If you've read any of Sheldon Brown's writings, you might recall his joy at getting an Elswick Tour Anglais when he was a teenager. At that time, derailleur-equipped bikes were all but unknown in the US; any bike with dropped bars was likely to be a modified three-speed bike.
As a cycling enthusiast--and fan of Sheldon--I felt his joy. It made me want to see a Tour Anglais, or a Lincoln Imp, another Elswick he would later own and ride.
Until today, I had never seen any Elswick bike--at least that I recall. But, as I was riding near Pratt Institute, I saw one parked by one of those lovely Victorian houses that abound in that neighborhood.
It looked like other English three-speeds of the same period, which neither surprised nor disappointed me. Instead, it seemed absolutely fitting: To a teenaged Sheldon in the 1950's, such a bike, however common it may have been, would have seemed otherworldly. It's not likely that he would have known there were a whole world of bicycles like the Elswick.
That is not to say that the one I saw today wasn't lovely: With its dark brown paint and white fender panel, it's actually rather elegant. And you have to love that headbadge.
Still, you have to wonder what this sticker was doing on the seat:
Today I rode with my friends Lakythia and Mildred. If yesterday felt more like the first day of summer than the first day of autumn, today reminded me of everything that is great about the new season: Everything felt cool, clear and crisp.
When we decided we wanted brunch, we were in my neighborhood, more or less. So I suggested a couple of places I frequent. I also thought it would be better to leave their bikes--and, of course, mine--in my apartment rather than to lock it here:
Today I took my newly-built old Trek on a joyride. Well, I also intended my journey as a shakedown ride, to see what needed changing or fixing. But, as often happens, business mixed with pleasure.
Before setting out, I made a few small adjustments to the saddle and handlebar positions, and topped off the tires. I also made use of some leftover handlebar tape:
My trip took me through some familiar haunts: Astoria Park, Randall's and Ward's Islands, the Bronx and upper Manhattan. The bike, as I've set it up, seems streetworthy: I can accelerate and maneuver it quickly, but it doesn't seem too delicate for the almost-lunar texture of some streets I rode.
Some of the ride quality may well have to do with the tires. They're Panaracer Ribmos, though not the same ones as I have on Helene. For one, the tires on Helene are all-black, in contrast to the white sidewalls and red tread on the ones I rode today. More important, the ones I rode today have non-foldable steel beads, in contrast to the foldable Kevlar beads on Helene's tires. Also, the red treads and white sidewalls seem to be thicker than the black ones, although the width of each tire is the same. What the beads and thicker rubber mean, of course, is that the tires I rode today are significantly heavier than the ones on Helene. But, I would also expect them to be more durable.
Today is the first day of fall, at least officially. However, the weather made it feel more like the first day of summer: Warm and somewhat humid, though not unpleasant. But, some of the leaves are starting to turn, so it is starting to look like the season. And, the brick buildings of the Bronx industrial areas (which were entirely free of traffic, as they usually are on weekends) and the Concrete Plant Park always look rather autumnal. Somehow the bike looked like it belonged.
And I felt almost as if I belonged on the bike. It doesn't fit like my other bikes, but the size might actually work for me. I have had other similarly-sized bikes, and rode them gingerly. Also--I've actually ridden both Arielle and Tosca in a skirt. I think I could do the same on the Trek, as long as the skirt isn't very close-fitting (I have a couple of skirts like that, which I've never worn on a bike.) or long. I think about that because I have envisioned using this bikes for errands and as a sometime commuter, as well as a winter bike. (On winter joyrides, I'll probably be wearing wool tights or sweats, depending on the weather.)
And, yes, I'm getting used to the coaster brake.
As you may have guessed, the wheel Marley "helped" me build has found a home--for now.
Yes, it's on the Trek 560 frame I "rescued." Today I took it out for its first run--a visit to the doctor's office, with a stop at the Donut Pub on the way home. The trip is about six miles each way.
About half a mile from my apartment, I had to make my first stop, for the traffic light before the entrance to the Queensborough Bridge. I had to think for a split-second: I don't ride coaster brakes regularly, so I had to "re-learn" the impulse to pedal backward. Obviously,it's very different from stopping with a handbrake, but it's also not as much like coming to a halt on a fixed-gear bike as one might expect. On a coaster brake, you backpedal for about an eighth of a crank rotation. Once the brake engages, you can't backpedal any further.
On the other hand, when you want to stop your fixie (without hand brakes), you actually tense your legs up and shift that tension backward and downward, toward your heels. You can't really backpedal unless you're unbelievably strong or are willing to live with two broken legs for a long time.
Once I got used to the backpedaling motion, it wasn't hard to control my stops: The Velosteel brake works quickly and smoothly.
As for the bike itself: The jury is still out. Not surprisingly, it's accelerates pretty quickly, as the wheelbase and chainstay lengths are about the same as those of Arielle and Tosca. However, the frame is made of heavier tubing and, more important, the seat tube is about 1 cm longer, which I noticed somewhat on dismounting the bike. The most significant difference, size-wise, between the Trek and my diamond-frame Mercians is that the top tube is about 2.5 cm longer. One consequence of that is that I'm using a stem with a shorter extension, which makes the steering less sensitive than it is on any of my Mercians except, possibly, Vera.
I have no doubt this could be a very good errand, city or winter bike. I just wonder how comfortable it will be for me. And, of course, I will have a more difficult time riding in a skirt than I would on Vera or Helene.
Whether or not I keep the bike, I'm going to hold onto the wheel I just built, as well as the front one. I'd also probably take the saddle, and possibly the handlebars, off the bike before I sell it or otherwise give it up. But I'm not going to make that decision before I ride it at least a few more times.
Now I'm going to tell you a little more about the wheel I was building--and Marley was "inspecting."
As you may be able to see, the appendage hanging from the hub is a coaster-brake arm. (That's the kind of brake you backpedal.) The wheel I built with it is going on the rescued Trek frame.
I don't know what possessed me to go and buy the hub--one of two new parts I've bought for the bike--or to decide that it was going on the Trek frame. After all, I haven't owned a bike with a coaster brake in about 40 years.
At least I know that I will end up with a very simple bike. In fact, the only way I could make the bike simpler would be to use a fixed-gear wheel in the rear--without brakes, of course. I had such a bike in my youth, and rode it on the streets. There's no way I'll do that now!
Anyway, the hub is a Czech-made Velosteel. From what I understand, the owners of Velosteel purchased the machinery used to produce the classic German Fichtel-Sachs coaster brake hub before SRAM bought out Sachs.
Three things are immediately noticeable about the Velosteel hub: the weight (definitely more than a Shimano coaster-brake hub), the shape and structure of the shell, the lush chroming and the way the cog is attached.
On most coaster brake and internally-geared hubs, the cog is splined, slides onto the hub body and is held in place with a snap ring. In contrast, the cog screws onto this hub in the same way as a track (fixed-gear) cog. Another feature this hub has in common with a track hub is the reverse-threaded lockring. In other words, the cog screws on one way (clockwise) but there is a second set of threads on which the lockring attaches counterclockwise. This prevents the cog from unscrewing when you backpedal or do a "track stand".
And, yes, you can use track cogs and lockrings--as long as they're not Campagnolo or Phil Wood.
While looking at the above photo, I'm thinking of the very first fixed-gear bike I ever had: a converted Peugeot UO8. In those days, very few people (at least here in the US) were riding "fixies," and I couldn't find any instructions on how to do such a conversion in any of the books or magazines I owned or borrowed. (Remember, we didn't have the Internet in those days!) So, I screwed a track cog onto the Normandy hub that came with the bike and tightened a bottom-bracket lockring as hard as I could against the cog.
I got away with riding it for about a year before I did an unintentional "track stand" while stopping for a light. Whomp! I just-as-unintentionally found myself spread over the frame's top tube after the cog unscrewed and my legs imitated those of a collapsible table!
But I digress. The Velosteel cogs and lockring look to be well-machined, if not as nicely finished as the hub. Another interesting feature of the hub body is that it's cast as one piece, as the better road and track hubs are. Most other coaster-brake hubs have flanges that are pressed onto the hub shell. I once had a rear hub (non-coaster brake) with pressed-on flanges that collapsed into each other. While this may have been an unusual occurence, I've never heard of such a thing happening to hubs with one-piece shells.
And one-piece construction makes for a more elegant shape, and allows the nice chrome finishing you see on the Velosteel.
I built the hub onto a Mavic rim that had previously been laced to another hub and sat in my closet for I-don't-know-how-long. It has the older grey "hard anodized" finish which, to my knowledge, Mavic no longer uses. So I had no "mate" to this rim, which is one of the reasons it's been entombed in my closet for so long.
To mate the Mavic rim to the Velosteel hub, I used Phil Wood spokes. Guy Doss of Elegant Wheels--from whom I bought the hub as well as the spokes--recommends Phils for the Velosteel hub because, like other steel hubs, it has thinner flanges than alloy hubs, so spokes designed for alloy hubs (such as DT and Wheelsmith) won't fit as well. If you build a steel hub (whether Velosteel, Shimano or an old Sturmey-Archer, SunTour or Sachs three-speed hub) with one of those brands of spokes, you should use spoke washers under the spoke heads.
In time, I'll find out how the hub works and lasts. For now, I like the look of the wheel and it seems to fit nicely into the old Trek frame.
By the way: I highly recommend Guy Doss. He's very helpful and personable, and can also build you a wheel from a Velosteel hub if you've neither the skills nor the inclination to do it yourself.
N.B.--Apparently, Velosteel offers a coaster-brake hub with a cog that slides on and is held in place with snap ring: the same configuration most other coaster-brake hubs, and most traditional internally-geared hubs, use. However, I don't know whether Velosteel's slide-on cogs and snaprings are interchangeable with those of other brands. At least the "track" configuration I bought can use cogs and lockrings from a number of other manufacturers.
Given that Summer is turning into Fall, I thought I'd share an image of some bicycles that look positively autumnal:
These classic cruisers were photographed at last year's Fall Bicycle Swap Meet in Tuscon, Arizona.
I think of them as the old red barns of bicycling. They're lovely and peaceful in a similar way, if not quite as melancholy.
First he said, "Vous ne passerez pas!"
As if Marley speaking French weren't astounding enough, his next utterance really made me take notice:
He wants to learn how to true wheels. Now, why he would want to learn that, I'll never know. But how can I say "no" to a face like his?
First he is learning how to check side-to side-trueness. He's very polite: He said, "I see wobbles" and not "That thing's wiggling like your belly!"
Now he is checking vertical trueness. There are no "hips" or "hops" in the wheels, he reported. I explained that the wheel has a different kind of rhythm. He understands rhythm very well!'
"What's that thing hanging off the center of the wheel?"
"You mean the hub?"
"So that's what it's called?"
Now he's taking another look. He sees how the wheel is more rideable than it was a few minutes earlier. Of course, he'll never experience that rideability for himself--unless, of course, I put him in a basket or carrier.
Marley is definitely curious.
Max, on the other hand, couldn't care less.
I know that Fall "officially" begins on Saturday, the 22nd. However, I think I saw some signs of when I rode out to the Canarsie Pier late this afternoon:
On some of the trees, the tips of the leaves are turning brown:
And, on others, entire leaves have turned:
A few leaves have already fallen to the ground.
I used to look forward to the fall: I always enjoyed riding in the cool, crisp air. Although it was a bit warm for a fall day (about 26C), the air felt autumnal because brisk breezes from the sea swept over the streets. Somehow, this day, which straddled summer and fall, made me a bit sad. For one thing, the days are growing noticeably shorter. And three seasons have passed; a year is passing.
All right...I'll make this lighter, and bring it back to cycling. Here's a sign for which I wouldn't dare not to stop!:
Another ride through Harlem, the New Jersey Palisades, Staten Island and lower Manhattan.
As always, there were interesting sights on the Ferry:
New York is all about style, right? I was going to ask her where she got that bag, but I kind of lost her in the shuffle as we disembarked. However, I got another glimpse of her sack and realized I wouldn't be able to buy it:
You can't see the logo from her, but it's from a film festival in Germany.
In addition to style, New York has always been known for attracting dreamers:
With all due respect to Frank Sinatra, you can't have a city of dreamers if it's a city that never sleeps.
And, of course, everyone wants a home with a view. Along the way, I stopped at an open house. I didn't even bother to feign interest in buying the house (which I probably couldn't do, anyway) because, it seemed, everyone else had the same look of disattachment.
But wouldn't you just love a patio with a view like this?
Hey, it's even better as you get closer:
If you were to buy the house--in Bayonne, NJ--you wouldn't be able to access the water. It's fenced off about fifty meters from the shoreline: It's government land. Oh, who wouldn't want to take a dip in Newark Bay on a hot day?
The bike riding is pretty good, though, as long as you stay away from the main commercial strip. It's even better along Richmond Terrace in Staten Island: As you approach the Ferry, the sight of cranes and tank farms give way to harbor vistas of lower Manhattan.
Today was one of those crisp, clear, early-fall (though the calendar still says "summer") days that just makes me want to follow roads just to see where they'll lead.
In this case, I found myself following railroad tracks. Oh, I've passed by or over them hundreds of times before. But, just for fun, I decided to see how much I could follow them.
This one starts at the East River, and, within about a mile, passes under the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge of disappearing-bike-lane infamy. It continues through along Newtown Creek, through a heavily industrialized area of Queens.
However, it's possible to follow it only for very short stretches. Some of the land adjacent to the tracks is private property (factories, garages and such) that is closed off to the public. And there are other stretches where the only way to follow the tracks is to ride on them. I've ridden on railroad tracks before--with a mountain bike.
Apparently, the track is owned by New York and Atlantic Railway, which provides freight service on current and former Long Island Rail Road (Yes, it's spelled as two words!) tracks and right-of-ways. One stretch of it--from about 43rd to about 58th Streets--seems to be used, at least on occasion, as it seems to be connected to another series of tracks and it's near UPS and FedEx terminals (and the Thomas' bakery!). But other parts, such as the spur along Flushing Avenue and 56th Street, seem not to have been used in decades.
If New York and Atlantic indeed owns all of the tracks I've shown, I wonder whether they plan to use them. As industrialized as those areas around the tracks are, there's still not as much as there was, say, during World War II. And much of the freight is carried by trucks rather than trains, as there are highways nearby.
So...If NY and A doesn't plan to use the tracks, I wonder whether they'd sell, or even give, them to the city or state. If they did, I think the tracks and the adjacent paths and roads would make some great bike lanes. I think now of the lane built by the Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx; I think something on a greater scale could be done with those tracks. The effect would be similar: Bike lanes that traverse some interesting urban-industrial architecture that takes on a unique beauty in the light of autumn foliage.
