Yet
another thread that somehow escaped my notice until now...
I'm "down to" three bikes now (a fourth, a restored 1967 Moulton Speedsix, is getting sold after it's taken out of storage and cleaned up). The oldest one in the current lineup is an Alex Moulton AM14S that I bought new in 1985, supposedly one of the first ten that landed in the States. It's been idle for a while, but with new tires and a bit of tweaking, it'll likely be on the road again within the month:
There's a go-go-fast bike that's almost ready to be assembled, based around a Geof. Butler road frame (late, lugged 531C), just waiting on my ordering a Nitto Noodle bar, plus pedals, from Rivendell. Hoping to get that wrapped up in a few weeks, in time to take it with me for a week vacationing in MA. Here's a pic of it as its previous owner had it built up (just picture it with Dura-Ace DT shifters instead of STI, Cane Creek brake levers [brakes are Cane Creek 200sl], a black San Marco Regal saddle, MKS Keirin pedals/ALE clips & straps, a
much shorter stem, and black Ritchey OCR wheels):
Finally, the bike project that's been literally almost a decade in the making: FauxFix, my second attempt at an all-purpose, hop-on-and-go machine that still has some degree of
élan. The last bike, Trash Canyon, was a metallic Mandarin-orange Schwinn-via-Bridgestone frame with S-A alloy drum-brake hubs, the rear hub also housing a five-speed geartrain. That bike worked great for commuting and errands for eight years ('86-94) and 12,000 New York City miles. But I wanted to get away from cables and levers. The new bike started nine years ago when I got hold of a NOS Sachs Torpedo two-speed automatic/"kick-back" coaster-brake hub, which has the virtue of allowing complete control of braking and shifting by pedaling/back-pedaling alone – no cables or levers required. (Hey, it was good enough when I was a ten-year-old...)
My big hangup, up till now, was finding the proper frame to build around it (along with the usual life-happens-while-you're-busy-making-other-plans stuff). In that time period, the mountain bike's market domination came and went; fixed-gear bikes came and stayed, with single-speeds following right behind. I wanted the simplicity of a fixie, but not the hair-shirt sensibility that came with it. And SS bikes still required brakes and levers of some kind, so that wasn't happening for me either. The Torpedo was as close to a perfect solution as I could find (it was only later that I realized just how rare a find this hub was...just try and find one now).
After acquiring a couple of older road frames that didn't quite work out (and which I'm now in the process of trying to unload), I came across a pretty but worn-'round-the-edges mid-80s Dawes Atlantis on the 'Bay, complete, for fairly cheap: all 531, perfunctory but nice lugs, and classic stage-racing/sport-touring geometry that I like best (the Butler frame comes a bit closer to crit geometry, but thankfully not
too close). Between my work and the work of a local bike shop, FauxFix was completed a little under two weeks ago, and,
wow, was it worth the wait. Other than wanting to gear it down a tad overall (likely meaning moving to a BMX or compact road crank to give me 38t instead of 42...ideas, anyone?), the thing is a sweet ride. Eventually, the frame's rather tired paint will get a serious makeover, new Reynolds stickers and all, along with fenders, and the shiny bits polished up a bit. As long as this two-speed hub lasts, this bike's a keeper.
Not that I want to come off as obsessive or anything...
😛
- Barrett
P.S. Heard Richard Thompson sing "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" live in Prospect Park around the same time FauxFix was being wrapped up. In a thunderstorm. Yeah, I'm obsessive, all right...
