Category: Bikes
The Papershopcruiser
I got the Old Papershopcruiser out of the shed the other day and also found an unpublished video which is also posted. Seems ages ago that I made it.
http://videos.videopress.com/NXGmqfer/bike-build-july_-2011_x264_fmt1.ogv
Just Click the Link!
After hours of tinkering, trawling the internet for parts that fit that wretched Raleigh frame and consulting Sheldon Brown, the ultimate bike mechanic’s guru, the bike is now built.
Check it….
Bike heroes #4
Mario Cipollini
This lad was best described as a “Dandy” – one of his many nicknames was The Lion King, which helped paint the picture of this very self confident athlete with his mane of curly hair and wrap around shades. He oozed sauve style, posessed a real sense of arrogance and was a natural team leader.
Cipollini was a sprinter, a man who loved to be greeted by his adoring fans on the winner’s podium at the end of the race whilst looking like he had not even been down the paper shop and back on his bike. He was that good that he would turn up at the Tour de France win a few flat stages in the first week or so, and then give up and abandon the race when things got serious in the mountain stages. He would jump off his bike at the first sight of the Pyrenees or Alps and be down on the beach in Rimini quicker than you could say “lazy, arrogant, spineless superstar”
All in all he was a great athlete and a bit of a bully if truth be told. Still he made the Italian cycling fans proud in 2002 in a brutal finish to the World Championships…….
Bike Hero #3
Mark Cavendish
is my bike hero #3.
I have never seen anything like the way in which he finished up the Champs Elysees to win the final stage of the Tour de France in 2010.
I was lucky enough to be in France when I saw this finish on TF1, the French equivalent of BBC1.
Now back in his homeland you could only see this amazing finish to the world’s biggest bike race if you had satellite television. In France he would be treated like a God, a true hero, as cycling is in the French psyche and is part of the national culture. Whereas he could walk into any public place in the UK and be pretty sure that nobody would recognise him. Even if he wore a t-shirt printed with the phrase “I am Mark Cavendish” he is hardly going to get mobbed.
In cycling terms this man is a one off, so much so that he dictates the way the event organisers plan the route and finishes of stages in the Tour de France. The Tour de France is the World’s greatest cycling competition has been forced to consider how to set out the course that the race takes, as if the race stage is a flat one with a straight finish, there is only going to be one winner.
You only have to watch the final 200m of this race and you can see that this man is head and shoulders above his peers, who themselves are at the pinnacle of their sport.
Bike Hero #2
Bike hero #1 has to be Sheldon Brown. The King of Bike Mechanics.
But hero #2 is not far behind. His name is Danny MacAskill. He does not build them, he rides them.
He has produced a number of videos, such as Way Back Home and starred in a VW Commercial
But his best yet has to be Industrial Revolutions
Tears…..
Noooooo! Not them!
You know when people weep when they see a piece of art that is so beautiful?
People cry at the opera or ballet because they are moved so much?
Well I am welling up here.
I failed in an e-bay auction to get this frame
and I see someone has transformed a similar frame to this object d’art
All I did was cry……….
Well it had to be done……
Not quite the top shelf porn mag – ‘reader’s wives’ sort of thing, but you catch the drift.
I have got my bike aka The Paper Shop Cruiser up loaded and published on “velospace”
Proper Job!
What a website that is – some absolutely stunning things in there. Forget Playboy! Go to www.velospace.org
I could spend hours looking at some of those pictures of some lovely machines.
CHECK THE LINK HERE
The Bike project is complete
After hours of tinkering, trawling the internet for parts that fit that wretched Raleigh frame and consulting Sheldon Brown, the ultimate bike mechanic’s guru, the bike is now built.
Check it….
Bikes – almost made one out of bits.
Found some inspiration to get back on the bike building game at this website. http://velospace.org/
This Raleigh Grocery Getter from Dallas Texas is on the image list. Hmmmmm! But where is the rust??
Almost there with mine now, after checking my chain length calculations, the back wheel goes on this week!
Bike progress…..
The bike is coming together. Brand new headset, bottom bracket and a front hub pulled apart and serviced by Baz.
Don’t look much but it has parts ripped off bikes in barns, two different council tips (I give Amersham the big thumbs up) and bids on ebay.
It has been a steep learning curve.
Setting yourself a goal
Bikes are a passion of mine. Cannot help falling in love with them. However I am no technical wizard when it comes down to bike mechanics. So my latest affair with a Raleigh Massif Mk I has been a long and drawn out one.
Isn’t Jimmy Cliff a legend by the way? Play out with him rather than Beyonce next time folks on the Pyramid stage please.
Another legend was a bloke called Sheldon Brown
He is no longer with us but without his guidance I would be lost and out of love. His knowledge remains for all to read on his fantastic website http://sheldonbrown.com
Raleighs used to be the IBMs of their age. They are about as hard to work with as using a stone axe to wire up a satellite dish. The modern kit just does not fit on them. So I find myself looking at wierd chat rooms to find out how to replace the bike’s steering mechanism and also turning to good old Sheldon for pearls of wisdom on how to fit 12omm hubs into a 4 1/2 inch gap.
But I refuse to get obsessive – unlike this bloke – Click and see HERE
.
Next goal wins laaaaaaads! 