogun zoom

New project

This frame is off at the powder coaters. Doing this one on the cheap for Aidan (Check his blog for skate pix!  http://www.photaidography.blogspot.com/ ) . 

Will have my first go at a wheel build - installing a coaster hub.

6160

First fixy by sixtyonesixty

The result

So I built this for my son with his assistance and advice. 

Santa stuffed a couple of Velicty wheels in the stocking this year. 

The bike has already been modified since these shots. The boy has dropped on toe clips and some flat bars (told him to at the outset...) He's planning on a pair of white BMX grips. 

It's still a work in progress. When I smash the piggy bank next, I'll invest in a fancy crank set.

Got the bike on http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/    number:  8,823

Lumps and bumps removed

$10 frame

This is my first go at a blog, so this upside down thing is doing my head in! I'll get a web site up eventually.

So I spent $10 on this Ricardo frame and removed the cable-stays and the bits that hold on the mudguards.

Modified single speed...too many lumps and bumps

Taking tentative steps towards fixed-wheel, I bought this free-wheeler for my son. The bike was restored by a bloke called George who has 'got it bad'. He's retired and has pimped out bikes for his neighbours, local kids, couriers and hard core racers.  It was cheap!  I made some modifications including replacing the hand brakes with a coaster brake and chomping down the bars. Still had too many bumps on it though. This convinced me to have a go at one from scratch.

The bike during renovation

Raleigh decal

531

My Raleigh - 5 speed