Some black bike parts are said to have a "stealth" look. I suppose that on a black bike, they would "fly under the radar." And, if enough people are riding black bikes, I suppose that those "stealth" bikes and parts could go unnoticed.
But what if the world were lit by magenta neon? Seeing the old Rudge-Whitorth in that light in Flushing made me think of this: That bike, which was black, certainly didn't look "stealth." That's not to say I didn't like its looks: It had a nice patina on it, and there's something classy about some of those old three-speeds. But if one wanted to make it less visible, what would one do?
Would these be "stealth" in the light I saw last night?
Tonight, on my way home, I stopped in Flushing for a bite to eat. Now, I've never been to Hong Kong, but Flushing is what I imagine Hong Kong would be like if it were transported to Queens. Or, perhaps, with its ubiquitous neon, it could be seen as an Asian version of Times Square.
I wonder whether the makers of this Rudge-Whitworth ever imagined it in magenta neon light. In some odd way, bike and light are not incongruous, at least to me.
One particularly interesting feature of this bike is its chainring cutout pattern:
Is the hand halting or waving? Whatever it's doing, it looks good doing it on this bike.
I'm guessing that the bike is from the 1940's or 1950's. At that time there were dozens, if not hundreds, of bicycle manufacturers who made what we now think of as classic English 3-speeds. (Many of those companies, including Rudge, were bought by Raleigh during the 1950's.) While, at first glance, they seemed almost the same, each model had its own particular set of details that set it apart. An example is in the chainwheel you saw in the above photo. Many other British makers used chainwheels with interesting and sometimes whimsical patterns cut into them. The Raliegh three-speed I rode last year had a heron--Raleigh, which of course was Raleigh's corporate symbol.
I've seen other chainrings cut out in interesting patterns. Here's one of my favorites:
It's on an AJ Warrant bike from Austria. Although there's no earthly reason to use a cottered crankset today, I wouldn't mind having the one in the photo.
Last night my commute took me through the great wilderness of the Land of Overdecorated Houses.
Even after so many years of cycling, I still can't get over how much brighter and gaudier those lights and combinations of green, red, gold, silver tinfoil seem when you don't have two feet of glass and two tons of metal between you and them. And the cold, clear night made them glint and glare all the more, or so it seemed.
We're supposed to have more of this bonechilling clarity through the next week. I hear even Santa's reindeer don't want to come out in this weather. Hmm...I wonder...How would the world be a different place if Santa and his helpers rode bicycles instead of sleighs pulled by reindeer.
